I am currently renovating my kitchen, and have a plasterer coming to
skim the walls/ ceiling.

The ceiling is Artex, and the plasterer has asked me to knock the
points off.

I thought, I know, I'll try the sander.

Anyway, after about 5 minutes, and a huge cloud of dust, realised that
sanding probably wasn't a good idea.

Did a quick google search on Artex removal and found, to my horror,
that, up until the 80's asbestos was used in Artex and that removal is
a specialist job.

I have no idea when this Artex was applied, - I'm guessing early 80's.

I wasn't wearing any kind of dust mask etc.

Do I have any thing to really worry about?

xscope wrote:
I am currently renovating my kitchen, and have a plasterer coming to
skim the walls/ ceiling.

The ceiling is Artex, and the plasterer has asked me to knock the
points off.

I thought, I know, I'll try the sander.

Anyway, after about 5 minutes, and a huge cloud of dust, realised that
sanding probably wasn't a good idea.

Did a quick google search on Artex removal and found, to my horror,
that, up until the 80's asbestos was used in Artex and that removal is
a specialist job.

I have no idea when this Artex was applied, - I'm guessing early 80's.

They stopped using asbestos in 1984 so its borderline.

I wasn't wearing any kind of dust mask etc.

It was only 3 - 5% asbestos & you had 5 mins exposure, so it doesn't seem
like much to me.

Do I have any thing to really worry about?

Depends how old you are I guess. The ill effects if any take 25+ years to
kick in.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

........well, I'm 36, so I'd like to be around in 25 years

On Sep 27, 6:25*pm, xscope wrote:
I am currently renovating my kitchen, and have a plasterer coming to
skim the walls/ ceiling.

The ceiling is Artex, and the plasterer has asked me to knock the
points off.

I thought, I know, I'll try the sander.

Anyway, after about 5 minutes, and a huge cloud of dust, realised that
sanding probably wasn't a good idea.

Did a quick google search on Artex removal and found, to my horror,
that, up until the 80's asbestos was used in Artex and that removal is
a specialist job.

I have no idea when this Artex was applied, - I'm guessing early 80's.

I wasn't wearing any kind of dust mask etc.

Do I have any thing to really worry about?

The people dying in large numbers were doing that day in day out for
decades.


NT

On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:25:44 -0700 (PDT), xscope
wrote:


Did a quick google search on Artex removal and found, to my horror,
that, up until the 80's asbestos was used in Artex and that removal is
a specialist job.

It isn't a "specialist job" despite what the cowboy asbestos industry
might say.

Do I have any thing to really worry about?

No. Asbestos injury is very strongly dose/time related. If you had
done that every day for 20 years _then_ you would have something to
worry about.

On Sep 27, 6:25*pm, xscope wrote:
The ceiling is Artex, and the plasterer has asked me to knock the
points off.

To be honest, why not pull it down?
- You just need to take it to an approved waste site
- Then replace with small sheets of plasterboard etc

If this ceiling is below your roof (leanto kitchen) then you will need
to bring insulation up to current regs which is 280mm, if there is not
enough space then use PIR foam or that wonderfully good but expensive
Spacetherm (aerogel sheet).


Anyway, after about 5 minutes, and a huge cloud of dust, realised that
sanding probably wasn't a good idea.

Not ideal, wear N95 face mask, wipe down surfaces; same as you would
with glass fibre or any other irritant.

Removal of artex ceiling or chrysotile is not a specialist job.
You just have to put it at an approved site, nothing more.

js.b1 wrote:
On Sep 27, 6:25 pm, xscope wrote:
The ceiling is Artex, and the plasterer has asked me to knock the
points off.

To be honest, why not pull it down?
- You just need to take it to an approved waste site
- Then replace with small sheets of plasterboard etc

Or simply board over it?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Sep 27, 11:40*pm, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:
js.b1 wrote:
On Sep 27, 6:25 pm, xscope wrote:

The ceiling is Artex, and the plasterer has asked me to knock the
points off.

To be honest, why not pull it down?
- You just need to take it to an approved waste site
- Then replace with small sheets of plasterboard etc

Or simply board over it?

Why do either? if all it needs is plastering


NT

"xscope" wrote in message
...
.......well, I'm 36, so I'd like to be around in 25 years

I've got a bus pass and I intend to be around in 25 years time.

When I was a kid, my mother had a pad of asbestos on her ironing board to
rest the iron on - one that was always rather fibrous around the edges. As a
young man, I changed many asbestos brake shoes, brushing the dust out of the
brake drums. Most people my age were exposed to asbestos routinely. It was
even used as a cigarette filter material in the 1950s, although I've never
been a smoker, so that wouldn't affect me.

While there have been a few isolated cases of people getting asbestos
related illness on limited exposure, it is usually related to long, regular
exposure to high doses and probably involving blue or brown asbestos. By the
1980s, it is very unlikely that anything other than white asbestos would
have been used in building materials. While that is not entirely risk free,
it does seems to be much less hazardous.

Colin Bignell

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember xscope
saying something like:

I have no idea when this Artex was applied, - I'm guessing early 80's.

I wasn't wearing any kind of dust mask etc.

Do I have any thing to really worry about?

Not after you're dead, no.