Is skimming needed?

sancho

We're getting round to decorating our house, a room at a time.

Bedrooms 1 and 2 have both had wallpaper stripped previously (not by us) and they have been a little exuberant with the scraper, leaving ridges all over the walls.

Bedroom 3 had (until this morning) wallpaper, we have stripped it, very carefully and the wall looks like a mixture of bare plaster and flakes of previous paint. There is the odd crack in the plaster, and where the cable for the plug socket has been traced in it's very uneven, with a few holes

Living room has wallpaper, which we will strip, so have no idea what it's like underneath. However.... again the tracing of cables to the light switch and plug sockets are terrible. The cables go from the ceiling and you can clearly see it is 'raised' where it has been done. There was also evidently a fitted shelf in one of the alcoves, as again you can see where it was.

Also it was a separate dining/living room, but the wall was removed, again where the wall previously was it has 'sunken'. All of these things are noticeable, in the right (wrong?) light and is annoying. The room is quite big, probably 30'x14'

For each of the rooms what would be the best plan of action? I want to paint each of the rooms, with perhaps one wall in the living room being papered (if that makes a difference)

Seems a huge expense (haven't had any quotes yet) to do the living room, due to its size, when there's only a few places to do. Unsure about the odd cracks etc. in bedroom 3.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks in advance :j

phill99

You could try filling and sanding or lining paper.

However, I'm great believer that a house will need reskimming every 30 - 40 years.

Sometimes its best top bite the bullet and have it skimmed as you then have perfect walls to treat as a blank canvas, which will put you in good sted for many years to come. Your final finiash will also look 1000% better as a result.

nonnie44

Plasterer is coming on monday to skim our living room, worked our way around the house and I agree with the Phill99 that is really does the give the best finish and is worth the extra outlay, not too mention that redecorating is a breeze when you only have to paint it (dd's room done last weekend!). Our plasterer takes £120 per room, and for our living room which is 25ft by 13ft he has doubled it and that includes a bit of extra work as we have blocked off an alcove in the wall. I think that's quite reasonable - just to give you an idea - might be different where you live. Hope this helps a little x

ginge1_2

:)tbh by the sounds of it skimming would be the easiest and probably the best option,having said that you could fill the imperfections with filler b&q sell 10kg bags of easyfill for around fifteen quid.i paint the walls white first it shows the imperfections better but believe me this takes time and will need doing a few times as for the chases for the electrics and the recess where original walls where i could advise depending on how compotent your skills are,but would suggest getting someone skilled if not.

sancho

I do like the idea of skimming, as said it will be like a blank canvas.

Just not sure if It's extravagant if It's not really necessary. Presume it will need a few more coats of paint as well? Which adds on to the price

nonnie44

Hi, we always buy the cheapest white paint and cover the walls twice at first and then it's just one coat (depending on how dark the colour is) of you chosen paint to finish. A big tub of cheap b & q is about £13 so it's not that much more cost.

UncleZen

I recently stripped wallpaper from a room, leaving results similar to what you described.
I sanded as much flakeyness off as possible and then applied polycell smooth-over, theres a bit of a knack to applying it. And then theres the sanding down afterwards to remove any ridges, the sanding is easy, but it creates lots of dust and I mean lots. I then painted the walls, one sealing coat then the top coat. The room looks brilliant now and well worth the effort.