Plaster falls off when remove wallpaper - best way to fix?

lynseyf

Hi
I am renovating my house and removed some wallpaper in my living room to have a look at the walls underneath. All the plaster is crumbling away and a builder we had in for soem other work said the walls would have to be stripped back to the bricks and completely replastered, not just skimmed. As an alternative we had thought of building "new" walls inside our old walls with plasterboard as our living room is big enough to loose a couple of inches allround.

Both of these ideas would be quite expensive to pay someone to do or time consuming and hard work to do ourselves. I saw an advert for polycell smooth over on the telly which looks like an easyier option. Our walls are ok just now and are wallpapered with thick vinyl paper, it is just when we peel this off the plaster starts to crumble. Has anyone used polycell smooth over or have an idea of a similar trade item which is cheaper or any other thoughts or ideas to help

Thanks

woodbutcher_2

Give the polycell stuff a wide berth.It's only pre-mixed filler in a tub and is very expensive.You could end up using tubs and tubs of it.The only way in my view is to bite the bullet,strip the walls and then assess the damage.You may get away with having them skimmed,if not then you can strip back to bare walls and dry-line with plasterboard and adhesive,or dot and dab as it's known in the trade.

never_enough

Have used smooth over, basically for the same thing. It didn't do a good enough job (or maybe I didn't? ) I couldn't recommend it. I had to get it done properly in the end after wasting quite a bit of cash, so I'd get some quotes once you've stripped the whole lot. You may find its just particularly bad in one or two areas & the rest can be skimmed.

superfly_2

get a couple of builders in to assess the job and see what they recommend, sounds like it could be work that, if not done properly may end up costing you.

JBsplit

i had exactly the same problem in my house, i patched it up and papered over it...big mistake.!! how i wish i had the chance to replaster now..every time the light shines in the right direction all you see is lumps and dumps.

dont skimp on it get it all done, if you strip the walls yourself you will save hundreds and if its just falling of anyway it shouldnt be to hard.

Rhiannon_of_Woolamai

lynseyf wrote:

Hi
As an alternative we had thought of building "new" walls inside our old walls with plasterboard as our living room is big enough to loose a couple of inches allround.

You wouldn't be saving much work doing this as plasterboard should be skimmed over anyway.

It's really easy and quite fun to remove the existing plaster - (and it sounds to me like it needs to come off). You just get a big hammer and bash away until it all falls off, until you're down to the brick underneath. Nothing technical, and it's not too hard work. We've just done this with the house we were renovating.

You can then screw new plasterboard onto the brick, and get a plasterer to come in and plaster over it. Plasterers should cost roughly £100 for a days work (per plasterer), and if you've already put the plasterboard up, they should be able to do a small room in a day.

They're not so keen on ceilings though, and putting plasterboard up on a ceiling is hardwork!!

raymond

If its small bits and you are putting wallpaper back up you could use one coat plaster, a big bag will cost you about a fiver and just mix with water a bit at a time, put it on as smooth as you can and sand flat when dry.