4000 for decorating a house!!

[R P McMurphey]

sod that im doing it meself! anyone recomend a good wallpaper striper?

steve

[Colin M]

Striped wallpaper *is* fashionable again, good luck.

Colin

[Christian McArdle]

What type of wallpaper?

The normal vinyl stuff comes off it two stages. First you rip off the waterproof top surface. You need a scraper and fingers for this. You are left with the backing paper. This can be removed really easily by soaking a large section with a car washing sponge. Wait 10 minutes and it peels off very easily. You can have fun trying to get it off in the largest sheets possible.

Don't bother with a steamer for vinyl. Working against my dad using the steamer, I had an entire wall fully stripped before he had got a single strip of paper off. He abandoned it soon after.

If you've got woodchip, let me know what works.

Christian.

[Andy Hall]

You've got woodchip Christian?

Budget for replastering.....

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Christian McArdle]

I'll have to. You can't lean on the wall without leaving the outline of your impression and hearing rattling as little balls of cement and horse hair spill from under it onto the skirting boards. I have even chased some cabling into the wall using a Stanley knife!

I'll get the heating, electrics and alarm systems in before replastering, though. I also don't want to plaster most of upstairs until we've decided if we're doing the loft conversion. Luckily the worst room is in the rear "extension" bit, so can be done before.

The walls are terrible, ATM. One room has FIVE different textured wallpaper patterns, (plus the house's only section of good plaster, where a chemical DPC had been injected).

Christian.

[Andrew Gabriel]

One of those big demolition balls swinging from a crane, but if it's been painted, you might be better off trying to obtain a large quantity of plastic explosive...

[Terry D]

"Oh Deborah, do you recall? Your house was very small With woodchip on the wall When I came round to call You didn't notice me at all"

Pulp, Disco 2000

or, as misheard lyrics:

"Your house was very small With wood shit on the wall"

Terry D.

[Christian McArdle]

Actually, does anyone have any advice about what sort of plaster to use?

It is an Edwardian terrace. I'm particularly interested in what to use on outside walls. Interior walls can use normal plaster on brick, or plasterboard to replace the old lath+plaster.

Obviously, on the outside walls there will be issues with penetrating damp, even if the crumbly lime mortar is repointed. Would sand/cement render with a thin plaster skim be better than plaster bonding and skim? There's not enough room to dryline, let alone insulate. It would ruin original features, unfortunately, although I might be able to get 25mm of Celotex in the 3rd bedroom, which has a large proportion of external wall and no cornicing. Luckily the layout of these terraces is inherently energy efficient. I got a surprisingly high SAP assessment despite no wall or floor insulation and double glazing only on the front.

Christian.

P.S.

About the repointing, is this a DIY job, or is it just too difficult to make up the lime mortar?

[Christian McArdle]

Thought about changing your deodorant?

;-)

Christian.

[Michael Mcneil]

There is a gadget that scours the surface of wall paper so that it can be wet through the paint. I have one that is basically a triangular trolley with 7" sides that fits in the palm of your hand. It has 3 off-set wheels or castors that spin freely and on each of these there is an axle that hold a pair of wheels rather similar to those serrated washers. They are canted in toward each other so that each pair points to the middle of the opposing side of the triangle.

You lean against a wall and wave a bit and the surface is reduced to rubble. Spray on a drop of water and the woodchip et al falls at your feet rather in the manner of ladies in my presence whenever I am out on the pull.

[R P McMurphey]

can you ship him down to Staffordshire?

Steve

[Paul C. Dickie]

In article , Terry D writes

You mean there's a difference?

[Jim Hatfield]

A razor scraper with a 3" blade. It cuts the tops off the chips and lets the water penetrate, albeit very slowly.

[BigWallop]

And I always heard it as "you had good shit on the wall"

[Clint Sharp]

In message , Michael Mcneil writes

Sadly, I know you must be dreaming by the statement you made above, whilst I am willing to accept that you may indeed be God's gift to women and are constantly deafened by the sound of knicker elastic snapping in your presence, I cannot believe that you have found a simple way to strip woodchip!

[bill]

The general opinion of people involved with old buildings seems to be to use lime plaster. It is claimed to be more permeable to moisture than gypsum plaster or cement render, so that if your wall gets damp the moisture can escape through the plaster, rather than staying trapped behind it.

It's certainly DIYable, if you've got the patience! Lime mortar is available in different forms. You can buy quicklime which has to be slaked. Not a difficult job, but slightly hazardous. The lime generates heat as it rehydrates, it can splash and burn if you don't wear protective clothing. It also needs to be left for several weeks before use.

You can buy lime putty, which has been slaked and aged and is ready for mix with sand and use immediately. You can also buy ready mixed mortar.

If you want to know more about lime I can recommend a booklet called Lime in Buildings by Jane Schofield, ISBN 0 9524341 2 1.

Bill

[R P McMurphey]

are you referring to one of these?

[stuart noble]

Usually those that don't live in them.

Yep, it escapes through the plaster, then through the wallpaper (strips it at the same time), and fills the room with the faint aroma of decaying vegetation. Just the job!! On bare, unpainted, plaster I don't doubt it's a workable system, but we don't live like that any more

[bill]

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 08:04:59 -0000, "stuart noble"

As it happens I do live in an old house, with some lime plaster (as well as gypsum, cement render and plasterboard.)

You are implying that there is some strong reason not to use lime plaster. The main one that I know of is economics, and that only applies if you're paying someone to do the job for you; as this is a DIY group so its a reasonable assumption that you're going to do the plastering yourself. The main reason that gypsum plasters took over from lime plasters is speed; it goes off very quickly so a room can be completed very quickly. This is a benefit to spec builders but needs experienced plasterers. Lime is more suited to DIYers, it gives you more time to get it right before it hardens. In terms of the end result there need be no significant difference between them. And I've used both.

If the wall is that wet gypsum plaster will suffer just as much.

Bill

[Andrew Gabriel]

Actually, lime plaster will survive better on damp walls than gypsum plaster, but not forever. I presume it also copes better with floods, as I noticed use of lime-based plaster is one of the suggestions the government has made for homes liable to flooding, as part of its recommendations for changes to building materials to avoid the need for major repairs following flooding.

One thing -- if you use gypsum plaster in an edwardian lime mortar house, you will probably get hairline cracks in it as it is a lot less flexible than the rest of the house structure, so it will crack when the rest of the house routinely moves around. These cracks will easily be lost by a coat of paint and are not anything to be concerned about. Lime plaster is more flexible and usually mixed with fine horse hair, and this will move with the routine movement of the brickwork without cracking (unless movement becomes excessive;-).