A house with lime plaster and decorating

Habbakuk

I've bought a house which has lime plaster on all of it's walls. This was plastered onto red brick. I've decided to strip all of the plaster downstairs which is only two rooms, there's a kitchen in an extension which is newer and won't need doing. There's been some issue with dampness donwnstairs where the plaster has blown so I've decide to do it all then plaster board it and plaster that. Upstairs seems as dry as a bone and I'm hoping I don't need to strip the walls of the plaster. I'm hoping to just take off the old wall-paper which has more than a couple of layers. A family member told me tonight though that I wouldn't get a smooth finnish after scraping wallpaper from a lime plastered wall......I mean smooth enough to be able to paint it. He is of the opinion that I should just stick the plaster board on top of it and save labour and a lot of mess. A builder did tell me that if you do this though, I would lose a couple of inches plus in rooms size. Ideally, I'm hoping to be able to strip the lime plaster of the wallpapper myself and paint myself thus saving on expenditure. Any of you people here knowledegeable about lime plaster etc and can give me some advice? Thank you. (I hope the above is clear, if not I can clarify if need).

stebiz

Can you not take the wallpaper off and just skim the walls. You won't lose any inches then and it will be a smooth finish. Either that or lining paper.

nobulljusttruth

Downstairs i would certainlty take the old stuff off. You might get away with using bonding plaster to stick the boards on, but if its damp, then a 2x1 frame (use roofing slats as they are treated) and foil back boards would be a good investment.
Upstairs I would consider bonding plaster and boards. There are some you can paint straight on to they have a flap on each joint.
Don't forget the skirting boards .....

Habbakuk

Thanks for your replies. Neither of you mention that getting the wallpapper off the plaster might be an option. I was hoping that I could do this saving a lot of cost and work too. :-(

stebiz

Habbakuk wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. Neither of you mention that getting the wallpapper off the plaster might be an option. I was hoping that I could do this saving a lot of cost and work too. :-(

I said to take the wallpaper off and skim it. An old wall and a soft lime wall for that will need some work after, unless you plan to use heavy wallpaper.

Habbakuk

I was told that you can't really skim a soft lime wall very well. Just what I've been told.

Doozergirl

From experience, I'd be very surprised if the plaster didn't fall off the wall with the wallpaper.

Let's see what happens when you try.

stebiz

Habbakuk wrote: »

I was told that you can't really skim a soft lime wall very well. Just what I've been told.

Not been my experience. Providing it isn't loose then you can skim fine.

Habbakuk

stebiz wrote: »

Not been my experience. Providing it isn't loose then you can skim fine.

Is it commonly done? Do you work in bhte building industry?

phoebe1989seb

Have you discovered the cause of the internal damp? Is there leaking pipework/guttering/roof issues? Has the exterior been covered with a non-breathable finish - cement render or modern non-breathable paint? Lime plaster is intended to allow a building to breath so there must be a reason for the dampness inside.....although perhaps the wallpaper is contributing?

Habbakuk

There is cracking in the exterior render on the ground level. This will be redone. There only seems to be a problem in a few isolated places downstairs. I'm hoping to be able to get away with not having to strip all of the upstairs of it's plaster. I seem to read about different opinons about skimming lime plaster. Most though seem to say that you shouldn't apply the normal skim but rather some kind of lime skim. But I don't think the average plasterer will be familiar with it.