Re-plaster or dry line?

[Coogie]

Hi,
A few of the rooms in my house are plastered in a very 'decorative' way - my wife referes to them as volcanoes, as the plastered pattern can rise up to over an inch in places.

We are aiming to have the whole of the house replastered after some other work. With the exisiting plaster, am i better to -

1. Remove it all down to brick work and start again
2. Remove the high points off the walls and dot and dab with plaster board, then skim
3. Remove the high points and then reskim.

I need to get all the mess out of the way before other work starts, so if in need to remove existing plaster, then i'd rather do it now?

Thanks for any advise

Nick

 

[jbonding]

all thre can be done, depends if your gonna do it yourself regarding price.if you dab over the top all door casings will need altering, archys and skirting will need replacing also longer screws for sockets and switches and your rooms will be slightly smaller.. number 3 would be cheapest for materials anyway but a lot more skill required than skimming boards..

 

[roy c]

I usually skim over the top of artex after putting a couple of coats of PVA on then leave it over night and put another one on just before I skim it. But if as you say if the peaks are 1" then it depends how much you can get them down. If you get them down low enough you can put a tight coat of bonding on and then skim . But it will still take you past your skirtings and architraves as will dot and dabbing. I would probably go for hacking it all off and scratch-coat, float and skim... Swings and round a bouts....Good Luck

 

[Coogie]

Thanks for the replys. I'll be getting a pro in either way, just didnt want to carry out any unecessary prep work...
Cheers

 

[skimfast]

b&q do a scrapper with a 6inch blade to take the high points off take you no time at all.

 

[markwm]

3 would be cheapest, 1 would be messiest, 2 seems pointless.

If the plaster is sound enough just knock off the high bits and get a decent plasterer to level it with bonding and then skim. That's what I'd do.

It's amazing how much volume of rubble and dust is created when you knock plaster off the walls.