lathe and plaster

[Maddie-Rose]

Hello everybody, haven't been here for a long time :|

Anyway, I wonder if anyone could give us some advice. We have recently as of last week purchased a Victorian town house in Kent. All of the walls are covered in layers of wallpaper and then heavy dark paint. The condition of the papers are bad, and have been badly put up, and we are wanting to remove the papers over the house, to then repaint onto the plaster itself. However, the walls are lath and plaster, and we are obviously concerned about what is the best course of action here? For instance, how do we repair any plaster that is not its best after removal of any paper?

Does anybody here have any experience of removing layers of old badly put up wallpapers?

Many thanks

 

[biffvernon]

Hello everybody, haven't been here for a long time :|

Ah well, you missed all the jokes about confusing lathes with laths.

 

[Maddie-Rose]

Oh cheers! I thought this was a serious helpful site, I guess I was wrong.....


I 'll go somewhere less judgemental regarding spelling :roll:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I know trendy teachers tell us that spelling doesn't matter - it's the comprehension that counts.

Well, I think the lathe/lath example is one where confusing the spelling could have potentially serious consequences. I wonder if anyone has an appropriate photoshopped picture to post here... maybe one with some lathes on a ceiling?? :wink:

Maddie-Rose - calm down dear. Someone will be along shortly. 8)

For my tuppence worth, you'll probably find there is a reason that the plaster was papered over originally; ie the surface isn't particularly great for painting. It can of course be repaired with a bit of lime plaster if needed. Small patches could even be done with poly$iller :shock: - but you'll have different textures to contend with then.

 

[robgil]

Dont worry to much about spelling , mine is attrocious at the best of times.

I would remove the paper with a steamer very very carefully, its sometimes a good idea to rub it lightly with a coarse sand paper to enable the steam to penetrate the paper properly.
Try paint strippers of Sudbury for chemical assistance to help remove old paint.

 

[MatthewC]

I don't want to discourage you but be prepared to find that the plaster is not as good as you think when you remove the paper! I had some places where the paper was actually holding the plaster to the wall and ended up doing a LOT more plastering than expected. One lath wall (which had not been noticeably damp) started out as a small repair where it had come loose but in the end I had all the plaster off and started from scratch (Ha! That's a good pun). I also had a lot of lath repairs to do, mostly in three ceilings which had been damp for years, and used over 1000 feet.

Is the paint on top of the paper, or do you have paint underneath, or both(!)?

Matthew
http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/

 

[Maddie-Rose]

Thanks for your advice, much appreciated..

Robgil, we have just invested in a steamer. Apparently, it says that it can remove artex, so I am assuming that it can penetrate through painted papers, although not sure how.

Matthew. this is what is worrying us, and I totally hear you regarding the possible condition underneath. We have removed some paper up the staircase at the edges, and the plaster is literally crumbling. However, going up the wall removing some of the paper the wall looks fairly sound and clean underneath. We are hoping that the glue has dried out over the years and the paper will remove with some ease (hopefully), although I am totally aware we may find ourselves in the horrible position you found yourself in

BTW the paint is on the surface of the paper from what we can see so far. Ofcourse, we could always leave the papers up and paint over. However the joins are curling up, the paper has creases in the surface, all in all it looks a damm mess

Goodness, we can't I just like new houses :roll:

 

[MatthewC]

You just have to bite the bullet, I'm afraid. My rationale was that "I intend to stay her for ages, and don't want to do it again, so let's do it right this time". I left as much as I could of the old plaster, and on many walls had a mix of old and new. Here's a photo of a corner of one bedroom where rain had been coming in (and neither of the walls are external!): If you do this, Mike Wye sells some breathable stuff called DG27 which you paint over the old plaster, then do your skim over the old and new together.

When removing old plaster, you must not lever it off if you want to keep any good stuff (you'll just carry on for the whole wall); where it sounds (or feels) solid cut through it on the slant with a long Stanley blade, then attack the loose stuff away from the cut. However, on laths this is trickier than on stone or brick and you might well find the edge becomes loose anyway as the laths move. I got away with it on a couple of ceilings but I think all the rest of the lath work was re-plastered totally afresh.

There are some more photos of laths etc on my blog last December/January

Matthew
http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/

 

[Maddie-Rose]

Thanks so much Matthew for your advice.

I have just been browsing your blog with a cup of coffee. It's fasinating to read, the story of the neighbours coming round to view your house at the beginning of works, was a fab idea, and great to get peoples views. I see you move in soon, you must be so excited. The story of the perfume also was lovely, how fasinating

 

[biffvernon]

I thought this was a serious helpful site

No, this is a humorous helpful site.

(Wherever did the great Mrs. P. Edant get to?)

 

[Penners]

Wherever did the great Mrs. P. Edant get to?

She's out walking the dog at the moment.

Maddie-Rose, as others have said, you may perhaps have wondered why the wallpaper was hung everywhere in the first place. I think there's a strong chance that, whn you come to strip it off, you may find your plaster in a poor state. If so, and you find yourself removing some areas of it for patching in with new lime plaster, be sure to check the condition of the laths before you re-plaster. New plaster over dodgy laths is, I'm afraid, a recipe for having to do more work later.

And do take this forum's humour in good part. It's just fun - sometimes at your expense, sometimes at that of others.

 

[Penners]

spelling , mine is attrocious at the best of times.

Now you see, Rob, we don't know whether that's you poking fun at yourself, or a genuine spelling mistake.

But I have my own views.... :wink:

 

[AMc]

I'm glad you bought a steamer - I wasted time trying to scrape with water when a steamer was much quicker and better.
I found it essential to score the paper with a stanley knife to get the steam under the paper - I did that in two ways to create diamonds about 6" across.
I also saw a skied roller

I used one of these in addition to a standard scraper which helped on really tough bits.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-duty-scraper/16530

I've also heard that a spiked roller can help to get the steam under the paper - if you have a lot to do it might be worth a look. I saw them in B&Q but can't find them on their site - this is the kind of thing...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SILVERLINE-150MM-X-480MM-WALLPAPER-PERFORATOR-245130-/310314941818?_trksid=p4340.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D15%26pmod%3D390111089810%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D939215610922206297

Try and temper the enthusiasm for letting the steam do all the work. In a couple of places I got lazy and left the plate on the wall for longer to make the paper 'fall off the wall' rather than softening the glue and lifting it with the scraper. As a result I popped the plaster underneath and had to patch it.
As I only had some small areas to do I used alabastine filler which I sanded smooth then put up lining paper.

You'll have to make a call about the state of the plaster once you've got a wall or two stripped. If it looks really bad you may decide to redo the room(s) or patch and hang lining paper or live with the imperfect finish which I've done in a couple of rooms.

 

[Penners]

I'm glad you bought a steamer

:shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I'm glad you bought a steamer

[image]

:shock: :shock: :shock:

I think I'd rather have lathes on my ceiling than try and strip wallpaper with one of those. 8)

Maddie-Rose - apologies if my humour was a little much; didn't mean to offend a new(ish) poster.

 

[Penners]

Oh, go on, FW - of course you did! You offend me all the time. I'm just such a shy flower that I take it passively, while fighting back my tears.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Sorry - did someone say something? All I can hear is an annoying blubbing sound.