Can you Skim/Plaster over Wallpaper adhesive?

[NHW]

The house I recently bought and currently working on has wallpaper pretty much everywhere. They've also painted over it (house is from the 1970s) so just getting the wallpaper off itself is a nightmare.

The adhesive or wallpaper glue is 5x harder to get off the walls and I was looking to have them skimmed over anyways, can skimming be done over wallpaper adhesive because by the looks of it, would save me a weeks worth of scraping if it is possible. Thank you

 

[blup]

How do you remove wall paper but leave the paste/glue? You would need a plasterer on site to advise.

Blup

 

[NHW]

How do you remove wall paper but leave the paste/glue? You would need a plasterer on site to advise.

Blup

Hmmmm you make it sound like I did it on purpose lol

If you've ever tried to remove wallpaper from a wall that's been stuck on in the 1970s and then subsequently painted over multiple times, that stuff does not all just come off in 1 fell swoop lol

I scored it, laced with wall paper remover liquid to soak, then steamed it, then scraped it, and only the first paint and paper layer comes off.

The glue which has been there for 50+ years is 10x harder to get off, hence why I was looking for an alternative solution, instead of having to scrape for weeks on end (16 walls total) in order to get it back to plaster

 

[NHW]

 

[Deleted member 292770]

you mean the white stuff that’s left?

 

[NHW]

you mean the white stuff that’s left?

Yeah so the white stuff on the wall that's left is the glue/adhesive layer, then on top of that was a paper layer, on top of that was the design paper layer, and then on top of that was where someone went over it with paint, it's like they were trying to make it impossible to remove off the walls haha

 

[Deleted member 292770]

so under that white paint is more paper ?

 

[Mottie]

If you plaster over paper, the water will soak into the paper and you’ll have a skim of plaster not sticking to anything. Just man up and get scraping.

 

[NHW]

so under that white paint is more paper ?

It looks like white paint whats left on the walls but it is actually the old adhesive/glue that was used to stick the wallpaper on. The turquiose colour is the paint which is on top of the wallpaper. So going from the top layer to bottom layer its:

Turquoise paint

Design paper layer (texture & patterned)

Paper layer (just feels like cardboard paper)

Glue/Adhesive (which is what you see on the walls atm)

Plaster

 

[NHW]

If you plaster over paper, the water will soak into the paper and you’ll have a skim of plaster not sticking to anything. Just man up and get scraping.

No no i know what you mean, we have gotten all the paper layers off and its just the adhesive/glue that is left on the walls now.

We are continually scraping at the moment, but also looking for an alternative solution in the meantime. If it was not 16 walls then I wouldnt even ask the question because we would just scrape 1 or 2 walls down but because its that old its taking like a good few mintues to just get maybe a credit-card sized section off, and calcualting at this rate it'd take a week or so to do 16 full walls, some which you cant even apply as much pressure because you are on a ladder (wall on stairs) etc.

Hence we just thought we would look for any other solutions to save that time.

 

[Deleted member 292770]

if the white stuff that’s left (looks like paint to me) is fast to the wall and won’t soak in water then it can be skimmed over.

 

[NHW]

Just thought I'd provide a quick update.

Spoke to a friend of a friend who is a plasterer and he said that there's a product called Thistle Bond-it, which essentially turns a slippery (smooth) surface into one that can be plastered onto, which I'm hoping will save us the time in further scraping.

If it was just a few walls then tbh I'd stick with scraping it off and doing it the old fashioned way, but with this many I think we could use that energy doing other things since the entire house needs work.

Hope this mightve helped anyone doing similar

 

[Wayners]

Bodge cheap orbital sander on vac will take most paste off. 80 grade sanding mesh or paper.
Coat with gardz will neutralise remaining paste.
Pva and skim

I do that although I use pro sanders.

 

[benjiman]

I had a similar issue. Just getting the paper off even with a wall paper steamer and scoring was taking forever and very tiring.

So decided to get one of these, stuck it on an angle grinder, masked up really well and took at the wallpaper with it. Very messy, lots of paper dust, but ripped the paper and glue straight off. Left the wall perfect for skimming. Hard work still holding the grinder but more fun than ****ing about with a scrapper and steamer!

Twisted Knot Wire Brush 100mm

Order online at Screwfix.com. For rapid rust or paint removal and cleaning of metal and stone. Ideal for surface preparation. Can be used with most brands of angle grinders. FREE next day delivery available, free collection in 5 minutes.

www.screwfix.com