Painting and decorating - woodchip woes

[Jumpy Guy]

After a year ignoring it , the previous owners woodchip had to go. We think it was put up in '86

After much swearing , wallpaper stripper, and water, I managed to get through the four layers of paint, and what appears to be varnish

However, stripping the wood chip also removed some of the outer paper on the plasterboard . It's come away in different layers, leaving different thicknesses of the paper, in uneven, irregular stripes. Bluntly, it's a mess.

So, what to do.? Lining paper over the top? Then paper?

Can I skim plaster on top of the irregular plasterboard lining paper ?

Advice welcome

[shimmey69]

you can skim over irregularity but can be a ball ache as it dries at different rates to polish it up nicely.

you may need to put a plastering grit on first, basically a thick paint with grit in to give an even base layer

or if its not too bad you can work wonders with a bag of easifil and some time and patience

really depends on how bad it is

[dazwalsh]

so the woodchip and all these layers of paint were put straight on top of bare palsterboard with no skim coat?

Another option is to screw new plasterboard to the existing ceiling and then skim over the top of that, it will be far far easier to plaster over that than a rugged surface, thats assuming you have nothing to stop you doing that such as coving or spotights.

[Jumpy Guy]

Yes, the woodchip was stuck straight to the plasterboard - no skim coat or lining paper.

As a result, the plasterboard paper is coming off with the woodchip. It's also coming off in tiny pieces, and taking off varying layers of the paper...

It's a tiny downstairs cloakroom WC, with coving and downlighters, so I'm not keen on boarding on top

[SMGB]

Lining paper is cheap quick and effective well worth a go. just dont paint it gloss afterwards

[mgtony]

Lining paper will only cover minor imperfections. Have you thought of re-boarding or timber panelling?