woodchip and re-wallpapering (noob)

olly300

coolagarry wrote: »

I must admit I like your original idea with the rockwall..particularly on the outside wall. I used a similar product on a cold outside wall many years ago and it really made the room warmer. I take LandyAndy's point about removing the wallpaper being difficult but I reckon the woodchip was popular in the 1970's 80's so you can see that people don't strip wallpaper off very often.

The difficulty in removing woodchip depends on how many coats of paint are on it and the type of paint.

If there is one/two coats of water based paint then it's easy however if it's gloss paint (and yes some idiots did do that) you are going to have real trouble removing it and are likely to damage the walls.

Leif

Removing wall paper from the ceiling could be unpleasant, but doable. I had the ceiling from hell in the sitting room, with thick woven effect paper over what looked like multiple layers of brown wrapping paper, heavy with paste. And the ceiling proper was vile, with cracks galore. A steamer works, but be careful.

A problem as mentioned earlier is what lurks beneath. It could be really nasty, or nice. If there are cracks, it probably isn't worth filling as they only reappear as you have not fixed the reason for the cracks e.g. flexing of the joists, or lack of tape on the seams. I have heard that you can fill with caulk, but to be honest for a large ceiling that is hard work and it'll never look nice. It might be best just to use thick lining paper. (I've never done this, so I'm guessing.) I removed wall paper to discover ceilings made of plasterboard with no skim and no tape. I had to have them overboarded and skimmed.

Woodchip wallpaper is a form of camouflage: you use a paper that has huge numbers of 'defects' in order to hide the real defects. If you are ugly, far better to mix with ugly people than models.

loracan1

Woodchip was mainly used because there wasn't much in the way of affordable alternatives. I've still got it on the ceilings in hall stairs and landing and it'll stay there till the house falls down (removing it from the top of the stairs wall is permanently etched on my memory)

As for ready-mixed paint, it's so easy to mix the packs you really don't need it. A bucket, water, paste mix all get mixed together with a fish slice - you check you've got the right amounts of each and you can't go wrong.

aliette

I've just removed woodchip - along with the 7 layers of various wallpaper and paint underneath - from several rooms in my new flat. It's not as hard as it seems. A fellow freecycler kindly gave me a steamer which works great along with some great advice.
Score the paper with a knife, apply steam, let it sit for 20min, steam again. Strip. It all came rather easily.
Use goggles and gloves.

The last 2 latex layers of paint though are trickier but that's a different subject!

julsifer

i'm ashamed to say that since posting this thread i have only just started this project today and have got this far on my own, using my

TOOTHACHE wrote: »

£25 Steamer from wickes works brilliantly at removing the awful w.chip.

except i got it off of ebay for £15
This took me 3 hours
http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/juleztigers/SDC13120.jpg
Left to do on that wall
http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/juleztigers/SDC13121.jpg

Just three and a bit more walls to go!! :cool:

julsifer

1 and a bit more walls to go now, fireplace needs moving off of the wall though so far there is a hole above a socket that needs fixing and plaster coming off near window but other than that walls are fine

dizziblonde

Dreading tackling the woodchip in our spare room when it gets done into the baby's room... keep putting it off and closing the door!

daggy

When we moved into our current house every room except the bathroom and kitchen had woodchip plus several layers of paint...

It was annoying, but not that difficult. Usually one pass with a steamer to remove the woodchip and another to remove the backing paper/adhesive.

These scrapers from wickes make the job so much easier

Link 1
Link 2

I think we bought the £4.89 ones, but either would work.