Painting Over Woodchip & Artex in London Properties: What You Should Know

Painting Over Woodchip & Artex in London Properties: The Honest Guide

Walk into enough London flats and you will encounter them: the lumpy, relief-textured ceiling that was once Artex, the anaglypta or woodchip walls that have been painted over a dozen times since the 1970s. For many buyers of London period conversions — particularly properties in the £400,000 to £800,000 bracket that were last decorated in the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s — dealing with these materials is one of the first questions that arises when planning a renovation.

The answers are not always straightforward. This guide gives an honest, expert account of the options for dealing with woodchip wallpaper and Artex ceilings in London properties, including the asbestos question that every homeowner with pre-1980s Artex needs to understand.

Woodchip Wallpaper: Remove or Paint Over?

Woodchip wallpaper — also sold as oatmeal or ingrain paper — is a heavily textured wallpaper made from wood pulp chips bonded between two layers of paper. It was ubiquitous in British homes from the 1960s through to the 1990s, valued for its ability to hide imperfect walls and ceilings. Many London flats, particularly those in the ex-local authority and older purpose-built stock, still have it on walls and ceilings.

The Case for Painting Over It

Painting over woodchip is the quicker, cheaper option and is technically feasible. If the wallpaper is:

Well adhered to the wall throughout (no bubbling, lifting edges, or hollow sections)
On a smooth plaster wall in reasonable condition
In a property that you are renting out or preparing for sale rather than living in as an owner-occupier

...then painting over it with a good quality emulsion (two coats of Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt, for example) will produce a reasonable result. The textured surface actually disguises some wall imperfections, and if the existing layers of paint are stable, additional coats will adhere without problem.

Important caveats:

Each additional layer of paint adds weight and moisture to the paper. On a wall with many existing paint layers over woodchip, another coat risks destabilising the whole assembly and causing sections to fall away from the wall.
Woodchip on ceilings is particularly vulnerable to this. The weight of multiple paint layers on a ceiling is greater than on a wall, and the bond between paper and plaster can fail suddenly, sometimes bringing plaster with it.
If you are doing any significant renovation work — plastering, bathroom fitting, kitchen installation — stripping the woodchip is significantly easier before other finishes are in place.

The Case for Removing It

In an owner-occupied London property that you intend to renovate to a good standard, removing woodchip wallpaper almost always produces a better long-term result. Fresh plaster, properly prepared and painted with a good quality emulsion, looks infinitely better than textured paper however well it has been painted.

The removal process:

Score the surface using a wallpaper scorer (a tool with small rotating blades that perforates the surface without penetrating to the plaster beneath). This allows soaking solution to penetrate the paper layers.
Soak thoroughly with warm water (plain water is usually sufficient; commercial stripping solution can be added for stubborn paper). Allow adequate dwell time — at least 10 to 15 minutes before starting to strip.
Strip in sections using a broad scraper. The paper should come away in manageable sections with the chips intact; if it is coming away in fragments, allow more soaking time.
Clean the wall thoroughly after stripping — all paper residue, paste, and size must be removed before any further work.
Assess the plaster: woodchip wallpaper often conceals significant plaster defects. Holes, cracks, and uneven areas must be filled and sanded before painting; if the plaster is in poor condition, a full skim coat is the better option.

Woodchip on ceilings: removing woodchip from ceilings is harder, messier, and riskier than wall removal. The soaking and scraping process on a ceiling is physically demanding, and the risk of disturbing the plaster substrate is greater. For many London properties, skimming over the woodchip (using bonding coat plaster applied over a stabilised and scored surface) is a more practical solution than attempting to strip it.

Artex Ceilings: The Asbestos Question

Artex is a textured coating applied to ceilings (and sometimes walls) by brush, roller, or sprayer to create a relief pattern — stippled, swirled, combed, or in a variety of other patterns. It was enormously popular in British homes from the 1960s onwards.

The Asbestos Risk

The critical fact that every London homeowner needs to understand: Artex applied before approximately 1984 may contain chrysotile (white) asbestos fibre, added as a strengthening and binding agent. The use of asbestos in Artex was phased out in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but the exact cut-off date varied by manufacturer and product batch, and materials may have been used after manufacture for some time.

Asbestos in Artex is not inherently dangerous when it is in good condition and undisturbed. The fibres are bound within the coating material and do not release into the air. The risk arises when the material is damaged, drilled, sanded, or otherwise disturbed in a way that releases fibres.

