The walls in my lounge are traditional brick finished with plaster. They have never been papered, only emulsioned. Some years ago I put a 5" deep vinyl frieze around the top of the emulsioned walls. I had to peel off the backing strip then press the frieze hard against the plaster and it stuck very well indeed. Now it's time to redecorate (emulsion again) and I don't know how to remove the frieze! Soaking it with lots of warm water does nothing-the water doesn't soak in at all. I've scored the vinyl and then put on water but the backing adhesive still remains well stuck. So I tried a steamer but although this softens the backing adhesive it still adheres so much that when I try to pull off the frieze I'm bringing plaster off as well. The plaster is generally well adhered to the brickwork and the only reason it is coming away is because I'm having to leave the steamer in one place for such a long time before the adhesive starts to soften. I'm tempted leave the frieze in place and put a line of plaster skim along the bottom of the frieze to hide the thickness and then emulsion. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Kind regards to all.
