I have just been told that my Artex ceilings may / will have Asbestos in it.
IT's 20+ years old could that / is that true

20 years no (I had my ceilings artexed 20 years ago, the chap was an instructor and explained it was never as good since they took the azzy out)
Not sure on thye exact changeover date, but sounds like you are not sure when it was put up.
If worried (no need unless you disturb it) get a sample checked. Be aware normal masks etc are not a lot of help against azzy. It is the small fibres that cause the damage. My first lab job involved analysing azzy samples, part of that job was bashing the stuff up to get on a microscope slide. A few precautions were taken

According to my girlfriend who's an environmental building consultant... yes, quite possible. Some products had asbestos right up till the 90's.

If you have to remove it then I believe wetting it works better than chipping it off (certainly less dust!). But if it's relatively stable it's better to plaster over it.

Cheers,
James

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artex

I've heard a similar thing, and I need to get a chunk of the ceiling replaced through water damage... Not looking forward to it.

If this is the case it's just the artex with asbestos in and not the palsterboard etc?

If you need to remove it try a steam stripper it softens it up so can be scraped off. I normally knock off the highest points and plaster over it. PVA it first though.

Be very careful around it.

My mate is an asbestos removal contractor.

He went in to remove an asbestos gasket from a piece of industrial pipework / valves. Stripped it down, removed the offending gasket, cleaned it all up and left it for their fitters to re-assemble.

A year later he gets a call from the client, irate that they have found an asbestos gasket at that joint. Calls my mate all names under the sun.

My mate showed the client photos of the job, before, during, after, along with timesheets, disposal notes etc.

Turns out the fitter had been to the stores to get a replacement gasket for the joint. Stores had issued him an asbestos replacement!

Your artex may be more than 20 years old, or from a batch of gear left over from another time / job. It's just not worth the risk (IMHO).

Mike

Having asbestos in artex had never crossed my mind you learn something new every day
the boss [ wife ] says its about 20years old
Jacko

Ours is flaky, but none is falling off now, should I get this patch up asap or are we alright as long as no more falls off? Just thinking of the littl'un

As long as the asbestos is bound up in the plaster it's OK. Quite often the safest thing is to leave it in place. One treatment is to paint over as that binds any surface particles in and another is to plaster over.

Asbestos used to be the red top rags fave scare story and whilst its not good its not as bad as some people make out.
Loads of sensible advice available on reputable government sites.

I worried myself sick when my work involved it a bit until the HSE officer put my mind at rest.

Cheers

The old stuff contained between 3 - 5% asbestos, the mixes have changed slightly through the years but it was in the 90's when it had to be 100% asbestos free.

Reading up on the net it is seems that the scare stories have come from people gettin cancer / asbestosis caused by working in the big factories where there was high% constant long term exposure. Ive also heard it claimed that the odd small low% exposure ie dust from removing a bit of artex is as bad as smoking a cigarette i.e its not good for you but wont do any long term damage.

The recommended minimum protection is a P3 mask. After looking at what i have in my garage all of mine are P3, so you dont need to buy expensive breathing apparatus, just some good quality masks :-)

as generally said in previous posts above, textured coatings did contain asbestos fibre to add strength to the plaster material as fibre glass mat does when covered in resin.
Not considdered a great problem when coating is visually in a good condition as any fibres are retained by the plaster, steam stripping is a better way to remove as damping down reduces fibre release and comes off on chunks, worse way is to try and sand it down, other options if looking to get rid of the textured appearance is to get it skimmed over rather than remove it.