kitchen touchup turning into bigger job - advice needed

[poppycock]

Hi all, I've just started a project to refinish kitchen walls in a 1910 semi due to them having a horrible lumpy, stippled, very uneven finish (you wouldn't believe how bad; but here's some photos to give you an idea):

I was intitially thinking I could get away with just hacking the worst lumps off, cleaning up the surface and reskimming using the stippling as a key. However, once I've started digging into those lumps with a chisel knife (no hammer) I've discovered the plaster below is less sound than I first imagined.

There are patches of blown plaster and mortar, particularly around the window and boiler (due to water leakage):

and also what appears to be lots of previous patching with difft. plaster types, as you can see in this piece of wall which is fairly typical of the whole room:

My guess now is that the reason for the horrible finish was that someone just slapped a thick coat of skim and paint on to hold the render and blown stuff back on the wall.

It may even be artex paint (I really hope not), but nails in the wall and water pipes have all been painted over and when I've cleaned these areas up, there is white powder under the paint coat which is obv. either white plaster or artex.

So, I'm lookin for advice on how to proceed with cleaning this up so I can put a decent finish down.

The mortar is generally fine on the internal walls (apart from a couple of blown spots) but friable in the problem corner where the leaks were. How far would you go in terms of chipping this out and patching up?

Also, being in the kitchen, would you recommend using lime plaster, esp. on the exterior walls?

Any advice appreciated. I initially hoped this would be a fairly superficial job that I could turn around in a week, but it's looking like a bigger project now.

 

[poppycock]

ok, after doing some more work this afternoon, I'm fairly confident that there's no artex on the walls, just really badly applied skim and thick paint.

I guess the main things I'm wanting to know are:

The mortar around the window and boiler is fairly intact within itself but has come away from the brickwork slightly. Do I need to chip this out or can it be bonded back, have the holes filled with render and then skimmed over? (the window will be replaced with uPVC in the next year or 2 so am happy with a solution that is good enough mid-term, rather than long-term).

Do I need to use lime-based plaster when I do my finish coat?

(I'm happy for this job to be 'acceptable' rather than top-class).

thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[huddsspread]

If its that bad, i would just rip it off and start again. As for lime, you need to replace like for like, as new plaster, multi etc, don't work well on old walls, walls with no cavity etc.

 

[poppycock]

Thanks hudds.

When you say rip it all off, do you mean just the exterior wall which has suffered from leakage, or the whole room?

I'd really rather just reskim the internals if poss - they are fairly intact and the stippling with matte paint gives a convenient key.

 

[huddsspread]

If the exterior wall is falling apart, rip it off, if the internals are ok just get them skimmed. Get a plasterer or 2 round to give you a price.

 

[mac391]

The white powder you mentioned might be (distemper) used between the 30' & 60's and nothing sticks to it. I'd get that chedked before you do anything else.

 

[poppycock]

Thanks for the replies. I really hope that's not distemper as I've skimmmed 2 walls today. Lots of diluted Pva on first, plaster seemed fine when working, so fingers crossed.

I ripped out the problem section and re-rendered it, so if this bit holds and the rest falls off, I know why. There is a thick layer of paint over the white stuff (now under my skim); would that + the Pva minimise any possible problems?

Is there a way to test for distemper before I do the last 2 walls?

 

[mac391]

Not sure if there is a specific test but experience tells me distemper is usually white, pink, blue or yellow in pastell shades. Simply rub a finger over it and if you have chalky residue on your hand it's likely to be distemper.
PVA eventually cures it but only after several coats allowing to dry inbetween. Sanding down beforehand also helps. You will know when it's ready once the chalky residue has gone, good luck.