Beginner with some grotty walls - help needed!

[crunchie]

Lots of really helpful advice on here - thanks to all those who have offered advice I've already benefitted from!

Have just moved into a house - 1930s construction. Most rooms had horrible textured wallpaper - looked like grains of rice in the paper which had just been painted over and over.

So it had to come off. Actually came off remarkably easily after sponging with warm water with some vinegar and gentle scraping.

The walls don't look in bad condition. There appears to be a thin layer of yellow ?paint/primer which is very inconsistent and gone in places followed by grey plaster-like substance about 5mm thick. In a couple of places this grey layer breaks through to a very sandy, loose yellow substance. The house is of brick construction with no strange features as far as I'm aware. In a few small places there feels to be a little bit of "give" between the grey and yellow layer - ie the two layers are not totally adherent though this is only when you poke and prod.

The reason I've stripped the textured wallpaper is to paint things, perhaps with wallpapering a feature wall.

My plan was to (1) plaster the deep holes with ready-mixed plaster and allow to dry before sanding flush with the rest of the wall (2) paint the whole wall with a primer/basecoat, then (3) sand back with fine paper to get a smooth surface, then reapply basecoat if necessary before painting as normal.

Does anybody have any guidance about where to go from here? Is this a reasonable approach? I wondered (a) does anybody have any advice about which products may be best to prime the surface/allow sanding back (b) is it reasonable to expect to get a good surface with this approach (c) any other tips?

Many thanks! Was just about to post some pics but batteries in camera have just died - will post as soon as they've charged!

Crunchie

 

[trowelmonkey1]

pics would be good crunchie.

regarding products for sanding back, use easifill or an equivalent from knauf or lafarge, made for sanding back and does so really well.

will wait for pics before advising on anything lese

 

[crunchie]

Thanks trowelmonkey1. Some pics below. All suggestions/guidance gratefully received!

Thanks

Crunchie

Untitled

• crunchie
• 5 May 2009
• 1

Untitled

• crunchie
• 5 May 2009
• 1

Untitled

• crunchie
• 5 May 2009
• 1

 

[mutantgoat]

Don't tap the wall to find bad plaster. Get a smooth stone-small potato size & move across wall. Deep hollow sound = base plaster loose higher pitch = top coat loose even higher = paper loose
when filling holes more than 1/2 inch deep, wet & fill up the hole first roughly leaving 3-5 mm for a finish skim leave for maybe 1hr or 2 until it's gone like cheese. remember when skimming to thoroughly wet the surrounding plaster otherwise the the new will stick where you don't want it. when it's gone off [setting time = 1 cup of coffee aprox] use water on plaster and skimming float and skin again to make smooth.
Time and patience and plenty of water

 

[spongey]

you need to assess exactly how many blown parts there are before deciding to use easifill or similar. i would say that if the wall is more than 10% blown then to call a pro in and get it floated and skimmed properly.

if you decide to do it yourself then hack the blown render of to reveal the brick and float up back level again. you will then have to either skim the lot or whats known in the trade as feather the new skim into the existing.

looking at the pics i would sort the blown plaster out and re skim, this will leave the best result if you intend to paint the walls afterwards.

 

[crunchie]

Thanks for the above help - the more I hear the more questions I have! There are relatively few deep problems with the plaster. The first room I'm doing is about 4m by 4m and has a few screw/nail holes where the plaster has come away (all <2cm deep and <2cm by 2cm). There are a three areas where the plaster has come right away - (all about 10cm by 15cm but about 0.5cm deep.

I'm happy how to fill these deeper defects. Across all the walls are the remnants of what looks like a primer paint which has flaked away. Is the only way to deal with this (after sponging away the excess flaked paint +/- light sanding) to reskim the wall or could I paint it with some kind of primer and then sand it smooth with fine paper to get a good finish? Am more than happy to spend more time repeating this if it improves the finish. If so, any recommendations for a primer/alternative?

Would it be necessary for use a PVA/water mix initially or is that only if attempting to reapply plaster to the entire wall?

Thanks

Crunchie

 

[trowelmonkey1]

like the guys say, by far the best bet owuld be to get a pro in to skim it BUT if you're determined to have a go yourself:

you first need to get off any plaster that has blown and my be liable to coming off in the near future, then you will need to sand back all the crap on the walls, going to take you some time and make a right bloody mess but if you're hoping to paint it there's no option, then you have to at least sand it back to something that will look ok painted, FLAT AND SMOOTH, then fill and sand the marks/holes etc and sand back smooth, if still not quite paintable you could then line with lining paper and paint i suppose.

seems like a lot of effort when a plasterer could sort you out in a day with less mess, will cost you though, but you could go through all of the above, paint it and it could look rubbish as a painted wall will show up all your imperfections and if you've papered it with lining, that will need to come off before it can be skimmed so proceed carefully

 

[spongey]

trowel monkey touched on lining paper why not fill sand and then line the walls then paint em?

 

[trowelmonkey1]

no reason, as long as you can hang the lining paper nicely it should provide you with and decent finish for painting, i have been told the trick with lining paper is to hand it with small gaps between, say a couple of mill then fill the gaps with filler, this way you don't see the joins in the paper like you normally would, decorators trick that one

 

[spongey]

jesus trowel monkey how quick was that reply , you must be skiving aswell

 

[trowelmonkey1]

yup