repairing damaged plaster board

[Tom]

Hi, I bought a 90s flat a few months ago. All the walls were wall papered and I've stripped them ready to paint them.

Problem is, at various places around the flat the plasterboard is a bit damaged (not by me!). It's like the outer film (it's like paper) is coming off leaving a rough surface underneath. Pulling the paper / film off makes it a lot worse.

Where I've got this condition, is there anything I can do to smooth it out prior to painting? I'd like the walls to be as smooth as possible.

Sorry if this sounds a bit amateur but this is my first ever DIY and I'm learning on the job.

Cheers for any help,

Tom.

[Andrew Gabriel]

It is paper. It gives the plasterboard some of its strength, so don't pull too much off.

A couple of options. The best result will be to get them skimmed with plaster, but it sounds like you wouldn't be up to doing this yourself.

Second choice would be to line the walls with lining paper first (plain wall paper which is intended to be decorated over, either painted or papered).

Another thought (which I haven't tried, so I don't know if it would work) might be to stablise the surface with something such as matt emulsion paint (first coat thinned so it soaks in to the surface well). Then when the paint is fully hard (which takes a few weeks, not just when the paint is dry), use a fine sandpaper on it to remove any surface roughness. If this didn't work, you could still do either of the above.

[Smokinbilly]

Sand the area you want to fix lightly so the paper is flat and not sticking out, PVA the area you want to repair, mix a little water in the PVA so it's thinner then paint it on and right around the paper. This will seal it. The PVA will dry quite quickly, maybe 1/2 hour. Repeat the PVA. Wait till dry. Smooth over with Gyproc Easi-fill, wait till dry, between 1 hour and 1 day depending on temperature. Sand smooth, then paint or line first then paint. If you dont seal with PVA the paper may bubble. I use this method if there's not too much damage and I have time. If there's loads of holes you may be better getting it skimmed if time is important to you.