repapering previously papered walls

donmaico

Hello I am about to have my dormer window bathroom redone but the non tiled parts of the studwork walls have been papered with anaglypta than painted with emulsion . I was wondering how best to remove that and replace with fresh anaglypta but am concerned about any possible damage to the plasterboard and whether its repairable.Would a better alternative be to just repaper over it ?

bobthedambuilder

The roughness of the anaglypta would probably show through the new paper if you simply overpapered.

If you take off the anaglypta carefully, you shouldn't cause any damage to the plaster. If you have a steamer, use that. If you haven't, no problem. Just gently score or roughen the surface of the anaglypta (to break through the paint layer), rub over with a wetted sponge, leave a couple of minutes for the water to soak in, and work the paper off with a flat scraper. Don't be overenthusiastic with the scraper - if the paper doesn't come off easily, rewet. When the paper is off, wash down the walls to take off any residual paste, fill defects as necessary with Polyfilla (other brands are available) and off you go.

donmaico

bobthedambuilder wrote: »

The roughness of the anaglypta would probably show through the new paper if you simply overpapered.

If you take off the anaglypta carefully, you shouldn't cause any damage to the plaster. If you have a steamer, use that. If you haven't, no problem. Just gently score or roughen the surface of the anaglypta (to break through the paint layer), rub over with a wetted sponge, leave a couple of minutes for the water to soak in, and work the paper off with a flat scraper. Don't be overenthusiastic with the scraper - if the paper doesn't come off easily, rewet. When the paper is off, wash down the walls to take off any residual paste, fill defects as necessary with Polyfilla (other brands are available) and off you go.

thanks! I have done that with solid walls but was concerned about damaging the plaster with the use of water

bobthedambuilder

donmaico wrote: »

thanks! I have done that with solid walls but was concerned about damaging the plaster with the use of water

I wouldn't think so unless you absolutely deluge the surface. The skim (top) coat of plaster is usually the same whether it's a solid wall or plasterboard.