victorian lime plaster/wallpaper

paulroberts

The Victorians used lime plaster. When replacing plaster i been advised to use lime base plaster due to the breathability. But did the walls ever breath in Victorian houses.
i live in a Victorian house at the moment and the wallpaper is so hard to remove steam cant penetrate the paper.
What did the use to hang this paper? will this paper allow walls to breath?

always_sunny

didn't the Victorian period ended early 1900?
Are you saying you live in a house with the original wallpaper?

paulroberts

Yes the house still has the original wallpaper in the hallway only its a dark brown colour. The house was built in 1890

phil24_7

Wallpaper is breathable, the paints they used at the time were breathable, any subsequent layers of paint will likely not be and many modern wallpapers are not due to the coatings.

FreeBear

phil24_7 wrote: »

Wallpaper is breathable, the paints they used at the time were breathable, any subsequent layers of paint will likely not be and many modern wallpapers are not due to the coatings.

Some of the paints the Victorians used were breathable (lime washes, distemper, casein paints), but there were also oil based paints that are not.

Steaming wallpaper off lime plaster is probably not a good idea - I've tried, and ended up just dampening it down and using a good quality flat scraper which was just as quick. if the OP's paper is the original 1890s, the adhesive is quite likely to be starch based - A wet sponge, squirt bottle, scraper, and elbow grease will be the most effective ingredients in removing it.

alumende27

Not knowing the OPs circumstances but I think it's quite unlikely it's the original wallpaper from when the house was built. Amazing if it is though! He may also find multiple layers of wallpaper. When I was doing up an old house I found 4 layers of wallpaper behind where the fuse box was!!

If you're trying to remove wallpaper that steam cannot penetrate you might want to try one of those scoring devices (screw fix have one called a 'paper tiger scoring tool'. But I recommend a scraping tool (again, via that website search for 'no nonsense long-handled scraper' for an example), and have found it much faster and less messy than using a steamer.

phil24_7

FreeBear wrote: »

Some of the paints the Victorians used were breathable (lime washes, distemper, casein paints), but there were also oil based paints that are not.

Steaming wallpaper off lime plaster is probably not a good idea - I've tried, and ended up just dampening it down and using a good quality flat scraper which was just as quick. if the OP's paper is the original 1890s, the adhesive is quite likely to be starch based - A wet sponge, squirt bottle, scraper, and elbow grease will be the most effective ingredients in removing it.

True, but I'm pretty sure these weren't used on the walls...were they?

FreeBear

phil24_7 wrote: »

True, but I'm pretty sure these [oil paints] weren't used on the walls...were they?

Well.... I came across a reference to a work published in 1819 that talks about painting fresh lime plaster with a distemper or watercolour and waiting two years before using an oil. Oil paints were certainly being used by the wealthy in the 17th century on walls - These were typically a mix of linseed oil, pigments, ground chalk, and turpentine.

paulroberts

The wall paper will not come offm i have tried everything just going to paper over it.

konark

When I took the wallpaper off my hall the lime plaster came off with it, so maybe it's best to leave it on.

phil24_7

FreeBear wrote: »

Well.... I came across a reference to a work published in 1819 that talks about painting fresh lime plaster with a distemper or watercolour and waiting two years before using an oil. Oil paints were certainly being used by the wealthy in the 17th century on walls - These were typically a mix of linseed oil, pigments, ground chalk, and turpentine.

Well I never. Extremely unlikely to have been originally used in this case but still good to know. Cheers.