Wall preparation help needed

[grumbas]

In the middle of a big refurb, stripped the horrible old paper off in the hall/stairs and in places its lifted the old paint to reveal the original plaster.

What's the best way to prep this ready for painting - is it simply a case of scraping off any loose paint, sanding, filling, sanding a bit more and painting?

As you'd expect painting straight on just draws moisture into the plaster and causes the old paint to start peeling.

Help much appreciated!

PS - Whilst skimming is the ideal solution, the budget just doesn't stretch to it.

[robinhood21]

Pretty much as described. As long as the surface is then acceptable, touch up any filling/bare plaster and paint away. Otherwise, line the walls, then paint.

[schmokin1]

if you find that flaky bits of paint keep happening, roller on a weak (1:10) mixture of PVA to water, it'll stabilise the flaky bits, then you can polly filla. rub and then paint or lining paper and paint.

any really bad bits, the smooth over wall prep stuf is supposed to be ok.

good luck
schmo

Edited by schmokin1 on Friday 27th November 23:26

[VxDuncan]

As above, pva mix to seal. You MAY also need to sugar soap it (and rub like a *****) to get the old wallpaper adhesive off.

[RizzoTheRat]

I went a bit mad on mine. A fair bit of the old paint came off with the 3 layers of wallpaper I peeled off, I then peeled off any remaining paint with one of those scrapers that take a stanley blade, filled any obvious scrapes and cracks, sanded the walls to get them smooth, painted the first coat of emulsion diluted with water to seal the plaster, then a couple of coats of emulsion over that. Got a pretty good finish in the end. It was that or wallpaper and I hate papering.

[grumbas]

Thanks all, sounds like I was on roughly the right track!

Finished sanding the woodwork today, walls tomorrow then...

[Wings]

[quote=robinhood21, line the walls, then paint.
[/quote]

+1 or skim the walls, other wise every imperfection will show up, and your regret just going one step further.

[aberdeeneuan]

We tried that smoothover stuff and didn't find it great. If your walls are a bit iffy then good lining paper hides a multitude of sins, we're doing that in our lounge even though we could probably get away without it, but the little bit more effort will give us a better finish.

[CO2000]

The ideal cheap solution is to buy a big tub of Gyproc jointing cement as below.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detai...

& ladle it on (with a paint scrapper) as its about a 1000 times cheaper than smooth over & works better too.

Buff down with a power sander & hand finish if need be - with time you can get a really good finish. Use the mesh tape on any cracks.

Happy filling