Skimming painted plasterboard

[Mick100]

The lounge in our 1995 has unskimmed plasterboard walls. These had the usual magnolia emulsion by the builders and papered in about 1998 with lining paper and anaglypta. The anaglypta has probably had about 6 coats of emulsion since then. We are having a new fire in and want to remove all the anaglypta etc to leave smooth walls for painting. I am working on the assumption that if we get all the paper off, the plasterboard walls won't be smooth enough to paint directly so a skim coat would really improve things. However, can a skim be applied direct to emulsioned plasterboard or does all that paint need removing or sealing? The other option would be to use some sort of lining paper on the plasterboard and paint that, but that's possible one for decorating forum. Help appreciated

 

[roughcaster]

Providing the paint/emulsion and joint tapes on your walls are sound,, (which it probably is), the walls will plaster/skim without any problem at all. Get in touch with 2 or 3 competent plasterers, get a quote from each, and take it from there. The usual way to do this type of plastering is to give the wall/s a coat of pva, then plaster onto it while it's still wet/tacky. Sometimes a plasterer might need to seal the wall first if there's any suction, but in this type of job, i'd doubt it. Sounds like a normal, straight forward type of job.