Is plastering over old wallpaper a good idea in some situations?

Others may tell you it will be fine - but to me it sounds like a bodge. I would say that if the plaster behind the paper is so bad that it would crumble if the paper were removed, then the paper is already doing more than its fair share of work holding the lime plaster together, without giving it more to do by holding on a new layer of plaster!

I suppose it all depends if you are the type of person who gets a nice warm feeling when they put a bit of effort in and do a job 'properly'!

I wouldn't advise plastering over wallpaper. If you don't want to remove the wallpaper then... Fix plasterboard over the walls to the studding/brickwork behind and then plaster the walls.

If you soak the whole thing in pva and skim a quick coat on while it's wet, it'll probably be a good enough surface.

People often seem to get scared by painted wood chip paper! I feel it has a reoutation for being hard to remove, when in reality is is not actually that difficult in many cases.

If you arm yourself with a *good* scraper - say:

There is a fair chance the plaster will pull off the paper as it drys (and the paper gets wet). If you really wany to avoice stripping it, have you thought about dry lining the wall first and then skiming it?

It's the only way you'll get the job done properly - anything else is a nasty bodge. You might find you can get away with skimming after you've removed the paper. The paper will probably pull away easily in large pieces.

I found this as well. Providing I kept the scraper sharp the woodchip came off really easily. Any residue that was left we just wiped with a wet sponge and then scraped it off.