Years of woodchip!!

[yamin]

OK, so thank you to everyone on this board who commented and gave advice on my flagstone floor. I wish I could be more useful in my replies to other people, but as you'll have gathered I am new to all this and barely know my gypsum from my wattle and daub!
Now, I was wondering if I could pester for more advice. We have neither money nor ANY expertise. Our lovely cottage feels claustrophobic in many places, due to the woodchip and 'sheen' type emulsion all over the walls. Its not even that I hate the woodchip (its not great but I could live with it) except that I sense it has the weight of 4-5 layers of paint on it and it just feels cloying and dirty, do you know what I mean? My worry though with certain areas is that the plaster beneath is not good (don't seem to have damp problem now but maybe in past, or just old plaster, some places have 'give' under the paper) I do not know whether to chance stripping it or not. I am tempted to have a go and then even try to re 'skim' if necessary on the basis that the walls don't have to be 21st century perfect finish, better if not actually, but is achieving an less perfect finish a bit like Les Dawson playing the piano badly - i.e. takes an immense amount of skill? We can't afford a plasterer at the moment so only other option is to leave well alone, but since we had a fireplace re done in the sitting room we have a bare patch of new plaster there.

Thanks!

Yamin

 

[Moo]

(don't seem to have damp problem now

That's what we thought, until some of our emulsion paint (misguidedly applied twelve years ago when we knew no better) started to crack and I couldn't resist picking at it. Underneath, the wall was wringing wet. In places the paint came off in little strips, a bit like peeling wallpaper.

 

[yamin]

Good grief, hope that doesn't happen, but it is a worry. This is years of paint on top of woodchip, think theres some real weight to it! Suspect crumbly plaster rather than outright damp, but eithe way, bit scary to tackle! Hope you sorted yours OK!

 

[shelli]

My worry though with certain areas is that the plaster beneath is not good (don't seem to have damp problem now but maybe in past, or just old plaster, some places have 'give' under the paper) I do not know whether to chance stripping it or not. I am tempted to have a go and then even try to re 'skim' if necessary on the basis that the walls don't have to be 21st century perfect finish, better if not actually,

where some places had "give" under the paper in our last house was where the old lath and plaster had gone crumbly

when we took off paper huge sections of crumbly stuff came away too and only option was replastering

You may think that this is a job that can wait or prefer to tackle it at the outset - the problem we had was that the walls got knocked - particularly in areas like the stairwell and upper landing - by bouncy children who tended to use walls as buffers which made the crumbly plaster underneath even more crumbly - you are then just waiting for the day the paper gets punctured - and hey presto - big pile of rubble and hole in wall!

 

[Carol]

Don't worry about your initial lack of expertise, many if not most of us PPers didn't begin by knowing much about the intricacies of an old house until faced with a dilemma which frequently looked very expensive. First, find out as much as you can about the fabric of your house, spend time reading and possibly visiting similar places. We found several solutions to difficulties looking at much grander National Trust and English Heritage houses and asking questions. I even wrote to the Weald and Downland Museum with a beam question. Most old house owners are happy to share ideas and suggestions.

With your woodchip I would choose one room and carefully strip some off to see what is beneath, (one room because if it a disaster below, then you can at least shut the door and escape, until you have some cash to get in the builders) then if all is lovely lime, you can lime wash or distemper. If it is as ours, a gypsum skim, you can curse and kick the wall. We have resigned ourselves to leaving the gypsum but doing necessary repairs in lime.

I laughed at Shelli's 'Hey Presto' That wasn't what I said when I clunked the vacuum cleaner on our stairs and took off nearly a metre square of gypsum skin and old lime plaster. However after I'd psyched myself up (and asked questions on here) I have managed a fair repair using lime render and plaster. Old houses are great and very tolerant of slow repairs unless you have a structural problem!

 

[Nemesis]

And join SPAB, go on a homeowner's course!