Garage door replaced with window & painting over wallpaper and skimmed plaster walls

silps

Hi, we are going to be having some work done on our house as follows.

Currently we have a garage at the front which is about 4 feet deep (storage area really) and then a room behind it where you would normally have the full length of the garage but with no window. We are going to have the wall dividing the room and the garage knocked out, the garage door area bricked up with a window put in so we will have a full length room with a window at the front of the house. This is all part of an existing 2 story side extension built just before we purchased house 18 years ago.

The room is wallpapered with a textured pattern wallpaper and the garage area is bare breeze block which will be skimmed over. The artex ceiling will be PVA'd then skimmed. Because we will have a part newly skimmed area and textured wallpaper remaining in the new room I have decided to have the wallpaper stripped before painting. If the plaster is not good under the wallpaper it will be skimmed otherwise if okay then just painted over.

There are two long cracks in the wallpaper running vertically about 5 feet long, can these just be filled once paper is stripped if it doesn't need skimming?

The builder has included in the quote one coat of new plaster paint and then one coat of emulsion. Hopefully this will give a good finish otherwise I will have to pay extra for another coat. I am planning on using Dulux matt paint for the top coat because I like a particular colour. The ceiling I am thinking of using soft sheen or silk to reflect a little more light.

In the room above, I have a tiled shower room built in to the corner which will be removed to make the room bigger, walls skimmed only in the removed shower room section. The rest of the room has a smooth finish wallpaper (fairly thin) which I am then thinking of just having painted over along with the new skimmed section instead of removing the paper. Again they have said they would put one coat of new plaster paint in the whole room followed by one coat of emulsion. Would painting over wall paper work like this and how can I tell if my wallpaper is vinyl?

Also once you paint over plaster with matt paint can it be wallpapered easily in future?

Sorry for the longish post and I hope it makes sense.

misgrace

silps wrote: »

Hi,

There are two long cracks in the wallpaper running vertically about 5 feet long, can these just be filled once paper is stripped if it doesn't need skimming?

The builder has included in the quote one coat of new plaster paint and then one coat of emulsion. Hopefully this will give a good finish otherwise I will have to pay extra for another coat. I am planning on using Dulux matt paint for the top coat because I like a particular colour. The ceiling I am thinking of using soft sheen or silk to reflect a little more light.


Also once you paint over plaster with matt paint can it be wallpapered easily in future?

.

Yes the cracks can be filled using a suitable filler, but if they are quite deep, then the plasterer can patch it, he would have some plaster left in his bucket, make him a nice cuppa, offer him a couple choci biscuits, and ask him while he is skimming the other walls, if he could just patch the cracks.:D

You say they are going to paint a plaster paint on the skim, I never use plaster paint TBH, I just use a non vinyl thinned by about 30-35% for the mistcoat, so I am not too sure if the plaster paint has to be thinned.
But, how the first coat (mistcoat) is applied on the new plaster will determine the actual overall finish.

By this I mean, if they put the mistcoat on too thick, then your subsequents coats could bubble/flake/peel, and if your going for softsheen, and specially silk, then they have to seal the ceiling new plaster with a thin coat of matt.

Just ask in conversation what the paint is, and if they thin it.

If you read through other posts, you will see the amount of problems posters have with applying either the wrong paint or paint too thick to go on the new plaster.

Hope this helps.:D

silps

Thanks misgrace,

When I went to my local paint shop I asked about new plaster paint and he said that is what a lot of builders are using because it will seal the plaster as well as allow it to breathe so it can dry out properly. He even said it can be applied while the plaster is wet. I can't help but think it is just cheap thinned down emulsion but maybe it is some new hi tech development.

Why would applying the mistcoat too thick cause bubbling etc i.e. I just want to know the theory behind it?

Any idea what would cause such long cracks on the wall as I have one in the room above as well but not anywhere else in the house?

Any tips on painting over the wallpaper upstairs and how can I tell if it is vinyl wallpaper? Actually can you paint over vinyl wallpaper?

Thanks to anyone who can help.

27col

I converted my double garage into a flat. Part of the work involved putting windows where the doors had been. I was going to brick up to about waist high and then install windows. The Building Inspector would not let me use brick without ensuring that it had a foundation the same depth as the rest of the house. This applied, even if the brickwork was only 3 ft high. As the amount of work involved was out of all proportion to the total effect, I substituted a wooden frame under the windows and clad it with tile hanging. Doing this also means that you can install a good thickness of insulation. This was quite acceptable to the Inspector and the final result was quite pleasing. I mention this, just in case you might have the same problem about the foundation sprung on you at a late stage of the work. I hope the above might be of some interest to you.