Trying to decide what to do about the walls the previous incumbent artexed
to stop his kids running their mucky hands over them. It's a vicious surface
which can flay the skin off your hands if you so much as lean against it.
House is a 1920s semi and the plaster consists of a soft and friable base
coat with shells and god knows what in it with a fairly decent hard skim
coat. However getting the artex off without damagaing anything else is a
bugger. I've tried scraping but that also damages the skim coat. Removing
the whole skim coat and the artex at the same time leaves the soft base coat
which is blown in patches anyway which need fixing and would need PVA to
stabilise it. So is it easier to just rip the lot off back to the brick and
plasterboard it or try and retain as much of the base coat as possible?

If I rip it back to brick I can drywall it with dot and dab myself with the
help of a mate and if I leave the basecoat and fix the blown bits I'll need
a plasterer to skim it again at god knows how much per diem. I'm thinking
rip the lot off would be quicker and cheaper. My main unknown is how you fix
shelves etc when you've got drywall rather than a solid plastered wall.

Secondly has anyone noticed that corporation tips are now doing their utmost
to prevent you taking DIY stuff like doors, windows, old plaster etc there?
It's classified as trade waste and they want you to hire a skip instead. I
think I'll just have to manage taking it a bit at a time in plastic sacks
and hope the jobsworths don't stop me.
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Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines