Decorating

[soup]

I am currently (under protest, I HATE decorating) decorating the hall. Now I don't know if it is because my son steamed it too long, or if the vibrations(of years) have loosened it or if the previous tenant masked a problem (never seen it before, was painted woodchip so had just painted it before, I have never striped this wall) but the skim plaster on the understairs stud wall has "blown" in a few places. How would I go about repairing this:-

Would I get the chappie over by (a jobbing builder) to skim plaster the areas? (seems a bit excessive)

Does anyone rate Polyfilla's 'skim plaster repair' stuff? (Feels like this would give the best finish)

Fill it with standard polyfilla? (have lots of polyfilla and decorators caulk lying about)

Leave it, wallpaper hides a multitude of sins? (cheapest option but this strikes me as a bit of a bodge)

I am also painting the banisters and handrail. Now these take a lot of abuse noticed the last time I painted it (new gloss on old gloss[1]) that the paint got worn off with the boys leaping down the stairs six at a time and catching themselves with the B&H. The boys are older and more sensible now (yeah right) will ordinary gloss do, or is there a 'special' paint made for hand contact?

[1] This time I have striped the B&H to the wood and will undercoat then gloss.

[Adrian]

A vote for "long since masked" here.

Anything but this is a bodge.

You could, of course, give the plastering a go yourself.

At least it's an honest bodge...

Why not just wax them?

[Brian Gaff]

Just avoid acrylic paint. My bannister paint melted when someone placed a damp towel over it a year later. Brian

[Lobster]

On 09 Feb 2014, Adrian grunted:

I dunno; I've had this problem myself. Over-steaming definitely causes this, especially with old plaster, and painted woodchip can be a bugger to get off.

In my case the blown areas of skim plaster were relatively small, and diy repair with polyfilla brought them back to flat fairly easily. That said, 'flat' in my case was relative; these was 100-year old plaster in not great shape. In a couple of rooms we've had a pro in to over-skim the whole lot, which worked and looked great; however for the hall/stairs/landing (which is a huge area here) we bottled out and ended up getting it lined with very heavy grade lining paper (after local filling of the really bad areas), and then painted. The seams are invisible, and it looks pretty good (not quite as good as plastering, but no regrets).

David

[Andy Burns]

Woodchip is usually there to hide something in the first place.

[stuart noble]

Well, exactly. Not always down to bad taste

[stuart noble]

There's something to be said for skimming the woodchip with filler. It holds on remarkably well if the chip itself is well stuck. Bodge of the century of course but no different to skimming Artex really

[The Medway Handyman]

I think you mean "always" :-)

[Chris J Dixon]

Over 40 years ago, when I first had a house to decorate, it was the method of choice, with nothing to hide but my bad taste. ;-)

I still have my Readers Digest DIY manual, in a big ring binder, one half techniques (still pretty relevant) the other half designs, which are a study in 70s period detail.

Chris

[Bob Eager]

As it happens, I only threw mine away last week!

[Huge]

If whoever has my "Which Guide to Wiring and Lighting" would care to return it, that would be good, too.

[Lobster]

On 09 Feb 2014, Bob Eager grunted:

Mine went on ebay about 5 years ago, for quite a tidy sum bizarrely!

[harryagain]

All depends if you want another bodge or a proper job. If the latter, it will all have to be hascked off and replaced More will come off than you expect.

I done the whole house with cement, then plaster then polyskim. Easier to get a good finish with polyskim. Goes off slower, more time to muck about with it.