help - dado rail drama and disaster!!

hullaballoo

hi there, I have just removed the dado rail in our bedroom. there are big holes in the plaster and clearly a big gap in the paintwork where the rail was located.

I am going to fill in the holes with polyfilla but wonder if I can wallpaper straight over the gaps in the paint or if it is better to strip it off completely. The third alternative is to plaster the gap in paint work left by the dado rail.

yours dazed, confused

kat21

depends upon what you mean by big holes? there are a number of ways to solve this, one if the holes are really big as in wide, you could first use some carlite browning (its like a plaster with polysterene beads in it) then use a finnishing coat of plaster. Some diy places offer an all in one solution. The other method is by building up layers over a few days. do not forget to wet the plaster around the hole to avoid it drying out too quickly. or you could coat the hole before applying with some pva glue, its white and in a tin you can even mix pva with plaster which basically makes it ahear better.


so, mix pva with water then poor on the plaster and mix
or buy an all in one diy solution.
kat21

misgrace

if the holes are really big, then wet some newspaper and block the hole, this will save on time and filler or plaster.

As for the gap where the dado rail was, sand down the line of the dado rail, if the paint is sitting proud, then get a scraper knife and scrape the paint away, then sand, if you feel its indented, then get some filler and just lightly fill where the line of the dado rail was.

What I would advise you to do before you paper, is after you have sanded the filled holes whether its filler or plaster made by the dado rail, is to apply a thin PVA solution to where the plastered/filled holes.

This stops the filler/plaster from 'blowing' this happens quite a lot when the paste hits the filled bits, I'm talking about big filled areas,so to prevent that apply PVA, and the filled/plastered bits will feel very hard to the touch, like a hard eggshell effect, and then you can paper as normal without fear of the filled bit crumbling underneath.

hullaballoo

:j thanks kat and misgrace, I will give it a go.

tomstickland

I recommend using Wickes "plaster skim" - this is a big tub of cheap, ready mixed plaster, rather like polyfilla, but much nicer to sand. Ram that on the wall (doesn't matter how badly) using a trowel, let it set, and then rub it down with a sanding block and a load of co!!!! sandpaper.

I rescued my bathroom ceiling using this stuff (it had a really shoddy replastering job) and it's now smooth.

hullaballoo

thank you tomsickland, that's a great tip.