Advice needed - what is it and how to fix?

[bounce08]

We have removed all the wallpaper in our new flat's living room. 2 walls are fine but underneath the others is this...

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• bounce08
• 5 Jul 2014
• 1

I used a steamer to remove the wallpaper from the walls, on the 2 walls it came off no problem but on the walls in the photos it was a struggle. Underneath there seems to be 2-3 layers of either a thick lining paper or plasterboard. I have no experience with materials or plastering so i would like to know what these materials are and how we can fix the wall so it can be painted.

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• bounce08
• 5 Jul 2014
• 1

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• bounce08
• 5 Jul 2014
• 1

I'll try and describe it...

The top layer is smooth but when moisture is applied it looks like a thick card type material. This only appears in some areas - in between these areas is a pink coloured smooth material (poss plasterboard?) Underneath this pink material is another brown coloured thick card type material and under that is grey plaster. What is this stuff?

Just to be clear the actual wallpaper and it's backing paper has been removed.

I tried using a steamer to remove these layers but it takes hours to scrape through and is damaging the plaster underneath.

Any ideas?

 

[roughcaster]

You've removed the wallpaper as you said, but i reckon you have gone into/damaged the plasterboard itself. The pink smooth stuff you mention will probably plaster/joint finish where the joints in the plasterboard were taped. The thing that made it difficult for the paper to be stripped off, is because whoever papered the walls years ago, never painted/ primed them first. Always better to do it that way.
So to sum up,, you've taken off the wallpaper, but in some areas, you've also gone into the actual fabric of the plasterboard. You will need to get the plasterboard repaired/skimmed, or if the damage is very severe, you will need to replace any area. Always be careful stripping paper with a steamer, especially on plasterboard.

 

[bounce08]

You've removed the wallpaper as you said, but i reckon you have gone into the plasterboard itself. The pink smooth stuff you mention will probably plaster/joint finish where the joints in the plasterboard were taped. The thing that made it difficult for the paper to be stripped off, is because whoever papered the walls years ago, never painted/ primed them first. Always better to do it that way.
So to sum up,, you've taken off the wallpaper, but you've also gone into the actual fabric of the plasterboard. You will need to get the plasterboard repaired/skimmed, or if the damage is very severe, you will need to replace any area. Always be careful stripping paper with a steamer, especially on plasterboard.

Thanks - as you can see on the photo of the main wall, it seems to be in patches. We started scraping through whatever this was to get to the grey plaster underneath so some areas are just the pink 'plasterboard', some are this pink 'plasterboard' with this brown card type substance and some areas are all the way through to the grey plaster underneath.

Is it possible to skim over all of this, including the different layers/levels without any problems??

From the grey base plaster to the brown card/pink 'plasterboard' is about 3-4mm

 

[roughcaster]

How old is the house?

 

[bounce08]

Just to describe this better, the first pic shows all areas. On the left of the pic the light grey is the base plaster underneath everything. The light brown areas are a thin card type material that sheds slightly when wet and the pink areas are probably plasterboard. I can't remove the brown card type material without cutting/scraping into the plasterboard.

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• bounce08
• 5 Jul 2014
• 1

 

[bounce08]

How old is the house?

About 15 years old. It's odd as the other 3 walls are fine with good plaster underneath none of this pink board and brown card stuff.

We could scrape all the pink board and brown card off but I think it would take weeks and would leave a really damaged base plaster.

 

[roughcaster]

15 years old, ok. l still think the brown paper is part of the plasterboard surface itself. The best thing to do would be to get a plasterer, or a painter in to look at that surface closely, and take it from there. I've seen a lot of plasterboard walls damaged in a similar way, but with a bit of work, they turn out ok, so it's not a major problem.

 

[roughcaster]

In the very worst scenario, the wall could be prepped, pva'd, bonded and skimmed.