DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

I live in a house built on an English estate in the early 1980s. The outside walls are brick and indoors, there appears to be plaster covered in wallpaper. (I say appears because the wallpaper covers every surface and I haven't been brave enough to look underneath to discover what the wallpaper is covering because of our damp problem).

I am from Canada and I am not familiar with the usual construction of buildings here in Britain. In Canada, we have largely timber-framed homes built with excellent fibre glass insulation.

I have heard that there are about four types of wall construction in the UK - and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what I likely have before I look at redecorating? It's a 1980s terraced house, in a corner and there are bricks on the outside and timber-framed windows.

I'm wondering because I want to remove the wallpaper and paint it but if I'm likely to have a continuing damp problem, I wonder if more insulation would help and therefore what kind of insulation I might need?

seabass81,
From the age of your home and that it is on an estate the most likely construction is aerated concrete blocks forming an inner wall with plaster board stuck onto the wall (dry lining).
If you are lucky the plasterboard will have had a light skim of plaster applied to the surface so you can remove the wallpaper.
Again it is most likely that only the joins in the plasterboard have been skimmed and the wallpaper has been applied direct to the plasterboard paper surface. If this is the case you will find it almost impossible to remove the wallpaper and papering over the top of the existing paper will be the best option.
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