HELP - wall boards not fully plastered?

stresshead

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I took down a few layers of wallpaper over the weekend and discovered that the boards underneath were not fully plastered. It appears that the builders (35 years ago) plastered over the joins in the board and over the nails, so there are 50cm wide vertical strips of white plaster running all around the room, and in-between is the wall-boards (unplastered).

I don't think this board will paint up well - when it got wet (when I was stripping the wallpaper off) it seemed to peel away like cardboard/paper?

Has anyone experienced anything like this? Will I have to get the walls skimmed?
 
the boards are "gypsum" if that helps?

I was just told that it would cost €600 per room to skim the walls - now my rooms aren't big at all! Is this a reasonable estimate?
 
My sister had the same problem - took off the wallpaper and the plasterboard paper came with it! She used lining paper put on horizontally and then painted over - it looks fine.
 
Thanks, I was hoping to avoid lining paper but financially it looks like my only option.

I've looked at the key posts on it, does anyone know:

a. if it's hard to put up (especially for an amateur like me!)
b. how it lasts in the long term - can you paint over it repeatedly and does it tear easily?

thanks everyone, I'd be lost without this forum.:(
 
The boards have been taped and jointed, a cheap and quick way of giving a decoratable finish to plasterboard walls. 600 per room is pretty expensive, especially onto plasterboard which needs little preperation as would a cement render, as for lining paper this is an excellent alternative though you may want to seal the boards with a couple of coats of pva watered down at 5:1 or you may find it difficult to hang the paper over the pourous board.
 
Are you sure you need to reskim the boards? If you were careful removing the paper and didn't gouge the boards too much they might paint up well. It's fairly standard practice in the US to paint directly onto plasterboards (but seal first as suggested above). Fill any holes or scrapes with a good filler first.

You could always do a test before going to the trouble, expense, and considerable mess or reskimming.
 
thanks guys, I'm thinking lining paper is the way to go as the boards are quite uneven in parts. It breaks my heart after spending all that time taking wallpaper down!

So does anyone have any tips for putting up lining paper? Should be a good challenge for the long weekend! I heard something about letting the paste soak in for at least 5 minutes?
 
Consider using [broken link removed]

I'm doing my whole house at the moment. I have a small hallway and done our stairway area. I think it's a fantastic product much better than using lining paper which I tried on my bathroom but it difficult to avoid bubbles with lining paper. It's hard work and slow but I estimate that I will save around EUR3000 by going DIY as opposed to paying a plasterer that is if you can find one that you can trust. It takes a while to get the hang of but it more a case of timing i.e. when to smooth and sand. i.e. don't let plaster get too hard. Always start on walls that will be seen less and your technique and speed will improve. Finish a small area at a time. The finish is perfect. I'm using it on previously skimmed walls that I pulled wallpaper off. Luckily the walls are mostly perfect. For larger holes left after roll-on you can fill with gypsum skim coat or polyfilla and re-smooth.

You would need to enjoy DIY and be a meticulous person to stick with it as its slow and tiring but well worth the effort, I can stop admiring my work!

In Woodies it's EUR60 for a 10lt tub which will cover a bathroom or small hall. You'll get more efficient with more practice. The applicator kit is EUR20. Get some smaller scrapers/spreader for those narrower area that lager spreader is too big for.

Good luck.

BTW I'm not affiliated in anyway to fibertech.

Pat.
 
pvtighe said:
You would need to enjoy DIY and be a meticulous person to stick with it as its slow and tiring.

Well that rules me out then! It's the lazy mans lining paper for me thank you very much!
 
Would suggest if using lining paper u get the thickest one-it comes in about 4
different grades of thickness-its marked on the packing but just checking between your fingers u will feel the difference
There is also blown vinyl type paper in different designs that can hide minor wall problems and can also be painted.
 
Bear in mind that painted lining paper usually looks just like that. Unless you're incredibly good at papering the joins will be obvious and it certainly won't look like painted plaster.
 
There is also some stuff from Polycell, it's calles smoothover and there is a base coat for plasterboard. I've used it and it's dead simple.
Otherwise, in Austria, where I'm from, we also paint directly onto the board, but there is special base paint to put on first. But it looks absolutely fine once painted. You could also just make up a little bit of polyfiller and fill the uneven bits and then paint a basecoat over - I'd say the lining paper would be a nightmare to get on properly, much more difficult than filling or coating with something like polyfiller, fibertech or smoothover....
 
Lining paper is as much work IMO if not more, as I have done both. I prefer to use fibertech and the results are much better. If you are going to go for lining paper leave a 1mm gap between sheets and fill gap with polyfila and smooth, no point in trying to line up sheets exactly, with the idea of them not being noticable, they always will unless you do as I suggest.
 
I would bet a pound to a penny that the finish pvtighe is passable at best and seeing as it is your own work you have turned a blind eye to how imperfect it really is, had a plasterer been paid to do the job and left a finish equivalent to that you now have you would be screaming blue murder. Not only this but how long is it going to take you to do six rooms or more, you could go and stack tins of beans in tescos for the amount of hours plastering with a paint roller, scraper and sandpaper, and with the money earned paid a plasterer and still had enough change to take the mrs out for a weekend.
If I had a yo yo for the amount of times I have heard the line "well I did this all myself, it took a very long time but I am a perfectionist you know, good isnt it?"
Errrr no.....its s**t!!! ( I think but dont say, am far too polite!!)
Just an experienced observation, I could be wrong.
 
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