Doing house up to sel, what to do with hall, stairs and landing?

[ThePluralOfAnecdoteIsNotData]

We are doing our house up to put on the market and I'm not sure what to do with the hall, stairs and landing; we started ripping off the hideous patterned, textured wallpaper that had been painted over by the previous owners (we hadn't touched it since we moved in 5 years ago) and the plaster underneath is pretty rubbish. We have had stupid quotes to replaster and don't want to spend a fortune so can I ask for advice please?

Do we go for patching and sanding any lumps ourselves and painting it a creamy beige?

Or

Do we hang some heavy textured wallpaper to cover the dodgy plaster?

I feel the painting option is more honest and even if it looks less than perfect. Whilst a freshly put up textured wallpaper would ring alarm bells for me that we had something to hide.

Personally I'd rather move in to neutral slightly lumpy walls than live with someone else's choice of textured wallpaper.

Thoughts?
TIA

[mylovelymonster]

well, there are three options.

1. You get a proper replastering job done
   
2. you don't bother mucking about and sell it to someone so they don't have to pay a premium for your botched efforts just to make it look presentable
   
3. you carry on with botch. After all, as long as it looks good for the viewings, what's not to like?

[ThePluralOfAnecdoteIsNotData]

Thanks for the quick reply, we really can't afford to re-plaster so that's not an option for us. The plaster on the stairs is the worst where it runs on the outside wall of the house, we have had the wall repointed so the source of damp is gone but there is cosmetic damage to the plaster, I'm not trying to pull a fast one we just don't have the budget for replastering.

[Phwooooar]

Tbh I would leave it. Agree with Mylovely - I've been looking at houses and hate it when you can see someone has done a cheap repair job to tart it up which will just have to be done again. It's going to be obvious.

[mylovelymonster]

Well then I don't really understand why you've started to strip the wallpaper if you're not intending to do a proper job? Why not just repaint? If you knew there was a history of damp then the plaster is likely to be pretty shot.

i understand your predicament, but it strikes me as a bit dishonest. Surely if the job is done properly (few hundred quid?) then won't that be in your favour and make your house more attractive to a buyer? And maybe recoup your outlay?

[mylovelymonster]

I think also any poorly-done jobs will put potential buyers off as they will wonder what else needs attending to?

I apologise for my flippant first comments, but your OP made me cross

[ThePluralOfAnecdoteIsNotData]

I don't feel we can leave it as bare plaster, we have pulled the paper off, I'm on about painting the wall just so its not bare (or possibly putting new paper up). I can imagine getting on the rubbish viewings thread if we left it as bare plaster!

We will be letting potential buyers know the works we have had done (by professionals); repointing, roof repairs and guttering so the important stuff causing the damp has been fixed the internal plater is dry just cosmetically not great.

[MerylStrop]

aye, just paint it
textured wallpaper is worse than lumpy walls

[ThePluralOfAnecdoteIsNotData]

Can you recommend your plasterer mylovely as we have been quoted over £1000 to have it done which is a lot of money to us.

[caughtintheact]

yes, it might be 'a few hundred' to skim a hall, but if the plaster is damaged by damp from the outside it will likely need hacking off and completley redoing, not surprised the quote is over £1000.

[mylovelymonster]

IMO, I think it would be a false economy to not get it done properly. It will benefit both the sale-ability and the price you might be offered if the house is in good shape.
It would be a shame to have seen to all the important structural stuff yet leave that undone, and I think anyone making an offer would likely take into account the cost of making good plus decorating i.e. knock it off the offer they have in mind.

You could try out Meryl's suggestion - paint over - then put it on the market and see what happens. You can always attend to it if it is actually an issue.

[Mandy21]

Could you not paper it in thick lining paper and then paint? Textured wallpaper is awful, we've just stripped ours but replaced it with lining paper which we've then painted. It looks really lovely.

[javo]

Vote for lining paper here too - get a nice heavyweight one.

[DaisySteiner]

Was just about to say lining paper too. We did this in a bedroom where the plaster was dreadful. We filled the worst bits with filler first, then put lining paper up and put a small amount of filler between the joins so they were invisible (if you're a shit-hot decorator you might not need to do this!) We then painted and it looked good. Certainly much better than textured paper of painting the walls underneath.

I certainly don't think it's dishonest to do this - lots of people just do this as a matter of course because it's expensive to replaster.

[PigletJohn]

I'd say a heavyweigh lining paper and a muted matt emusion

However:
If you ever need to patch up bad plaster, don't use polyfilla and don't use sandpaper.

Buy a small bag of finish plaster from a DIY shed, plus a broad metal filling knife and a broad metal scraper. Plaster is far cheaper, sets quicker, and is easier to scrape flat.

Wet the cracks and dents, mix up a cupfull of plaster to about mustard constituency, press it hard into the cracks using your filling knife. The knife will bridge over onto the sound plaster at each side to give a level finish. Knife off the excess. It will set with 20 minutes or so. If you have left any excess, use the metal scraper - again bridging onto the flat plaster at each side - to scrape it off. Do this while it is still wet and cheesy. It will come off easier without all that dust. Next time use less plaster, anything you have to scrape off was wasted.

When you have gone over the whole wall and you think it is perfect, give it a coat of cheap white matt emusion thinned with 10% water (this helps it soak into the dry plaster instead of just lying on the surface. This will highlight any remaining defect so you can deal with them, then repaint the patches. When the wall looks flat and smooth and plain wehite all over, it will be easy to put on your finish emulsion in a colour of your choice.

Once you have got the hang of the broad filling knife you can buy a metal plasterers trowel which is quicker for large areas. In this case mix the plaster to a creamy constituency as you will find it difficult to press flat if thicker.

Large holes and deep cracks, the plaster may crack when dry, so put in the first coat below finish surface, and apply a thin finish coat when it has set.

[Mammonite]

In our last house the plaster wasn't brilliant and we did exactly that, heavy lining paper (1200 grade) and matt paint in every room. Hang some eyecatching pictures and nobody will notice the wall. To be honest, as long as it wasn't abused I'm pretty sure it's still there 10 years later. There were one or two patches that were slightly loose but mostly it was just cosmetic. It's not structural.

The only problem you can get in halls is if people slam doors a lot it can loosen plaster near them!