What is this stuff on cellar head ceiling and walls?

[Frankofthenorth]

Hi all,
Recently moved house and wanting to spruce up the cellar head. One of the walls and ceiling is covered in some sort of hard crystally like substance. Does anyone know what this is? Wanting to check it's safe to scrape off. It is also over some electrical cables which seem to have had a lick of paint which makes me wonder if it's something that was applied to the walls. I hope it's not asbestos related

Thanks

 

[Tigercubrider]

It looks like that textured paint that everyone used in the 80's? Loved by landlords because it covered wonky walls.
If you're worried, get a test. They aren't that expensive for peace of mind.

The paint was like emulsion with sand in it and you dabbed the wall with a sponge inside a poly bag to get the texture.

I suspect that you can remove it with steam. You need to find a happy medium between soaking the wall and the whole lot coming off and it being too dry.
A steam stripper is only £30 and well worth it.
If you're lucky it will come off in big chunks once you figure out how long to steam and what angle to use a blade at.

 

[sparkwright]

Exactly what Tigercubrider says.

 

[KenGMac]

One variant of the paint on material was "Polyripple"

All as previous posts