what can I do with heavily painted woodchip walls...

[Reastie]

which have been wallpapered on top?

Will it come off? Any hints or tips or is it going to be a nightmare? Maybe just replaster? [clueless]

Painstakingly strip them. Skim them. Takes forever but worth it.

I'm afraid you have to take it all off before you replaster! Messy but doable. Rent a heavy-duty steamer, the piddly ones you get in diy shops will take three times as long.

so you take off the woodchip and then do you have to plaster or does it depend how bad it is it's going to be terrible isn't it

The previous decorator didn't want the job of removing the woodchip and recommended wallpapering over, which hasn't worked that well as said wallpaper is peeling off but woodchip is there still stuck on as good as ever.

Maybe I need the professionals...

I managed to remove woodchip with a decent steamer. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Walls were good underneath, I can't understand why they did it in the first place

Just do it. . You'll feel good when it's gone.

Get a Stanley knife and score it all over to let the steam in. Hire one or even two heavy duty steamers. Get the steam and dampness soaked in as much as possible prior to starting to scrape or it will come off one chip at a time (speaking from experience)
Once it's off speak to a decorator who can advise if re plastering is needed.

We're I am currently doing this now. Purchased house at the end of last year and various stages of woodchip/painted wallpaper over/under it, in twelve rooms (between ceiling beams as well as on walls....grrrr!) to tackle.

So far have only used a domestic steamer, but may have to resort to an industrial strength one - ceilings I'm having to do by hand though. Am scoring it through first, then using buckets of warm water and a sponge to soak......

I could cheerfully strangle the previous owner that did this.

Underneath our walls are a mixed bag - it's a Victorian/arts & crafts house with mainly original lime plastered walls - some are extremely crumbly and will need skimming......or I could opt for the Rough Luxe look, lol!

It's not impossible. Our house was old-lady pink gloss painted on woodchip throughout. We managed it by scoring through the gloss paint with a Stanley knife, then sponging with warm water. Then we used a big scraper I was given by a professional decorator. is like a long blade at right angles to a 2 foot long handle. Keep sponging and the painted layer should peel off the top, then it's easy to soak the papery under layer.
Some of our rooms the plaster was okay. Just be careful not to hack into the plaster.

Took so long to type on my phone you alt said the same before me!

I don't think it's a job for the professionals. It's messy and hard work, but takes no skill beyond what people have described here. It would cost a crazy amount to get somebody in relative to the difficulty of the task. And most decorators can't stand the stuff so are unlikely to give you a friendly quote either! So unless you have money to throw around, save your cash for the skimming you'll almost certainly need afterwards - that I wouldn't advise doing yourself (I once did a weekend plastering course, and my conclusion at the end of it was that I was going to pay somebody else to do all my plastering in future ).

I really enjoy removing woodchip. It's hard work but very rewarding.

Ugh, removing regular wallpaper is bad enough! We'll have to get a decorator in to do some of the work as it involves the hall and landing and there are areas we can't reach above the stairs, but hopefully we can do the prep as much as possible.

So, how much worse is it compared to regular wallpaper?

We used this system.

www.simplestrip.co.uk

Bought a bungalow that needed stripping. All the walls were wood chipped. I would definitely use it again , patience is very important though. We tried steaming but preferred this way.

It's really important to ventilate the house very very well when steaming to remove woodchip. It's best to do it in warmer weather so you can open all the windows and not freeze. We removed woodchip in the hallway of an old house, and th lining paper on the ceiling came off in horrible wet strips due to the moisture levels. It was a mess. We didn't actually want to remove the ceiling paper!

It is grotty but not extreme. Basically it's two layers of paper with bumps inbetween. The worst bit in our case was getting through the paint on the top which would be the same for any paper that's been painted. After that it's just two layers to remove.

a wide metal scraper might knock the tops of the scabs. Once you have broken the paint film, water can soak in; and then you can scrape a bit more.

I prefer a garden sprayer to a steamer, mist round the whole room (starting at the top) and by the time you have got back to your start point, the first spray will have soaked in.

When scraping, always start at the top, so your next spray has the chance to run down behind the paper.

With a steamer, if you hold it in one place long enough to make the plaster hot, it will crack and come off.

Reastie, it really depends on how well the paper is welded on and how thick the top layer of paint is. Ours ranged from us going 'ooh this is satisfying', doing a whole wall in little more than 45 minutes, to strangled screams of despair at the welded on bits on the next wall which refused to budge even after several hours of concerted attack!

Those scrapers described are a wonder! I mean the kind that has the blade screwed in, like a very wide Exacto knife.

Hire a steamer if you like, but scoring then sponging with very hot water is likely to be good enough for most of your work. And it's very satisfying. Our DS (4) loves doing it. At least give it a try.

Thanks all for the advice. I think the paper will be firmly stuck on as it has a number of layers of paint on it and has been on for well over 30 years (so however many layers of paint that would be.

Ah so you deffo need to do the scoring and soaking. It will work - just take time. This is the scraper we used - a fiver for fabulousness.

Yup, score or scrape the bobbles off so the steam can soak in. It is not necessarily worse than other paper, sometimes it's straightforward.

You will only need to replaster if it's in a bad way afterwards. When it's borderline we've lined with v thick lining paper then painted but that's a bit of a bodge.

I've done whole houses with layers and layers going back to the 30's. Everyone else's advice about scoring it to hell and getting lots of steam and moisture in is spot on. Most professional decorators won't touch it unless on an hourly rate as they have no idea how long it will take to get off. My only other tip, when doing the ceiling - create as sauna, wait until you can barely see across the room and then try, otherwise you will scald yourself and your arms will fall off from holding them above your head for so long.

The big razor blade scraper is the bees knees for woodchip. You'll need lots of blades though, they blunt quite quickly.

Trumpton - will that simply strip method work on ceilings?

I would think so as they cling quite well. It's really only a way of keeping the wallpaper wet enough for long enough.

Trumpton, we tried Simple Strip to remove woodchip from hallway and, in the words of DH "it would have been more effective to have kittens lick the wall..."? In fact, I think that's what he wrote in an online review, which then got removed in a rather heavy handed way... Anyway! We now own a steamer thingie and have just finished stripping the heavily painted woodchip in the living room, which took DH a couple of days to do.

For the OP, we are getting it skimmed as the plaster has come away in a few places and we figure since we DH put all that effort into it, we want it finished perfectly. We have been quoted £190 for the whole room, which I think is reasonable (quite a large living room).