Damage when stripping wallpaper

forgottendreams77

FreeBear said:

More water, and let it soak in - I use a squirty bottle that originally contained disinfectant surface cleaner. You may find the top layer of the wallpaper will peal off dry, in whcih case, give the base layer a good soak. Leave it for five minutes or so, and it will change colour noticeably. At which point, it should almost slide off the wall with minimal effort.

Thanks, taking off the outer plasticky layer and then soaking the paper beneath seems to work well. Though getting the outer layer off is pretty slow going.

In the living room it's just bare plasterboard under the wallpaper (no plaster or paint) - is soaking the wallpaper going to cause a problem for the plasterboard?

forgottendreams77

Slinky said:

Our walls were like that in our previous home. Too much of it to fill and sand. We had a decorator in to hang a heavyweight lining paper which we then emulsioned over the top.

I'd like some wallpaper in our current home, but having had that happen before, I'm reluctant to paper again knowing what a mess it makes when taking it off. We've had most walls in the house reskimmed, so paint only from now on.

Would you recommend having the walls skimmed?

FFHillbilly

forgottendreams77 said:

In the living room it's just bare plasterboard under the wallpaper (no plaster or paint) - is soaking the wallpaper going to cause a problem for the plasterboard?

you won't be able to remove the wallpaper from the board without damaging it, it will pull the paper off the plasterboard and you will be left with a crumbly mess with no strength. only options are removing the ceiling and plaster boarding again, or just over boarding the ceiling, and then having it skimmed

forgottendreams77

FFHillbilly said:

you won't be able to remove the wallpaper from the board without damaging it, it will pull the paper off the plasterboard and you will be left with a crumbly mess with no strength. only options are removing the ceiling and plaster boarding again, or just over boarding the ceiling, and then having it skimmed

Sorry, do you mean damaged plasterboard walls could be skimmed instead of replaced? Or did you just mean the ceiling?

FFHillbilly

forgottendreams77 said:

FFHillbilly said:

you won't be able to remove the wallpaper from the board without damaging it, it will pull the paper off the plasterboard and you will be left with a crumbly mess with no strength. only options are removing the ceiling and plaster boarding again, or just over boarding the ceiling, and then having it skimmed

Sorry, do you mean damaged plasterboard walls could be skimmed instead of replaced? Or did you just mean the ceiling?

"The living room thats bare plasterboard under the wallpaper." I assumed it was a ceiling you were talking about but no I read the post again you don't actually say. It's quite common in 90's-00's builds round here on ceilings to  just paper the plasterboard to save on plastering costs, and it's impossible to remove the paper from the board without actually removing part of the plasterboard and damaging it

forgottendreams77

FFHillbilly said:

forgottendreams77 said:

FFHillbilly said:

you won't be able to remove the wallpaper from the board without damaging it, it will pull the paper off the plasterboard and you will be left with a crumbly mess with no strength. only options are removing the ceiling and plaster boarding again, or just over boarding the ceiling, and then having it skimmed

Sorry, do you mean damaged plasterboard walls could be skimmed instead of replaced? Or did you just mean the ceiling?

"The living room thats bare plasterboard under the wallpaper." I assumed it was a ceiling you were talking about but no I read the post again you don't actually say. It's quite common in 90's-00's builds round here on ceilings to  just paper the plasterboard to save on plastering costs, and it's impossible to remove the paper from the board without actually removing part of the plasterboard and damaging it

Ah sorry the paper is just on the walls. The ceilings are artex/ something similar, which I'll be getting someone in to smooth out.

forgottendreams77

ThisIsWeird said:

It might be that the plaster skim in that area was poorer quality - such as it has begun to set as it was applied, so it's both weaker and less well adhered. If most of the paper has come off ok, then it sounds as tho' you're doing things fine.

As said above, see if the paper has a peelable top decorative layer that can be pulled off. Lift an edge, and pull it slowly back on itself, pulling it 'flat' over the rest of the paper, and not 'away' from the wall. Make sense?

If that works, then the remaining layer should be easy to soften with water and remove. Give it time to soak in. 

Anyhoo, what to do about the resulting finish? Depends on how extensive it is. If they are isolated gaps with good surfaces either side, then filler can be spread on using a wide trowel or blade, and the surface will be levelled accordingly. Once dry, a light sanding using a large sanding block should sort it.

Thanks. Do you think a reskim would be worthwhile? I'll be getting a plasterer in anyway to smooth out the artex ceilings.