Painting over messed up plaster board?! Please help!

[sallym]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me (I clearly need it!). I've used a steamer to remove wallpaper from a fairly new house - behind the wallpaper is plasterboard. The steamer has removed the paper ok but also in some places what I presume is lining paper - so some areas now have got a thin white paper, other patches are brown which I presume is the bare plasterboard. What I need to know is how do I now paint over it all? I guess I can't just keep slapping on the paint until it's even, I presume I have to do some sort of preparation work.

So, do I have to put lining paper up (I hope not, I'm hopeless at papering & it will leave lines between each sheet). Is there something I should apply before the paint? Do I sand the walls first?

As you can probably tell, I'm pretty clueless, so laymans answers only please!!!

Many thanks!

 

[Thermo]

easiest option for you to do it is to get a product called polycell smooth over. its a big tub of white goo, that spreads with a big spreader and gets the wall pretty even. its also easy to sand after so you should be ok.

its about 15 a tub with the spreader costing about 8, and you can get it in most diy outlets

 

[paintycait]

so some areas now have got a thin white paper, other patches are brown which I presume is the bare plasterboard. What I need to know is how do I now paint over it all? I guess I can't just keep slapping on the paint until it's even, I presume I have to do some sort of preparation work.

Technically, you need to remove the rest of the paper from the plaster board - it's probably a backing paper from vinyl - and this should come off easily if you soak it well with water and sugar soap and scrape it off...that is, if the plasterboard was "sized" before the paper went up. Then you would need to remove all the paste from the surface before painting.
I would definitely recommend getting that paper off if you can. No matter how much paint you apply, if the surface isn't even then it will telegraph through the layers...you'll never have an even finish. You need an even finish before you start painting. I'm not mad about Smooth-Over, partly because it is a labour intensive process that has to be smoothed over all the wall and then sanded. The other thing is that paste on the walls can throw off the product further down the line so all that work can be for nothing.
So I would say, get that backing paper off then, a good product for a DIY project like this is Gardz, made by Zinsser. This will seal up the paste on your walls, it's quick to apply, far quicker than washing off the paste from plasterboard.
http://www.zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=27
Once it's applied, you can fill the surface where it needs filling, sand it down and paint away.
Cait

 

[sallym]

Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply guys.

Paintycait - if I paint the stuff on & find it's even enough to not have to fill holes, do I still have to sand - eg does the whole room need sanding? I've never sanded anything other than tiny patches before, so sanding a whole room sounds like a BIG job. Then what? Undercoat & paint?

Thanks!

 

[ellie17]

Hi
HELP !!!

Iv stripped back the wallpaper off our walls and the layers of hardened paper, has also been removed, what do i do now
its down to the brown plaster chalk (if thats what you call it.)

I want to paint the walls can not paper !!

Please give me advice.