How to prepare plasterboard for painting?

[NewShoes]

Hey all,

I have removed wallpaper in my house and unfortunately, it has removed some of the paint that was previously on the wall too. The walls are plasterboard and I recall reading somewhere that you should use a water/pva solution to seal the wall but shouldn't use a pva coat directly onto plasterboard?

If I can, I'd like to avoid wallpaper/backing paper and try to fill the spots where the bare plasterboard is showing. Any suggestions of type of filler etc?

Also, can anyone recommend an easy sand filler that I could use on a ceiling that has been skimmed over artex? We recently had this done and there's a couple of imperfections I'd like to smooth over.

Cheers,
_NS

 

[misterhelpful]

Avoid PVA at all costs - it isn't suitable for use with water based paints. You can seal the bare bits of plasterboard with slightly diluted matt emulsion, then fill imperfections with a fine surface filler, such as Toupret (my personal favourite fine surface filler). If there is an excessive amount of plasterboard showing, it may be worth sealing the whole area with a coat of Zinsser Gardz, which has the bonus of being designed to seal in old wallpaper paste, meaning you don''t have to do all that elbow grease ensuring you remove it all by washing.

As for the ceiling, once you have mist-coated it (if you haven't already), you will probably see a few more spots that need attention. For this, I would use a powder filler, which is usually much easier to sand than ready mixed stuff (you could also use this on the walls). There are a lot out there, but Gyproc Easifill is one of the more popular brands - just make sure you seal the filler with diluted emulsion before applying your finish coat(s).