What is the best way to sort this wall out?

[KatUK]

We would like to know whether we should be filling and skimming the wall in the attached pictures, or taking it back to brick and starting again?
We have had two plasterers round to look at it and they have each advised a different option. Whichever option we go for, we will be getting a professional in to do it. We want to do a good job, not a 'quick fix', but don't want to be spending money unnecessarily.
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Kat.

 

[ree]

Unless you have damp issues it appears that all thats needed is stripping all traces of wallpaper & washing off all traces of paste.
The wall in the pics could then be made good with a little patching here and there - or skim the whole thing after two coats of PVC.

Much depends on where the wall(s) is - eg. a kitchen? Units and appl's will cover many sins. And how firmly bonded the plaster is to the background.

 

[KatUK]

Thanks for that, it's a bedroom/study wall and isn't damp from the outside. We don't want to have to re-do it in a few years.... We only moved in this year and it was previously a teenagers room with a bed up against the wall and a lizard in a tank...we don't think it was well aired at all!
One of the guys who looked at it said the plaster would all be the same age, so if some was coming off it wouldn't be long before the rest was, hence his advice to rip it all off.....it's certainly crumbly, both where bits have come off and in other areas with holes such where a TV was previously screwed to the wall. The other bloke said patching it up then skimming would be fine!
We're still confused!

 

[ree]

What are you confused about?
You've just been offered two suggestions for dealing with solidly fixed plaster.
And queried how solidly bonded is the plaster?

 

[joe-90]

All the plaster in the whole house will be the same age. Does that mean you'll be knocking all that back to brick? Patch it and skim it.