1960s house; state of walls after stripping wallpaper

[mkar123]

In past few days we got the keys to our first home, and having a week before moving in, my better half wanted to repaint the living room.

The walls had that wallpaper (is it some kind of vinyl?) patterned on the outer, with a backing. When taking it off, the layer underneath has crumbled in several places down to the solid wall.

please forgive the DIY ignorance, as I am not sure on the terminology, and this is the first time I've owned anywhere that I can actually do something myself!

could you provide some advice on whether this is something I could patch up myself, or if I need to get a plasterer in - it's crumbled on the wall that has the bathroom on the other side - not sure if that is indicative of something or if it's the whole living room as I haven't got much further yet.

Also being a house from the 60's I can't help but start to worry about asbestos etc. Obviously I realise that the stuff was used in insulation in lofts, around boilers, guttering etc, but would I expect to find it here at all?

Photos will hopefully be attached.

Oh, and we had a local plumber remove the gas fire (that the previous owner said had been added later, it's in the extension bit of the lounge, dont know when but mid-80s + ?) in the same room; he did the work and capped the pipe, but left a right mess, including a load of what I assume is fire retardant 'insulation' - should I be worried about this stuff too?

thanks,

Untitled

• mkar123
• 16 May 2013
• 1

Untitled

• mkar123
• 16 May 2013
• 1

Untitled

• mkar123
• 16 May 2013
• 1

Untitled

• mkar123
• 16 May 2013
• 2

 

[footprints]

Likely locations of asbestos in 1960’s buildings

Mostly considered low risk unless damaged
Textured (Artex) ceilings,
Thermoplastic (Marley) floor tiles, thin hard & brittle usually brown.

Mostly considered low risk provided they are sealed/painted, unless damaged
Heater compartments, often originally warm air heating systems.
Flue pipes.
Soffits and very occasionally gutter boards.
Any panels that might require fireproofing (infill’s over doors & ducts etc ceiling of integral garage)

The list is not exhaustive and there may be other sources of asbestos, but they are areas I would expect to find it.

I have never heard of asbestos being used in domestic wall plastering.

There are fibrous plasters used for decorative mouldings and vents but I have no idea what fibre would be used in them, Victorian ones might be horse hair later ones who knows.

I have never seen yellow asbestos, my initial reaction would be the yellow stuff (I’m assuming the white is just your dust sheet) looks like fibreglass or Rockwool.

Is this asbestos? That's one of the most asked questions on building forums, I’m afraid the only safe answer is you cannot tell by looking, if in doubt get it tested by a specialist company.

If the plaster has sound edges, patch with one coat plaster or a couple of fills with Polycell Smoothover, if you can’t get back to sound plaster a chop off and re-skim by a plasterer is the only answer.

Often it’s using a steam stripper that causes plaster to “pop” and flake off. To remove vinyl lift an edge and carefully pull the plastic coating off then repeatedly soak the backing that is left until if comes away easily.

I hope that’s of some help to you.

footprints