Do i need to skim or not?

JMW77

Just removed my sons wallpaper from his bedroom ,i want to just paint the room but the walls in my opinion are not good enough to paint on .
I have patches of plaster and patches of old paint ,overall they are not too bad but are not going to give me a perfect finish.

Am i ridiculous wanting it to be skimmed ?

Or is there something i can paint on to cover up the marks that will show from where the paint meets the plaster.

Any advise appreciated i just want a near perfect finish.

Thanks

UncleZen

You can use something like polycell smooth over. Its like a fine filler that you apply using a tool with a large flat straight edge. It fills in blemishes and smooths over raised areas. You'll need to rub it down when dry and it gets very dusty during that process. I treated all 4 walls to this in a bedroom after removing wallpaper, that left, just as you describe, dinks of plaster missing and raised areas of old paint that seemed to be glued to the walls. It came up a treat and well worth the £35 or so that it cost for a tub.

JMW77

I am now removing paper off last wall and a lot more paint is coming off with the paper ,so filling this way may take forever , i have a plasterer who is a friend of a friend coming to give me a price.

The original plaster is fine it is the patches of paint that will show through new paint unless i have it really smooth i am worried about.

loracan1

How much of it is there? You can sand out the worst if it's small raised areas of paint, not necessarily the lot, just the edges. Otherwise is putting up lining paper and painting that an option?

JMW77

Thanks yes paper maybe an option ,but seem to have a damp patch on the outside wall for last two years so ideally just paint.

I think i will weigh up the cost .

stuckupaladder

Get yourself a bag of Easifill. Mix to a cream then skim over the bad ares with a plastic caulking float. scrape it on with the float pressed flat against the wall, you only want it to fill the low areas. Leave to dry then lightly sand using 120 grit on a flat sanding pad. Dont wash down the wall as it will start removing the filler, instead Hoover wall down with brush attachment then should be ready to paint, put on a thinned sealer coat of the finish emulsion first, then two full coats.

Leif

I agree with stuckupaladder, and Easi-fill is cheap. I used it for patching walls on the recommendation of a builder, and it is good stuff. Make sure it is fully dry before painting i.e. leave overnight.

macman

Why not cure the damp before you redecorate?

becs

If you can afford to get it skimmed it's the best way. We ended up doing most of the house when we decorated with the exception of the spare room that we decorated and patched up. We're now going to strip it back to basics and have it skimmed!

Leif

Just to add that I patched most walls in my house, as they had holes, some to 6", cracks, one 2 feet long, and 4" wide at the top, and ridges where gypsum based plaster had been ripped off and replaced with non gypsum based plaster. You can't tell those walls from the ones that were skimmed (those had holes a meter across).

Getting a plasterer in is much quicker for sure, but you do lose some of the skirting, architrave and coving thickness.

JMW77

Thanks everyone.

Does anyone know how i can cure the damp,could it just be furniture etc too close to wall?

We have only had damp for last couple of years since we bought a log burner and stopped having heating on as much.