I have just stripped wallpaper off the wall in a room in a house built around 1960. We are left with the bare grey plaster. I am planning to paint this with emulsion, which I've done before in other rooms but it never comes out quite smooth enough. I've tried filling the obvious cracks and sanding the walls lightly but still not perfect. Given I have no confidence in my ability to plaster, even just skimming, is there a paint available that's better at smoothing out slightly rough surfaces (maybe to use as an undercoat under our chosen emulsion)
Having just done a whole house which pretty much similar surfaces I came to the conclusion if the walls are really bad then geta pro to skim it for you fro the other walls, patch it up sand it paint it then you will see more bits that need patching areas that catch the light so then fill and sand and paint again, takes a while an may be a botch job but does come up looking quite good. Oh and a good quality paint for new plaster worked quite well
Make sure it's completely free of wallpaper paste, it should not feel slimy when wet.
Give it a coat of good quality emulsion - allow it to dry.
Look along the wall, and mark any imperfections with a rough pencil outline (just a quick circle should be OK).
Fill nail holes, etc. flush with filler, using a filling knife. Wipe the filler in and scrape it off in the same movement. Try and not to leave filler on the wall that needs rubbing down. Let it dry thoroughly.
Get some sandpaper on a cork rubbing block, and sweep it over the filled nail holes etc. to make sure there's no filler protuding. It should have shrunk into the hole, but sweep over it anyway in case there's a little fragment stuck to the wall from the edge of your filling knife.
Get some filler powder, and mix it with water and a little PVA until it's thin - "like double cream" is often mentioned. Use water:PVA about 10:1 to mix in. Just make sure it's not too runny, and will spread with no effort.
Fill the small imperfections with a wide blade such as a wide filling knife or a plasterers steel float. Sweep the filler on right over the imperfection. Go over the nail holes again to fill any holes left by shrinking filler.
The idea above is to transfer filler into the wall to fill imperfections flush, so as not to need to rub down. Filler with PVA in it goes "off" quicker than normal filler, so you may find yourself wasting a lot unless you make up small batches. This filler is more resistant to abrasion, so you don't want to be doing a lot of rubbing down, anyway.
When it's all dry (not long in thin coats, maybe overnight) get your cork block and fine paper and sweep it over the whole surface to remove any little odds and ends of filler.
Another coat of emulsion. Check. Should be OK. Paint again. Done.
You could mess about with textured paint, but it looks awful on most walls.
There is paint to overcome minor imperfections - ditto IMO.
You could use lining paper and paint that. This finish is quite pleasing.
One method that I have used quite sucessfully in my 1920's house - sand the wall down so there's no obvious lumps or depressions - fill as much as possible and sand down etc.
Then use lining paper paper the wall horizontally - wait until dry, then paper again, this time vertically.
You may find that it's quicker and will give better results than sanding/filling/sanding/filling etc etc!
Good luck!
Sim> Having just done a whole house which pretty much similar surfaces I came to
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