Smoothing an old wall

[Thomarse]

Hi,

I have some walls in my house that I have stripped wood chip wall paper from. Where the paper has been stripped, some of the paint that was on the wall has come away, and so I am left with a "patchy wall"... this is not too bumpy, but where the paint patches have come away, if painted back on top then these areas will still show through.

In other rooms in the house I have used a thick basecoat which said it was designed to smooth walls, but it didnt hide these patches. Luckily these other rooms don't get too much glaring direct sunlight and so the patches dont show up.

In this room however these patches will show up in daylight.

Ideally I'd like to get a smooth wall.. however, I do not want to re- skim the wall due to expense and the fact that I have tried the odd bit of plastering myself and the results left much to be desired!

So my options are:

Artex... A very fine watered down mix so that the pattern is hardly noticable but enough to deflect teh light and hide the patches..

5 or more coats of basecoat.. although I think I will still see the patches?

Watered down mix of plasterboard jointing compound rollered on and smoothed over...

Any advice? Has anyone else done anything similar? Liek I said, I can't plaster and so skimming isnt an option but I think possibly the compound could be, but I'm not sure how well I could smooth it?

Thanks

[George]

One of the pitfalls of painting new plaster then wanting to wallpaper it at a later date and wanting to paint it again after stripping the paper of.

Will people listen...no!

Lining paper.

[The Natural Philosopher]

or polyskim.

Its a LOT easier than plastering,,and any rough bits get the emery paper treatment.

[Thomarse]

I forgot to add.. I'm not a believer of lining paper.. The joins are more often than not still visible...I don't expect I will manage to do much better!

I guess styles change and as people live in and move in and out of houses, they like different decoration...Can't really be helped that someone painted the walls, then someone decided they wanted it papered... and then i decided I didnt.. The variety of life I guess... A pain up the *** for me to get my smooth wall though!

[George]

Joins in lining paper are a doddle,buy a 1" roller that is used to flatten the joins.

not hard to do

[George]

Do they give the scraper as well when you buy that stuff? Aldi on sunday were selling the blade for that sort of skim,its about 6" long with two other scrapers for £2.49

[Thomarse]

9= [e-mail]...

How "easy" is easy.. I;ve look at the polyskim stuff before but it looked like I may end up with a load of trowel marks to get rid of once dry.. I guess theres a knack to it?

Would a wet mix of drywall jointing compund do a similar job.. The reason i ask is that i have alot of this left after erecting my partition wall and it would save alot of money if i could use that... Although I do just want the easiest method...Polyskim is quite pricey

Cheers for all the replies

[George]

messagenews: [e-mail]...

How "easy" is easy.. I;ve look at the polyskim stuff before but it looked like I may end up with a load of trowel marks to get rid of once dry.. I guess theres a knack to it?

Would a wet mix of drywall jointing compund do a similar job.. The reason i ask is that i have alot of this left after erecting my partition wall and it would save alot of money if i could use that... Although I do just want the easiest method...Polyskim is quite pricey

Cheers for all the replies

Polyskim is basically premixed polyfilla which can still be used if you mix the polyfilla well and ix it to a creamy consistancy which will not fall of the blade.

Just like plastering you use the blade to skim over the indentations sweeping across them and leave to dry. If any of the polyfilla is on the outer surface of the indentations then as Mr Philo said a light brush of fine sandpaper over it will remove the unwanted polyfilla,on saying that though if the polyfilla has been ixed right there should be any need to sand?

I used a wood filla in a tub (Bonda WoodStop)one time to do that sort of thing I had to sand it though but the results were undetected when painted.

[Thomarse]

al Philosopher" wrote in

d=2E- Hide quoted text -

I see.. I think I was getting confused with anothr product by pollycell... smooth over?... I think you roller this on and then smooth with a blade/trowel?

The problem with my walls are that they arent "indentations" as such... Just patches all over where some paint has some away and some has remained on the wall.

[George]

The problem with my walls are that they arent "indentations" as such... Just patches all over where some paint has some away and some has remained on the wall.

Sorry... Thats what I mean about indentations patchy paint fall out.

You dont roller it on you scoop it onto the blade and sweep it across the patches.

[George]

Here's a video how its done.

[Pete C]

Hi,

Are you painting the walls matt? If so it should help hide the different wall textures.

Also try asking on the talk forum on the Screwfix website.

cheers, Pete.

[Thomarse]

I've just read some reviews on the polycell smoothover.. all very bad, saying its rubbish and a nightmare to work with..Most of these reviews were people who used it to cover artex or woodchip though.. All I want is a thin layer over my dodgy walls....

Has anyone in here actually used this stuff for this? Is it worth me doing or should I consider something else

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes

[The Natural Philosopher]

messagenews: [e-mail]...

its called 'a sanding block' :-)

Thats cos it flows really easily..I suspect its a fine suspension of chalk in PVA or summat.

lining paper is the cheap'n'quick'n'dirty. Polyskim is the 'expensive but not as much as a plasterer' approach.

[Steve]

IMO, it is expensive rubbish for skimming anything and probably the hardest thing for beginners to use, especially if you use the silly tool recommended. I used it once, never again, for skimming over a small artexed ceiling. Harder to work with and much more expensive than either artex or finishing plaster although I have never tried it in the situation you describe.

Either paint it then fill bad bits with fine filler and sand gently then paint again, sand and so on - or get wall fairly good then lining paper.

Steve

[Pete C]

Hi,

Sounds like the texture of the painted plaster isn't smooth and so will never match any filled areas.

If the original paint on plaster was rollered on (ie bit like orange peel) might be worth trying different paint and rollers on samples to blend it in filled areas.

If a very small area I'd try something like smoothover then sanding with a random orbital sander to get the whole lot flat.

Otherwise it's lining paper, a skim of plaster, or a textured paint.

cheers, Pete.

[Stuart Noble]

If the OP has loads of jointing compound left, I suggest he uses that. Yes, you still need some kind of plastering skill, but it doesn't go off as quickly as plaster so you have more time to mess around with it.

[John Rumm]

I would have thought a fine surface filler and a wide taping knife would do the job equally easily. The stuff used for filling taper edge plasterboard is nice an easy to work with. Sands easily as well.