Lining paper?

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

we are in the process of stripping about 6 layers of wallpaper from the bedroom and bathroom (there's some odd brown paper at the very bottom in the bathroom which looks 1920s!). The walls will be replastered, and FIL keeps banging on about "getting lining paper up", and was agog when I said i'd be painting straight onto the plaster. I had assumed that lining paper was to cover walls which could so with replastering, but is there a reason why all walls should be lined? Or is it just a FIL thing?

If it's fresh new plaster with a smooth finish you have no need at all for lining paper.

if you're not going to line it, do size it first - you can use very dilute wallpaper paste. otherwise you'll use a lot more paint, because the plaster will soak it up.

it is worth lining though IMO - it takes care of small imperfections in the surface, & once the lining paper is painted you have a really sound surface for any fuuture wall coverings you might want to put up

you don't have to hang it horizontally though, vertically is fine.

but if we really don't want wall coverings in the future, we're ok, aren't we?
we are shite at DIY, and too skint for decorators, so don't want wallpaper which will be a faff to get rid of when we decide we hate it in 5 years time.

we had loads of walls replastered - in fact that whole of our downstairs, & we haven't had any of them lined

Old houses used to have a kind of grey plaster which didn't have the same smooth finish as you get these days. It didn't look good painted so you could hang basically plain wallpaper and paint over that. So it might be a FIL thing! We did this in a previous house where we couldn't afford to have rooms skimmed. Well hung it looks good painted over, but like any wallpaper you sill need neat joins and corners.

I can't see you will need lining paper on modern plaster.

Ponders, really, paint over wallpaper paste? I thought you were meant to start with a coat of well diluted emulsion?

we've got that grey plaster in our house, and it's mostly cracks and holes. TBH I'm not sure it's ever been re-skimmed, looking at the ages of the layers of paper, and the house is c.1890.

we have a v. good and cheap plasterer locally, so to have a re-skim plus DIY paint job will cost the same as getting in a decorator to sort out lining paper, which i imagine DH and I would make a right Horlicks of.

if you are hoping one day to paint the walls, clean off all the old paper and paste (warm water and a broad metal scraper will do it).

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't put glue, paste or PVA on it as these will prevent paint adhering to the plaster.

Instead apply a mist coat of emulsion thinned with water, it will soak in to the highly absorbent plaster and leave a better surface for painting on. It need not be in your poncy Barrow and Fall expensive finish colour, cheap white matt emulsion will do fine. In fact a couple of coats of matt white emulsion will give a nice surface for your finish colour, it also will highlight to the eye any remaining blemishes that you need to smooth (and mist coat again) so that your finished wall will look as near perfect as you can get it.

You will find the thinned mist coat for new plaster recommendation on the paint tin, and also on the manufacturer's website if you look.

well we first started doing this kind of thing 30 years ago, & the DIY books we had then all advised sizing, so we did, & it never prevented paint adhering

Decorating technology has clearly advanced. I still like lining paper better than bare plaster though.

sizing is often recommended for walls that are going to be papered.

I haven't got a 30-year old decorating book to hand.

apparently emulsion contains pva now? I don't think it did then. so the paint itself is stickier.

I presume that we can only do without the lining paper if we have the walls replastered? Not sure if we are doing that yet.

When I refurb a house I never line if its good new plaster. You get a better finish without.

"apparently emulsion contains pva now? "

Nope.

It mostly contains vinyl resins though (apart from Supermatt and a few other Trade Matts for new plaster)

PVA softens and dissolves in water, which is why emulsion paint softens it and sometimes it blisters.

Emulsion paint does not dissolve in water, which is why you can sponge it clean.

Agree with piglet no pva! Thinned emulsion and let it dry dry dry before you start teh top coat