Grey plaster

[Shar81]

Just looking for some advice please! We’ve just decided to decorate our front room for the first time and when we’ve taken the paper off the plaster is grey in places? Is this normal? It’s not the whole wall, it seems to be at the bottom half.
are we going to be able to paint over it? Or are we going to have to skim the whole room? Any ideas
Welcome
Thanks

 

[JohnD]

it is normal. Probably depends on the colour of stone used to make the plaster. If it is on the lower half it may have been an attempt to conceal damp, so look into this separately.

i recommend you strip the whole room, and give it two mist coats of matt white emulsion, thinned with water, then one full coat. This will level out the colour and absorbency so your final decoration does not show patchiness.

It will also highlight to your eye any remaining defects in the plaster that you can fill or smooth, and patch-prime before starting your finish coat.

matt white emulsion is cheaper than colours, and gives better adhesion to following coats than silk finish.

Do not put glue on the walls. Never put PVA on any surface you hope one day to paint. Clean off traces of wallpaper paste before painting.