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Plastering & Rendering

Skimming / Plastering / Plasterboarding Living Room

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 3.00 PM

We have walls with old lime plaster with a layer of very strongly bonded wallpaper on top that doesn't want to budge - literally only tiny pieces with come off. Original plan was to peel off wallpaper and skim over top but this doesn't seem possible. We have same issue with ceiling. What would you suggest to get a top finish. And keep the original picture rails and skirting? Plan is to remove the old moulded coving and replace with something similar.

Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?

2 Answers

PWD Plastering

Rating: 5 out of 5

Airdrie

If the walls were PVA`d and then skimmed, there would be a risk of the moisture seeping through the PVA and then causing problems with the paper. What I`ve done in the past is to use SBR instead (styrene-butiadene resin), this is like PVA but for external/cement applications as once it is dried and set it wont soften when subject to water, like PVA would. Walls could then be skimmed as normal. Unlike what others may say, moisture won't penetrate SBR as it is a resin and is often used in tanking applications like K11.

Answered12 December 2015

Anonymous user

Sounds like wood chip wallpaper. The only way to skim it would be to either dig in and get the paper off or plasterboard over the top provided they are stud walls if not it would be best to hack the plaster off back to brickwork and start again because if you skim over wallpaper (using SBR or not) the moisture will penetrate the paper and the plaster could delaminate and come off the wall. Try scoring the paper with a stanley knife in random directions and use a steamer to loosen it.

Answered9 December 2015