Plaster over paint?

[Carol]

Having stripped the walls of our Victorian workers cottage and patched and painted we have reluctantly decided it will need replastering. Will we need to remove the coat of emulsion before it is ready to be skimmed?
Would love to redo in lime but hesitate due to expense and lack of known tradesmen round here. Rest of house is pink gypsum covered we think, under the vinyl wall paper!

The number of small but annoying problems found in two weeks is almost sending me mad! THIS house was supposed to be the easy 'done' minor project.

 

[Feltwell]

You can plaster over paint if it's well stuck, but if you're skimming anyway then I'd give it a key by scoring the surface. Your plasterer will probably put PVA on before plastering, kiss any notion of breathability goodbye!

However - have you considered putting lining paper up then painting that? Non-woven lining paper is very very tough, much more so than traditional papers, I've used it and so have one or two others on here. You can get a very good I finish even on a fairly rough wall. Easy to put up as well as you paste the wall, not the paper, but I'd recommend pasting the wall twice with a 5 minute interval as otherwise the paste tends to dry before the paper is up.

If you Google Vario Non-Woven, I buy mine from Decorating Direct usually.

 

[livias]

If you do want go the lime route then I can give you a couple of names of good tradespeople