Skimming Damaged Plasterboard

[Richard Conway]

Hi folks,

We started stripping the wallpaper from the bathroom walls yesterday. As we have discovered since moving in, this is an activity that is guaranteed to fill our lives with little suprises!

Lo and behold, the stud partition between the bathroom and the spare bedroom was just wallpapered plasterboard with no skim coat. To make matters worse, it seems that the paper won't come off without damaging at least some of the plasterboard (we damaged a fair bit yesterday and will probably damage some more tonight!). When I say damaged, I mean that some of the top paper-esque stuff comes off with the paper and leaves a kind of rough textured surface that has the appearance/texture of cardboard that has become wet and has been rubbed (I've no doubt someone will tell me that that's exactly what it is!)

Now then, after skimming my chimney breast last year and achieving suprisingly acceptable results, I am in no fear of attempting the same in the bathroom (its only the one wall and its quite small). My questions are as follows:

1) Will the damage we have done allow me to skim it succesfully? 2) If not, do I have to rip down the plasterboard and redo the whole lot or are there any other alternatives?

Also, is there anything I need to bear in mind when skimming the plasterboard? I was thinking that I would just put scrim tape on the joints, paint the whole lot with 1:5 PVA to water mix, then when its dry maybe another slightly stronger PVA to water mix (3:1?) and when that's dry-ish get the finishing plaster mixed and bang it on.

Any fault with my logic? Any advice? Criticism?

All appreciated.

Thanks, Richard

[Lobster]

No, should be fine, especially if you PVA it first

Just one application of the dilute PVA should be fine

David

[Andrew Gabriel]

You don't need to PVA plasterboard before plastering. It might be worth PVA'ing any areas where the paper is torn right off, exposing the powdery plaster inside though. Also PVA any areas which have any other sort of coating, such as paint or plasterboard sealer (which should have been applied before papering, but sounds like it wasn't).

[Richard Conway]

Thanks to both of you for your replies - very reasuring! I think that as we have made quite a mess of the thing so far and the fact that it is such a small area I will probably just slap PVA over the whole lot just to be on the safe side, unless there are any reasons not too.