Sorting out my ceilings

[oreoswithfriends]

Quick qu, our 4 bedroom ceilings are, unfortunately, wallpapered (not us) and there are lines all over the ceiling, where the joins are. I have taken all of this off to find some brown, slightly furry thin paper. Underneath that appears to be yellow, which I think is paint, and under that seems to be white, which I think is the plasterboard. This does not appear to be taped, although I haven't really investigated that far. The boards are flat and in seemingly good condition.

So, despite getting someone in to reskim the ceilings, it seems that my ceilings don't actually have any plaster on them :(

I think therefore the ceiling needs actual plastering, not just re-skimming. Is this right?

In order to save time, and money, and seeing as I've taken the wallpaper off, shall I try to take the lining paper off? And if so, what about the paint? I have a scraper and a wallpaper steamer, but I'm not sure if I want the plaster boards to get wet?

Any ideas?!

bump?!

Surely if they were just papered before they don't need plastering and a skim coat would do. I'm wondering of the yellow paint is distemper. (Have it all over our 30s house.) We were advised to get as much of it off as possible. A decent plasterer would advise what you then need to do. (In ours we've replastered one following a couple of coats of PVA and filled and sanded (many times over it seems) two. Just about to bite the bullet and get advice on a fourth which is "okay" (again lots of filling, sanding I think) until you get to the line which used to be behind the fitted wardrobes we ripped out and in a shocking state after that.

paper needs to be off for either skimming or replastering so that should help you decide on that.

tbh I'm not sure of the difference between skimming and plastering - are they not just whacking some smooth plaster on?

and your plasterer should advise. start getting people round to quote and in the meantime you can do the prep work

We have someone coming to do the ceilings next week, but he quoted on the basis that they were reskimming. My understanding is that plastering involves at least 2 coats, but skimming involves only 1 (and usually goes on over old, ok, but maybe uneven plaster).

So, in an effort to keep costs down, as he'll definitely (and understandably) want to requote if he has to take paper and other weird things off, I'm trying to do the paper removal myself.

Thanks yomellamo, I will check out distemper..although on a quick google, it seems plaster does not bond well to it, and reboarding is suggested - I hope not!

You can skim directly over plasterboard.

How old is the house?

If it's plasterboard they just need skimmed. When something gets plastered it normally means a finish coat of plaster is applied which is normally very smooth and pink in colour. If a wall/ceiling is very uneven or has holes in it they normally plaster with something called bonding coat plaster (it is more like a cement in texture) which can be put on quite thick and is used to build up the surface so the finish coat can be put on quite thinly. If the plasterboard has paper on it the plasterer will likely pva the ceiling then skim coat it.

The brown furry paper sounds like the paper that was put on old plastered walls, we have a Victorian house and every wall is covered in this type of paper, iirc someone called it varnish paper?

PigletJohn - house was built in 1968, so not very old. I can't see whether distemper was used that much at that time.

OK, so I'm taking off the lining paper, very slowly, with hot soapy water and a scraper - god it's boring and hard work! The wallpaper stripper/steamer thing is too heavy to hold that high, plus it drips hot water down my arm - not ideal. Presume I just have to carry on with the scraper and water until it's done - and that I'm not missing a trick as to how to get it off in big sheets?! (hopeful face)

Underneath the paper is definitely a layer of paint of some sort and then white boards. The boards look straight, with no dinks, although they don't have the joins taped. So hopefully the plasterer can just do his thing.

I used a steamer by getting myself as high as possible (ladder against the wall where poss) to ease the arm-ache, and rubber gauntlets for protection against the dripping water.

1968, it won't be distemper.

Ah good, thanks PigleetJohn - it must just be cruddy yellow paint in that case - who paints a ceiling canary yellow?!

Sorry, Pigleet isn't quite right!

Could be white paint plus fags (boak)

Plasterboard does have a skin of tough paper, which goes fuzzy if scraped. Don't take that off. It might be ivory on the show side, and grey on the other side.

Nope, definitely lining paper and no fags and mostly all off now, thank god. I have one arm ache and a crick in my neck from looking up!

One more quick qu, one of the plasterboards has a crack down it, no gap, just a crack - will the plasterer be able to go over it or are we going to have to replace the board?

The crack must have been caused my something. Plasterboard does not crack easily.

Once the cause has been identified and corrected, the crack can be taped before plastering.