Decorating

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?

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

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

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

Well, exactly. Not always down to bad taste

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

I think you mean "always" :-)

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

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

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

On 09 Feb 2014, Bob Eager grunted:

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

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.