Painting or sealing old plaster

[ambience]

Hi, I hope someone can help me! I'm trying to sell my flat and what seems to be putting people off is the smell of ammonia (its definately not urine as the place is empty and the wall the smell is coming from is a partition wall up the side of the stairs and it doesn't reach the ceiling). It seems to be the plaster along the bottom of the wall.... when I paint over it the paint flakes off but the smell seems to be continuous. The house is Victorian and this is a 2nd floor flat. I have been told that ammonia based plaster was used years ago to hold off the curing process?? Is there anything I can do? Either a special paint or do I need to re-plaster it???

 

[Sohail75Bashir]

It will be cheaper to re-plaster it.

Get some of the plastering students from the local college to do it for next to nothing (get the teachers permission first!)

It takes time to sell the house, and the smell may delay the process even more. Plasterers aren't cheap, so future buyers will be noting any faults prior to purchasing, or even asking for a silly deduction in the market price.

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