Remove lining paper off walls and ceilings and re-plaster?

Cammy0102

Hi everyone,

We recently bought an Edwardian property (built around 1910). There's lining paper on all the walls and ceilings in 3/4 of the house (apart from the extension and loft conversion). It's most likely lath and plaster underneath the lining paper.

On some of the walls and ceilings, lining paper has come off, can see the joints/lines, has bumps and has some holes (house used to be rented out to a family with kids). Both my partner and I have an eye for detail and we would like the walls and ceilings to be smooth before they are re-painted so we are thinking of removing lininng paper and re-plastering. We want to retain period features like covings and ceiling roses.

We've had quotes from a few plasterers and couple of them said it's risky removing wallpaper off old lath and plaster (especially the ceilings) and replastering as the old plaster under the paper could be already cracked, could get damaged, could crack in the future and will show through the new plaster, parts of the ceiling could collapse, etc. Couple of the plasters said it's fine and they can put fiberglass mesh if there are cracks.

One guy said it's best to overboard (brining down the ceilings is out of the question) where possible. We could potentially do that in some of the rooms but it's not an option in the living room as we want to keep covings and ceiling roses.

We are not looking to the do any of the work ourselves as it's too much work for us (both of us are very busy at the moment) though we are not afraid to get our hands dirty, we don't think we have the necessary skills.

We have allocated a budget for removing wallpaper, replastering and then decorating/painting. We would like a good finish and something that would last a long time. We are concerned that removing wallpaper and replastering old lath and plaster ceiling might be opening a can of worms.

What are your suggestions/advice? Should we go ahead, get someone to remove wallpaper and re-plaster? I guess they'd need to be really careful when removing wallpaper from ceilings not to disrupt the lime plaster. Perhaps no steamer and only use water spray? Are we likely to encounter problems after removing wallpaper?

Thanks very much for reading.


PS: We bought a period conversion flat (think it was also Edwardian) about 6 years ago and did a complete refurbishment including removing wallpaper and replastering. And the end result was great and there were no cracks in the 6 years we lived there however I am not sure if the ceilings were lath and plaster or had plasterboards already perhaps from the conversion. Ceilings did have covings and ceiling roses.

Cammy0102

I took a couple of pictures from the ceiling (1st floor small bedroom) where the lining paper has come off. Is this lath plaster underneath?

Doozergirl

All you can do is try, but I would be prepared for it all to fall off.  You are fighting a losing battle.  I wouldn't pay anyone to remove the wallpaper as it's going to be a waste if you then need to knock all of the plaster off. 

It's over a century old, much if it just turns to sand and there's only a thin top layer and wallpaper holding it up.  

Go one room at a time if you don't have the budget for a full replaster.  

I'm big on attention to detail and for me that means getting rid.  It's never going to fix itself. 

Cammy0102

When you say getting rid of, are you talking about removing the lath and plaster altogether? That's apparently a very veyr messy job so I don't think we are prepare to do that, not for all areas anyway.

Have you actually removed wallpaper off lath plaster and re-plastered with success?

We could try with one small room but the issue is lath plaster on another ceiling could be in a different condition. 
We are pretty stressed about having to decide what to do

Cammy0102

We had quotes for removing and wallpaper and replastering and they are between £6.5K and £7.5K which is also more than we had expected and bigger than our budget but will stretch the budget if the end result is going to look good and gonig to last. 

Doozergirl

Cammy0102 said:

When you say getting rid of, are you talking about removing the lath and plaster altogether? That's apparently a very veyr messy job so I don't think we are prepare to do that, not for all areas anyway.

Have you actually removed wallpaper off lath plaster and re-plastered with success?

We could try with one small room but the issue is lath plaster on another ceiling could be in a different condition. 
We are pretty stressed about having to decide what to do

I've been building for 20 years.  The longer we go on, the less stays on.   

Lath is slightly better than direct onto a brick wall because the plaster oozes through and expands out the other side, gripping the lath but your external walls are far more likely to be brick than have a layer of lathe over them.  In that case, it's just blown and the wall will feel hollow in places.  

Overboarding ceilings is one thing, because you can get a key to the ceiling joists to screw in, but you won't have that with the walls.  We have never over-boarded a wall
and would never recommend it.  Serious false economy.  I suspect that drilling into it might just cause the plaster to fall off in sheets. It doesn't take much to dislodge it.  

stuart45

I've studded out a wall for friends on one wall with 2x2 and then boarded and tape and filled. The rest was lath and plaster. They stripped everything they wanted off, but chose to leave the plaster on the stone wall.

Cammy0102

Doozergirl said:

Cammy0102 said:

When you say getting rid of, are you talking about removing the lath and plaster altogether? That's apparently a very veyr messy job so I don't think we are prepare to do that, not for all areas anyway.

Have you actually removed wallpaper off lath plaster and re-plastered with success?

We could try with one small room but the issue is lath plaster on another ceiling could be in a different condition. 
We are pretty stressed about having to decide what to do

I've been building for 20 years.  The longer we go on, the less stays on.   

Lath is slightly better than direct onto a brick wall because the plaster oozes through and expands out the other side, gripping the lath but your external walls are far more likely to be brick than have a layer of lathe over them.  In that case, it's just blown and the wall will feel hollow in places.  

Overboarding ceilings is one thing, because you can get a key to the ceiling joists to screw in, but you won't have that with the walls.  We have never over-boarded a wall
and would never recommend it.  Serious false economy.  I suspect that drilling into it might just cause the plaster to fall off in sheets. It doesn't take much to dislodge it.  

We'd only consider overboarding for ceilings. But it's tricky as we want to keep covings and ceiling roses.

Doozergirl, you said you've got a lot of experience with this sort of work. Given our current situation, what's your advice? We are seriously not sure which way to go. 

Cammy0102

Considering most of the ceilings and walls are in good condition (even though they have lining paper), patch repairing seems to be the safest option. Ideally we would want to replaster everywhere but very worried about finding damaged lath plaster or damaging it in the process of removing wallpaper and then cracks appearing in the new plaster.

FreeBear

Cammy0102 said: When you say getting rid of, are you talking about removing the lath and plaster altogether? That's apparently a very veyr messy job so I don't think we are prepare to do that, not for all areas anyway.

Have you actually removed wallpaper off lath plaster and re-plastered with success?

Having removed three lath & plaster ceilings here, I can confirm that it is indeed a very, very, very messy job and produces a considerable amount of waste. The dust gets everywhere so you need to wear decent PPE and a high quality dust mask. As I don't have any period features to save (no coving or ceiling roses), whacking up plasterboard is a sensible option - Gives me opportunity to insulate, reroute wiring & plumbing, and insulate.

Currently working on the hall/stairwell/landing - For the most part, the lime plaster under the wall paper is in reasonable condition with very few cracks. A thin coat of a fine lime plaster has filled the dings and cracks. Adding a pigment to the plaster has also saved me the hassle of painting

I do have one section of wall that is slated for insulating, so I'm slapping on lime wash for now. Hopefully, when supply issues have settled down, I'll be getting the materials ordered next spring.

stuart45

It's difficult to give accurate advice without seeing the walls in person, but I would say that most people are pricing for worst case scenario and stripping the lot. 
If someone carefully strips the paper off and repairs the minimum amount of plaster, you might pay out a fair bit of cash and still have some areas likely to blow in the future.
Best way for old rooms is often to clear the room, open the windows, seal the doors and rip all the ceiling down and strip the walls in one go and then it's done.
My friends took part of this advice, apart from leaving the laths on first time. They still left the plaster on one wall, but 4 inch screws went through the battens and plaster into the stonework.