Lining Paper & Painting?

M

Mares

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Hi all,

I have searched for info on the board but can't find anything specific. We have bought a house that's about 65 years old. The walls are in pretty good condition and we have had the exterior walls dry-lined and skimmed.

We had a painter come around to look at the walls for painting. He recommended poly-bonding all the walls since they are bare plaster - which we planned to do, so that's fine.

However, he has also recommended putting lining paper over all the wall surfaces (including the newly plastered ones which are very smooth) and then putting emulsion over that. Then painting the colour paint. He says the lining paper gives a great finish to the walls.

I understand his point, and he is a very experienced painter, but my issue is that we have spent a lot of time stripping paper off the walls and were fairly adament that we would never paper again. The walls have a few blemishes but nothing that couldn't be poly-filled we reckon. Would we be foolish to go without the lining paper and just paint the bare walls? I know it's a matter of choice but we feel that covering every wall in lining paper will make a whole heap of work for someone in 10 years time!!

Any thoughts / pro's & con's? Thanks.
 
Trying to strip lining paper that has been painted is a nightmare. It took us weeks to get it off our living room wall and the wall was all lumpy afterwards where bits of plaster had come off with the paper. This was mainly because the wall was only skimmed in parts. If the wall is skimmed properly it should come off ok but I don't see why you need lining paper at all???? Hope this helps
 
My mother has a victorian house and had all the walls lining papered before being painted ... gave a fantastic result .... if there are any imperfections in the wall it gives a really good result. Highly recommend it ... in spite of the additional cost.
 
cross lining is the best way to go, if you try and paint old plaster and new palster on the same wall it will always show as a blemish/shade.

sand the walls, polybond, and cross line, coat one coat thinned out white emulsion, fill in joints in crosslining, touch up filler and two coats finish

it is not advisable to apply satin, or silk emulsion to plaster walls either matt is fine
but over crosslined walls u can coat with anything
u never need to strip either, as if in a few years u want to paper it, u dont strip it.
 
It does give a brilliant finish alright, although on newly plastered walls I wouldn't see a need for it myself. Having become the king of polyfilla-ing, I can vouch for the fact that you are never going to completely fill in every imperfection using polyfilla - you'll always miss some, which drive you mad once you've painted!!

You don't need to polybond newly plastered walls - just mix 1 part water to 10 parts cheap white paint as a first coat - the newly plastered walls will be 'thirsty' and will suck up any moisture in paint, so you can seal it with the paint/water mix first. I believe polybond is both expensive and a nightmare to paint over.
 
Saw an episode of "This Old House" on Discovery recently where they were at the finish stage of a house and showed the decorators in action on newly plastered walls. They sanded the walls with pole sanders (220 grit I believe) before the primer coat, then sanded again between each subsequent coat.

There can be a risk of paint peeling from new plaster that hasn't fully dried, I reckon your painter's priority seems to be avoiding this rather than giving you the best results (both from a final finish and future maintenance point of view)
Leo
 
Thanks everyone for your comments, it has been a great help.

The newly plastered walls are bone dry since they were completed in Nov so they will have had a few months to dry before the painting begins. They will be poly-bonded and dried too so they should be OK for the lining paper.

I think the point about the old and new plaster and how they will take the paint differently is an interesting one and I think it would certainly have an impact on the look of the rooms (in all cases it's just one newly plastered wall and 3 old plastered walls per room).

Is the 'cross lining' basically lining horizontally? I believe this is the case for wallpaper hanging? We are not planning to wallpaper on top of the lining, just painting and so I think the paper is hung vertically for this case (but I'm not sure).

I am definitely tending towards the lining paper now as I think the uniform look of the colours plus the covering up of nicks and bumps is probably worth it. Thanks again for your comments!
 
Cross lining means one layer vertically and another horizontally. You should note that the surface of walls prepared in this way won't resist damage as well as walls which are painted directly onto the plaster. Hard objects such as the corners of furniture can catch the lining paper and tear strips off...
Leo
 
Thanks Leo. Will probably need to see a room that has been lined and painted to see what the effect is. I suppose we had hoped to just paint the walls once they had been poly-bonded and hope that the paint would cover any inperfections.

Since we took so much paper off we are still pretty concerned about covering every surface with paper again because at some point in time it'll have to be stripped off / replaced!
 
You can blend in new and old work without resorting to lining paper- although lining paper is a very good job. Use a coarse roller sleeve and apply the paint without too much thinning. The coarse aleeve will leave an "orange peel" texture on the wall surface which helps to blend in the old and and new plasterwork. Try a sample on a wall first to see if it's going to be a satisfactory finish for you.
 
We used polybond before painting the whole house and did not have any problems with it. I have a vague recollection of seeing a debate on AAM though that polybond seals the wall too much and does not allow it to breathe? Can't find this reference at the moment.
 
Thanks for all your comments. Actually the painter mentioned using the wool rollers as they give a nice texture to cover any small blemishes so I guess it's the same for different plaster types.

Thanks again!
 
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