Best way/option to paint walls after removing wallpaper? Old paint and plaster left

Melodyx

Money lover, you don't have to buy a wallpaper stripper, just hire a good one from your local hire shop (or two if more than one of you working on it!) The ones that make holes in the paper work best as with a lot of paper it will take a lot of steam to melt the glue. Nasty job, and one well worth sharing. Good luck!

In any case it will probably take forever to do by hand without any steam! If you steam it enough the paper should just fall off nicely with no scraping by hand.

Poppycat

I have used a couple of wallpaper strippers over the years I found them very good at removing paper, my last one bought in B&Q for about £20 is brilliant

George_Bray

chi2000 wrote: »

I've used easi-fill in your stage 3 so do you think there is still a need to use a mist coat of contract matt (non vinyl) before the top coat?

I don't know anything about easi-fill but I assume it's some kind of plaster. I would certainly use a mist coat on that. Even when I diluted the emulsion with 20% water, it still seemed quite thick. The 10% or 20% water is either drawn into the plaster and then evaporates, or evaporates first. Either way, I don't see how the extra water can do any harm, and the chances are that it does some good.

Aldi have stocks of a wallpaper remover (large steamer device) for £10 I think, or was it £20? I went in one of the stores yesterday and saw them.

Maz

Cor, they look just like my walls not so very long ago! I thought about going down the lining paper route but the house is over 100 years old and the walls are very bumpy. Re-plastering was out too due to cost. I bought some wallpaper from Homebase called Wall Doctor (I think), covers all the nasty bits brilliantly, then just paint over it. It does have a texture tho, depends if you want a smooth finish or not.

misgrace

George_Bray wrote: »

I've just done almost exactly the same job. Your second photo (stairs) looks almost identical to the condition of my walls after I'd removed the old wallpaper.

My friends all suggested using ling paper as an easy route towards repainting the walls with emulsion. I decided NOT to use lining paper for two reasons:
1. The joint lines might be subtle but I'm looking for a better quality finish than that.
2. The next time I need to redecorate, I fear the lining paper might bubble up and/or cause other problems.

No, I decided to go for a new, solid base as a better foundation for the emulsion. Here's what I did and why:

1. I cleaned the walls (like yours) with sugar soap solution to get rid of wallpaper paste residues.
2. I applied dilute PVA (5 water to 1 PVA), all over. This really seemed to stabilise the slightly 'flakey' surface.
3. I filled all the pits in the surface with gypsum plaster (larger holes) or Polyfilla (smaller blemishes). When dry, I rubbed all this down until the surface was as flat as I needed. There were a few more iterations of filling and rubbing down, with the surface becoming more perfect each time.
4. Apply dilute matt emulsion (not vinyl or silk) at about 10 paint to 1 water.
5. Apply 2 coats of neat emulsion (matt, silk or whatever you want).

Regards
George

:T thats exactly how I would have done it, but I will just add a couple more tips.

I agree with the PVA soloution to the flakey walls, after you have sanded them of course, this stop any more flakiness, but if you are down to the bare plaster, try not to get the pva on the bare plaster if you can.

When you do your filling, and if there is loads of it, again just dab some diluted PVA on the big filled areas, this will stop the filler lifting/crumbling when you come to actually paint, it will provide a hard shell protection.

Dab these filled bits, all the filled bits at least a couple times with diluted paint prior to rolling, then do what OP says, use a thinned first coat of emulsion, approx 25% of water will do, then you can apply your proper coats.

Just on the LP idea, if you paste, soak, and hang it right, you wont see any of the butt joins, and it wont lift if you come to re-paint in the future.:D

George_Bray

misgrace wrote: »

:T thats exactly how I would have done it, but I will just add a couple more tips.

>if you are down to the bare plaster, try not
>to get the pva on the bare plaster if you can.

I hope I didn't do wrong! I made a point of covering bare plaster and the PVA turned it from being semi-fraigile to more like solid stone. What's the potential downside? All this gets covered with new plaster before any paint hits it, so there's minimal chance of emulision going on to PVA.

>just dab some diluted PVA on the big filled areas,
>this will stop the filler lifting/crumbling when you
>come to actually paint, it will provide a hard shell
>protection.