This means:

Painting over Artex — applying a fresh coat of emulsion with a brush or roller — is safe. You are not disturbing the material.
Sanding Artex — for example, to smooth a damaged area or prepare for a new finish — is not safe without prior testing and, if asbestos is confirmed, appropriate licensed contractor involvement.
Cutting or drilling into Artex — for new downlights, fixing battens, or any similar penetration — is potentially hazardous.
Removing Artex by chiselling, grinding, or wet scraping requires professional assessment and, if asbestos is present, licensed removal.

How to Test for Asbestos in Artex

If your property was built or last substantially renovated before 1985, you should test for asbestos before undertaking any work that involves disturbing Artex. Testing involves taking a small sample of the Artex and sending it to an accredited laboratory.

UKAS-accredited asbestos testing is available from numerous London-based providers and typically costs £25 to £50 per sample plus laboratory fees of £20 to £30. We recommend using a UKAS-accredited laboratory (list available from the UK Accreditation Service) and following HSE guidance on sampling.

Alternatively, a fully qualified asbestos surveyor can conduct a survey of the property, taking samples from multiple locations and producing a formal survey report. This is more expensive (£200 to £500 for a domestic property survey) but provides a more comprehensive picture, particularly in properties where multiple areas of potentially affected material are present.

If Asbestos Is Confirmed

If testing confirms asbestos in your Artex, the appropriate response depends on the condition of the material and what you plan to do:

If in good condition and you want to leave it in place: no action is required beyond monitoring. Continue to paint over it in the normal way. Do not sand, drill, or disturb it.

If in good condition and you want to skim over it: skim plastering over confirmed asbestos Artex is possible, but the work must be carried out by a trained operative following the relevant Control of Asbestos Regulations guidance. The skim coat is applied over the existing Artex without disturbing it, encapsulating it beneath the new plaster. This is a legitimate and frequently used approach.

If you want to remove it: removal of Artex containing asbestos must be carried out by a licensed asbestos removal contractor under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. This involves notification to the HSE, full containment of the work area, use of appropriate PPE, and disposal of the waste material as hazardous waste. This is not a DIY task.

Options for Dealing with Artex in Practice

Option 1: Paint Over (Most Common)

For Artex in good condition where you simply want to freshen the appearance, painting over it is the standard approach. Use a good quality flat emulsion — Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt, Crown Trade Matt Emulsion, or Johnstone's Matt Emulsion — and apply with a long-nap roller (18mm to 25mm nap) to get into the texture. Two coats are standard.

The finished result still shows the textured surface, but a fresh, clean coat of paint makes a significant difference to the appearance of the ceiling.

Option 2: Skim Plaster Over

Skim plastering over Artex produces a smooth, flat ceiling suitable for a high-quality flat paint finish. The process involves:

Applying a coat of bonding plaster or a suitable adhesion primer to the Artex surface
Applying a skim coat of finishing plaster (2-3mm) over the entire surface
Floating and polishing to a smooth finish
Allowing to dry (minimum one week, preferably longer)
Mist coat followed by two finish coats of emulsion

This approach is significantly more expensive than painting over — skim plastering a typical London ceiling might cost £300 to £600 per room — but produces a far superior finished result.

Option 3: Overboard

In some circumstances, the most practical option is to board over the existing ceiling with new 12.5mm plasterboard, tape and joint the boards, and apply a skim coat to the new surface. This is particularly appropriate where the existing Artex or plaster is in poor structural condition. It involves more material cost and disruption but produces a completely fresh, stable substrate.

Woodchip and Artex: Our Practical Advice for London Homeowners

If you are buying or renovating a London property with woodchip or Artex:

For any pre-1985 Artex, test before disturbing it. Testing is cheap; remediation of asbestos exposure is not.
If in doubt about Artex condition, skim rather than sand or scrape. Painting over or skimming avoids disturbance entirely.
For woodchip on walls in a property you plan to renovate properly, strip it. The end result is far superior and the cost difference versus painting over is modest.
For ceilings, skim over rather than strip in most cases. The practical difficulty of stripping ceiling paper combined with the superior result of a new skim coat makes this the better choice for most London properties.

Contact us to discuss your specific situation — we can advise on the most appropriate approach for your property and provide quotations for preparation, plastering, and painting as a combined programme.