Is this plasterboard?

DcD

DcD

DcD

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Surrey, UK
Hi fellas,

Need some advice from builder/painter & decorators. I know a lot of you do your own renovations and even log cabins so I figured someone should be able to give me some advice.

I'm a total novice with painting and decorating, and really want to learn. I want to redecorate my bedroom - walls, carpet and light fittings. Simple in theory, but I'm stumbling on the wallpaper removal.

The current wallpaper is some sort of texture blown vinyl wallpaper (seen on photo below in spoiler). I'm a bit nervous about going ahead and ripping it all off because I don't know what's behind it. The stud walls in my house are thinner than a Japanese bath house, so I don't want a small decorating job turning into putting a wall back in because I'm a muppet.

My question is, how do I get this stuff off? My aim is to take all this textured **** off, and then just have smooth plastered walls and paint onto them directly, no wallpaper. In the photo, is that orangey texture underneath it plasterboard/plaster? Can I just scrape the wallpaper off and then paint onto that, or should I get a plasterer in to recoat it after?

Will scraping the wallpaper off completely wreck the wall? Do I need to steam it off?

Any help would be appreciated it!

wall.jpg
 
It looks like plaster to me - If the walls are "thin" then its probably plaster on the plasterboard - Which should enable you to scrape the wallpaper off.

It would be very unusual for somone to have wallpapered straight onto plaster board.

I'm not sure painting onto the plaster will work either.... You will need to put up some white wallpaper to paint into i think....
 
BDEE is correct. However, once your get the wallpaper off the plaster on the plasterboard may be so badly cracked or have holes that a reskim will be cheaper and easier than filling all the holes so be warned!

EDIT: as for getting it off you can score the surface and use a wallpaper steamer to get it off. Still takes ages, hate that kind of wallpaper!
 
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BDEE said:
It looks like plaster to me - If the walls are "thin" then its probably plaster on the plasterboard - Which should enable you to scrape the wallpaper off.

It would be very unusual for somone to have wallpapered straight onto plaster board.

I'm not sure painting onto the plaster will work either.... You will need to put up some white wallpaper to paint into i think....
Click to expand...

I thought it was fairly common practice to just put an emulsion onto plaster walls and then paint with a thicker colour?

Greebo said:
BDEE is correct. However, once your get the wallpaper off the plaster on the plasterboard may be so badly cracked or have holes that a reskim will be cheaper and easier than filling all the holes so be warned!
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I'm not even going to touch any plastering equipment. I'll get a professional to do that bit. I just want to get the grunt work done so I'm not paying someone £150+ a day to scrape wallpaper... Waste of money and something I should learn to do.
 
DcD said:
I thought it was fairly common practice to just put an emulsion onto plaster walls and then paint with a thicker colour?



I'm not even going to touch any plastering equipment. I'll get a professional to do that bit. I just want to get the grunt work done so I'm not paying someone £150 a day to scrape wallpaper... Waste of money and something I should learn to do.
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It is. You just paint a wash/spray/dust coat on (watered down emulsion) then a couple coats of whatever colour you want.

The dust coat has a higher water content than normal paint that primes the plaster. If you go straight in with normal emulsion then it MAY flake off or not even stick.

You DON'T have to use lining paper on newly skimmed walls.
 
DcD said:
I thought it was fairly common practice to just put an emulsion onto plaster walls and then paint with a thicker colour?



.
Click to expand...

In general, unless it's a gash/bodge job with plasterboard you always skim over as it covers the joints and gives you a smooth surface. Then you let it dry and paint with watered down cheap white emulsion before puting your proper paint colour on.

Of course, if the person doing the plasterboarding knew they were going to put the hideous wallpaper on then in theory you could just apply it straight to the plasterboard but that would be quite rare.
 
mattyg said:
It is. You just paint a wash/spray/dust coat on (watered down emulsion) then a couple coats of whatever colour you want.

The dust coat has a higher water content than normal paint that primes the plaster. If you go straight in with normal emulsion then it MAY flake off or not even stick.

You DON'T have to use lining paper on newly skimmed walls.
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Nice one mate, thanks.

Looks like I'm just going to scrape that wall off.

Una problemo however, I've just taken a corner off the opposite wall, and found it's a wood chip board behind that one! What's different with this wall? Same principle?
 
I'd use one of those little spiky roller things to make holes in the paper, then steam it and scrape it off, then depending on the quality of the walls (and if painting, not new paper) put up lining paper.
 
Last time i just used the edge of teh scraper to core the paper and then made sure to steam it well thru, in patches starting at the top.

By the time I had steamed the bottom it was already pretty myuch peeling away itself :)

Wasn't too comfortable steaming the wallas in a little box room tho xD
 
Photo of the other wall: (Ignore the cables!)

woodchip.jpg

This spot has been peeling away for quite a while now, I meant to pull off a small section and about a square foot came with it, should be easy to get off. This section is also underneath the window of the room, that's faces the front of the house - if that means anything.
 
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DcD said:
This section is also underneath the window of the room, that's faces the front of the house - if that means anything.
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Oh, not brick under the window I'm guessing - tiles or corrugated sheet? Looks like a cheap repair at some point, or maybe just a cheap build :)

I'm sure paper will stick to it just fine - maybe I'd give it a few coats of paint first to help.
 
Telescopi said:
Oh, not brick under the window I'm guessing - tiles or corrugated sheet? Looks like a cheap repair at some point, or maybe just a cheap build :)

I'm sure paper will stick to it just fine - maybe I'd give it a few coats of paint first to help.
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The house is a middle terrace, all of the houses on the row have a fascia of uPVC white cladding on the upper floor, a bit like this (not my house in the photo):

white%20cladding%20big%20pic.JPG


When tapped, they sound just like stud walls, so I'm guessing no brick work within? I also have no idea what you mean by tiles or corrugated, can you explain?

As for paper sticking to it, this isn't exactly what I was planning anyway. I was hoping to just skim with plaster and paint directly on to them. Does plaster stick to chip boards?
 
mattyg said:
Looks like cork insulation.
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After a quick Google I think you could be right, looks just like the images. Can you plaster onto it? Found on Google someone recommends using a nylon mesh to plaster on cork board... Thoughts?
 
DcD said:
Photo of the other wall: (Ignore the cables!)

*Snip*

This spot has been peeling away for quite a while now, I meant to pull off a small section and about a square foot came with it, should be easy to get off. This section is also underneath the window of the room, that's faces the front of the house - if that means anything.
Click to expand...

looks like chipboard that.

edit: I meant cork insulation (I always get those confuzzled for some strange reason[possibly to do with my own strangeness])
 
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Can you press a fingernail into it.

Not sure about plastering onto it. Probably not to be honest its got a bit of give in it which could lead to cracking.
 
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