Prepping room that has had wallpaper paste applied to skim

[StevenDavis]

Hi,

I recently bought a house (1930s) and have been working through each room decorating. So far, so good - however, I'm now hitting parts of the house that have had a lot of wallpaper applied.

From what I've seen so far, it looks like the previous owners' had the walls/ceiling reskimmed (looks relatively recent) and have then have papered on top, without any sort of mist coat or paint. After removing the wallpaper, I'm left with patches of paste directly on the plaster. The skim itself is in very good condition (like new) apart from me blowing a 20p piece of skim away when first using the steamer during paper removal.

I'm looking to paint the walls/ceiling and had an idea of washing off the paste, but following some research, it looks like this will be a mind numbing task that may or may not be successful given that even if I did remove all the paste, the plaster is now likely charged with the paste and could cause future flaking. For info, I was thinking streamer/scraper or white vinegar and water. If I proceeded with this method, I'd do the standard mist coats and then move on to the colour.

My other options (and preferred at this moment) would be to go over the walls with warm water to remove the bulk of the remaining paste, give it a light sand and apply Zinsser BIN, followed by an unthinned coat of supermatt to apply a good base for filling/prepping and then a couple of coats of my colour of choice.

Any advice would be greatly received!

 

[joe-90]

Everyone has their own take on this one. I prefer a couple of coats of oil undercoat then your topcoats.

 

[StevenDavis]

Everyone has their own take on this one. I prefer a couple of coats of oil undercoat then your topcoats.

Thanks - any recommendations on the undercoat? As mentioned - I was looking at Zinnser BIN but I'll need to get a new tin for this room so interested if anything is better.

 

[misterhelpful]

I can honestly say that I've never encountered any problems after removing the paste, sanding and misting. I've even had to paint directly onto new plaster after the homeowners had sized the walls with wallpaper paste, thinking they were helping. (At their own risk!)
Maybe I've been lucky as I know it has caused problems for many others but I can only speak from my experiences.

If you want to go down the (expensive) Zinsser route, don't use B-I-N, use Gardz - it's made for sealing paste residue.

http://zinsseruk.com/shop/Product.aspx?cId=130&pgId=359

 

[StevenDavis]

I can honestly say that I've never encountered any problems after removing the paste, sanding and misting. I've even had to paint directly onto new plaster after the homeowners had sized the walls with wallpaper paste, thinking they were helping. (At their own risk!)
Maybe I've been lucky as I know it has caused problems for many others but I can only speak from my experiences.

If you want to go down the (expensive) Zinsser route, don't use B-I-N, use Gardz - it's made for sealing paste residue.

http://zinsseruk.com/shop/Product.aspx?cId=130&pgId=359[/QUOTE]

Thanks - will take a look at Gardz. How did you remove the paste as a matter of interest?

Not adverse to spending cash on Zinsser if it's going to save me a a couple of days of removing the paste as I'm strapped for time but at the same time understand the importance of a good prep.

 

[misterhelpful]

I've always used warm water with a tiny drop of washing up liquid to soften it and then scraped it off before rinsing thoroughly with clean warm water. The recommended way is to just use warm water without detergent but I've never had a problem although I would suggest you use plain water, just in case.