Removing polystyrene and adhesive residue from wall

[Sambob15]

Hi

I removed some woodchip wallpaper from the bedroom wall of my 1960s housem only to be greeted by a layer of polystyrene underneath. The polystyrene has also now been scraped off, but there is still some adhesive residue left on the wall (bare plaster). Does anyone have any ideas of how to remove the residue? Scraping hasn't done much good.

I should mention that I'm planning to have the walls skimmed, so I guess a more important question is - does the adhesive residue actually need removing? I'm not sure if it will interfere with a new layer of plaster being put on the wall or if it'll make no difference.

Many thanks

 

[phatboy]

Yes it should be removed as much as possible, and then use something like ThistleBondIt to stabalise over it and give something for the new plaster to grip to. Anything like paste will weaken the bond of the new plaster to the wall.

A strongish mix of sugar soap and a nice wide scraper (I use a 7") will get most of the residue off, to an acceptable level.

 

[Sambob15]

Hi, thanks for your reply. I think the adhesive residue that's now left on the wall is probably PVA glue rather than wallpaper paste, as it's quite stringy and bobbly, and comes off in stretchy little lumps when pulled. Do you think sugar soap would work on this? Never used it before.

 

[Doggit]

Go over it with a steamer, and see if that'll loosen it enough for a blade scraper to remove.

 

[foxhole]

Once clean you can use pre-grit to prime ready fro skim.