Advice needed about stripping and skimming, please.

Penny_Farthing_2

Hi
I'm stripping the walls of the hall stairs and landing in our 1930s semi. We are having the walls skimmed. The textured wallpaper that's been painted is coming off easily. There are lots of different kinds of plaster and papers underneath. Some of the papers have put up a fight but I've mananged to get them off with a steamer and lots of elbow grease.

There's one layer that is directly on the oldest plaster (plaster which has a white surface with black dusty stuff underneath). I'm not sure what this layer is. In places it's so thin it could be paint, in other places, it seems to be on top of the thinest possible layer of brown paper. I've had the steamer on it for ages but it's not budging. I'm having to virtually chip it off in 1p size pieces with the scraper.

My questions are - could the plasterer skim over this as it really doesn't want to come off? If not, does anyone know how I could get this stuff off, please?

Thanks in advance.

want2bmortgage3

i think you are worrying too much, get off what you can without too much effort, the plasterer will slap on diluted pva to seal any dust/debris and also to provide adhesion for the plaster. you could do the pva yourself like i've been doing before the plasterer arrives! i would ask him to come have a quick look and advise you to be sure.

Danosaur

If it doesn't want to come off then it will be alright to skim. Your walls sound exactly like mine and I am in the process of skimming my hallway now, coincidence. Not had any problems yet.
One thing to add to this. I used my steamer last year on these walls and it caused me more problems than anything. This black mortar crumbles so easily. Didn't use the steamer this time and everything went well. If its not to late avoid steaming