- Joined
- 5 Oct 2021
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 2
- Country
Hi, I was just wondering if anybody could offer me any advice. I live in an old 30s/40s terraced house and I recently cross-lined the walls of my living room with lining paper with a view to wallpapering/painting. However, I haven't finished the job as the weather meant there were some outside jobs I had to do. In the meantime, it has become apparent that damp from the chimney breast wall has caused some of the paper on that wall to come loose and in some cases actually be a little moist. Now, I could tap the wall in lots of areas and know the plaster was loose, but I was hoping to get away with not dealing with the problem this time around. However, it does not appear that it was meant to be.
I had a similar issue in the same room on the opposite wall a couple of years back, hollow sounding section about 1m x 4m, so I bashed it off and applied an internal sand and cement render then skimmed it. It was okay and I am fairly confident at skimming but what I am not confident about is internal rendering of a space as large as a full wall (although, being a chimney breast wall, it is split into five more manageable sections).
Before a plasterer I work with advised me to use sand and cement (I'd forgotten I'd done it on the other wall), I was hoping to apply a backing plaster with a darby. However, the plasterer told me that any backing plaster will suck moisture up like nobody's business, so it's back to the sand and cement. The question is - is it acceptable to use a darby with battens/grounds to achieve a level finish? One possible issue I can see (aside from doing each coat in stages when the battens are removed) is, after the scratch coat is done, I am then trying to affix the batten to the scratch coat to do the top coat... especially since the scratch coat will be scratched up and therefore the batten may not sit flush. If it was just one coat like applying backing plaster I wouldn't care but it's the two coat issue that's puzzling me.
Just wondered if anybody could tell me whether it's all feasible or a big no-no. Thanks!
I had a similar issue in the same room on the opposite wall a couple of years back, hollow sounding section about 1m x 4m, so I bashed it off and applied an internal sand and cement render then skimmed it. It was okay and I am fairly confident at skimming but what I am not confident about is internal rendering of a space as large as a full wall (although, being a chimney breast wall, it is split into five more manageable sections).
Before a plasterer I work with advised me to use sand and cement (I'd forgotten I'd done it on the other wall), I was hoping to apply a backing plaster with a darby. However, the plasterer told me that any backing plaster will suck moisture up like nobody's business, so it's back to the sand and cement. The question is - is it acceptable to use a darby with battens/grounds to achieve a level finish? One possible issue I can see (aside from doing each coat in stages when the battens are removed) is, after the scratch coat is done, I am then trying to affix the batten to the scratch coat to do the top coat... especially since the scratch coat will be scratched up and therefore the batten may not sit flush. If it was just one coat like applying backing plaster I wouldn't care but it's the two coat issue that's puzzling me.
Just wondered if anybody could tell me whether it's all feasible or a big no-no. Thanks!
