Orange flaky coat under wallpaper

[BethS89]

Hi,
Me and my partner are renovating our first house. We have started by removing the wallpaper (with a steamer) but are left with a patchy, flaky coat of orangey coloured stuff on the plaster. Is this dried wallpaper paste?
And is there any way to get this off apart from scraping?
I have attached a picture. On the right is the bare plaster, in the middle is the orangey coat of something, and then on the left is the wallpaper.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JohnD]

How old is the house?

D**t****r

 

[BethS89]

House is 1930’s.
The previous owner has really looked after it and it’s been decorated recently...looks like a professional wallpaper job as it’s done well and lined etc.

 

[JohnD]

Then it's probably distemper. Looks like it. An old form of internal paint made of pigment, ground chalk, and boiled-up dead horses' hooves. It is soluble in hot or boiling water, but not cold, and has a distinctive unpleasant smell. It's not suitable for painting over (the paint will fall off).

Scrape off what you can, dry, then use kettles of water and scrub the rest. Use your scraper to take off the sludge before it dries and hardens.

The house probably has old white lime plaster. If you have modern Gypsum plaster (typically pink or brown) it will crack and burst off the wall if you get it too hot with your steamer.

If you want to do "original" repairs to the lime plaster, ask in the Plastering section. It is better in old houses which may have damp.

 

[BethS89]

That sounds right yes, it doesn’t smell pleasant! Thanks a lot for your help!!

 

[opps]

I think my eyes must be failing.

The plaster on the walls looks like regular "pink" gypsum plaster.

I would have assumed that it was bog standard paint that just happened to come away from the wall because of the steam from the stripper.

Wallpapering over distemper would have been pretty difficult. The water in the wallpaper paste would have re-activated the distemper and (potentially)resulted in air bubbles all over the place and lifting seams.

Sorry John, I am not convinced that you looked at the picture closely enough.

I think it is just a bog standard orange emulsion. I could be wrong. I guess if the OP confirms that simply rubbing it with a hot wet rag results in it "melting" then you will be proven to be correct.

BTW, although I have never used distemper, I did once make the mistake of using "old school" sizing about 20 years ago- the client was not happy. The house stank for days...