I used neat PVA under the 'filler' plaster in some cases, and waited until the PVA went tacky before I added the filler plaster. Is that what you mean? I wouldn't do anything which results in emulsion coming into contact with PVA coated surfaces because I fear the emulsion may not adhere as well.

misgrace

George_Bray wrote: »

>if you are down to the bare plaster, try not
>to get the pva on the bare plaster if you can.

I hope I didn't do wrong! I made a point of covering bare plaster and the PVA turned it from being semi-fraigile to more like solid stone. What's the potential downside? All this gets covered with new plaster before any paint hits it, so there's minimal chance of emulision going on to PVA.

>just dab some diluted PVA on the big filled areas,
>this will stop the filler lifting/crumbling when you
>come to actually paint, it will provide a hard shell
>protection.

I used neat PVA under the 'filler' plaster in some cases, and waited until the PVA went tacky before I added the filler plaster. Is that what you mean? I wouldn't do anything which results in emulsion coming into contact with PVA coated surfaces because I fear the emulsion may not adhere as well.

Hi george, Maybe I read your post wrong, but you say your going to re-plaster the whole lot even though you have PVEd it all?

if so, thats okay, but if you PVAed new plaster, then going to paint it, thats when you will get problems.

Adding a spot of PVA in holes, big cracks etc is okay prior to filling or plastering, but what I meant was, after you do this or any filling, am not meaning plastering, I mean your ordrnary powder filler.

So, if you have filled big holes for example, or deep cracks with your ordinary filler, when dry, sand down, and apply a little diluted PVA, this will stop your filler cracking through the paint,and coming off on your roller.

Its especially very good if you ever decide to paper.
As soon as the paste from paper comes into contact with the filler, it will cause it to crack or crumble underneath the paper, it can happen the next day, or even a few weeks down the line.
By applying the diluted PVA will protect it from any reaction from the paste.

Hope this helps.:D

George_Bray

misgrace

>you say your going to re-plaster the whole lot
>even though you have PVEd it all?

Yes, I covered the whole lot with finishing plaster and/or Polyfilla, but only a wafer thin layer.

>if you PVAed new plaster, then going to paint it,
>thats when you will get problems.

No, in theory at least, none of my emulsion had direct contact with any dried PVA. There was a thin layer of plaster or polyfilla in between the PVAed surface and the emulsion.

>So, if you have filled big holes for example,
>or deep cracks with your ordinary filler,
>when dry, sand down, and apply a little
>diluted PVA, this will stop your filler
>cracking through the paint,and coming
>off on your roller.

This makes sense but I avoided doing it this way because I thought there was a sort of 'golden rule' not to paint a PVAed surface with water-based emulsion, because it might not adhere properly. Please reconfirm your view, in case I'm wrong or misunderstand.

>very good if you ever decide to paper.

I think I'll avoid ever using wallpaper again! If you change your mind after a few years' it's so difficult to return the surface to a smooth enough finish suitable for painting with emulsion.

misgrace

Hi George,A little diluted PVA on any big filled (polyfiller) areas wont cause any harm,as all your doing is actually dabbing onto the filler.
Its on new plaster that the PVA can cause the most problems.

If your unsure, then you just dab some thinned oilbased UC onto the filler, this will still give that hardshell protection to stop the filler from crumbling.

I'm not saying it will always crumble, but I find this makes life easier in my jobs when I have to fill and repair big areas prior to painting.

If your still very unsure lol, then you can just dab this filled areas with diluted emulsion a couple of time prior to applying your proper coats, but this wont actually give the filler the protection as much as the oilbased UC or diluted PVA, but you can still dab on the diluted paint even over the diluted PVA.

I have done this for years, but I would never actually PVA new or bare plastered walls, but a little on previous painted surfaces that have filler on it, wont do it any harm.:D

George_Bray

I just assessed another bit of wall which I did paint with dilute PVA before applying dilute emulsion. So it was various patches of gypsum finishing plaster, Polyfilla and old emulsion from decades ago. Dilute PVA was applied. The surface seemed a lot more 'stable' after the PVA. When dry, this was lightly sanded. I guess this may have provided a 'key' for the emulsion by roughing up the surface. Anyway, the emulsion has 'stuck' very well, and I'm now wondering if I should go against what many people say, and PVA everything before painting with emulsion.