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PVA issue - plasterboard and emulsion problem

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28 Aug 2025
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Hi everyone, I'm really hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

We have a plasterboarded wall that has been lining papered, emulsioned, coated with PVA (a few years ago now) and wallpapered. We have removed the wallpaper and, coming to redecorate now with emulsion, we can't scrape away the PVA as the wall hadn't been plastered. We have tried sanding but the emulsion still won't stick. We have scraped away the PVA/emulsion combo from the rest of the walls as they were plastered and the emulsion is fine there.

Is the answer to lining paper over the top of all this and start again and then emulsion? Would this stick ok to the wall, as there was paper up before? Or I have read that we need a primer, but I have no idea which one we'd need. It's only a small wall that was originally a door and was blocked up with plasterboard but never plastered. Or is there a completely different solution?

Any tips would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Cheap orbital sander. 120 grade discs.
It's good to tape/bodge to a vacuum to collect dust.

Sand off PVA.
Apply Gardz to seal and nutrilise surface.

Gardz will nutrilise wallpaper paste but not said to treat PVA but I've used after sanding off.
Give it ago
 

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