Wallpaper stripping has taken previous pain off in patches General decorating topics, questions and answers. find help, tips and advice on completing your decorating projects

[twinmamma]

We have a couple of areas in the house were we have a problem with damp salts etc - I have a contractor coming at the weekend to repair the affected walls - but it involves hacking plaster right back to original stonework so will not be able to re-paper for some time.

So in my wisdom decided to strip the other walls of the vinyl wallcovering and just paint once plaster is dried out - BUT in several areas when we've stripped the paper it has also taken off the underlying 3 coats of paint so am now left with walls that are a mixture of bare plaster and paint. Obviously this means I need to get all the paint off and get the whole room back to bare plaster or is there another way to get a smooth finish. I was so sure this was going to be easy!

HELP! ANy suggestions greatfully received

[rosebery]

Do you have more paint than plaster or the other way round? If it's only a few bits of paint left then scrape them off. However, I suspect that the outer surface of the plaster has degraded which is why the paint came off and where the paint has gone you may well a rough rather than smooth surface.

You could try finishing skim polyfilla or the new "smoothover" stuff. But the latter is rather expensive for what it is and I don't like it personally.

My preference would be (without seeing it I might add so the usual disclaimers apply) to line with a good quality lining paper (not less than 1200 grade and preferably 1400), render the seams invisible with filler and paint over the top of that.

Cheers

[twinmamma]

thanks roseberry

it's about half and half paint and plaster - we have scrapped some of the extra paint off but to do the lot will take me about a year I think! so not ideal

as there are about three or 4 layers of paint though will lining paper cover the mess or will the lumps and bumps still show through?

I'm prepared to put the time in to get a decent finish but don't want to line the room only to find its still rubbish.

Also what should i seal the plaster/remaining paint with before i line it?