Removing Polyripple from walls

Does anyone have any experience of removing or skimming over polyripple-covered walls? We had the stuff all over our hall/stairs/ landing walls and have managed to remove a fair amount of it from one wall (the largest area alongside the stairs thankfully) by scraping off with a sharp scraper, much of it fell off in largish chunks. All other wall surfaces are proving more tricky though.

We have already tried the following:

1) scraping - more like hacking off tiny shards of it, didn't seem an efficient method

2) steaming with wallpaper steamer - this melted it slightly and made it into a chewing gum texture which proved almost impossible to actually scrape away - just sort of rolled about on the wall re- sticking itself, none actually came off

3) heat gun (paint stripping gun) - similar to the above only with added fumes

4) bought some EcoTex to try to dissolve it off - left for over an hour then tried scraping. The top layers of paint came off but once down to the actual polyripple it again started behaving like chewing gum and took ages just to scrap away a tiny portion. At over =A320 for a pot that might get ride of a few m2 this is going to be an expensive option anyway.

I've asked 2 plasterers if they would skim it and both said they'd have to cover it in pva then skim but the polyripple might lift away from the wall and destroy the plaster on top.

Any ideas? Does sanding work? or can you skim over the top of it using another method?

Thanks.

Reply to
duckling_whizzbang
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If you are considering getting a plasterer in and the PolyRipple has been used to cover cracks in existing plaster would it be easier to hack of the plaster? If it is in a newish house and on plasterboard then replacing that might be the easist option.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew May

I've skimmed it successfully without pva. It's usually pretty well sealed as it is. Have you tried a heavy duty scraper, the type with a removable blade? Hard work, but that razor edge gets under woodchip etc really well.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Thanks for the replies. The polyripple is covering mainly original plaster (house was built in 60s) which is still in an excellent state

- the stuff we did manage to get off revealed pretty much perfect plaster underneath. The house was renovated in the early 80s though on the cheap and I doubt they paid for a plasterer so slapped polyripple over any bits of wall that were altered; most of the stuff that won't budge is over some of these altered bits so the plaster underneath is likely to be a rough diy job.

The razor edged scraper we have was great on the areas where the polyripple came off easily but these other areas seem to need chipping away in shards.

The walls are all brick so can't just rebuild them with new plasterboard really!

I might try asking another plasterer then if they can skim it.

Reply to
duckling_whizzbang

You can skim it, and the correct preparation would be to PVA first - this helps create a bond between skim and polyripple. If it is as well attached as you seem to be finding then there is not too much worry that it will fall off later. Most plasterers will give the same warning since they have no control over how well the layer they need to use as a base is stuck to the underlying plaster.

Reply to
John Rumm

replying to duckling_whizzbang, lisa wrote: i was looking for ways to remove this, we had this on our ceilings when we moved in our home 15 years ago, ive just removed it now and cant believe ive left it so long, the trick was to use a wallpaper stripper on it for 5 seconds leave it to cool for a couple of seconds then peel, it comes off in a stretchy sheet, just thought i would reply even though this post is so old then people could use this method ?

Reply to
lisa

Hi figured out a good technique that worked well for me. Remove a small patch using a thin chisel and mallet using light tapping strokes so you don't damage the plaster too badly. Then take a wallpaper scraper with a broad but thin blade. As thin as possible. I actually sharpened the blade on mine using an angle grinder. Then if you get the right angel on the blade you can lever the polyripple off the plaster like a thick/stiff anaglypta wallpaper.. Ok it's still a bit laborious but I did a 10 feet by 4 feet ceiling area in about 90 minutes. Ironically the thicker the coating the easier it is to pry it away from the plaster underneath. Worked for me anyway.

Reply to
polyripple wizzard

Not very well done then. If it had really bonded you would be in mega hassle. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff (Sofa

I got mine off eventually - after trying many things (it was really well bonded) - with a heat gun and scraper. Properly applied, using a bit of trial and error, it comes off relatively easily.

Reply to
Farmer Giles

+1
Reply to
Robin

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