House with woodchip

[moonsurferpig]

Hi all,

My partner and I viewed a terraced property that we are quite keen on, however the downstairs rooms (living room, dining room and part of the kitchen ) have old woodchip wallpaper, which is coming off in many places. The property has been a rental for quite some time and therefore needs a few touch ups but this is the main issue.

The vendor advised that the seller is considering arranging it to be removed before completing a sale if but it sounds like he would rather avoid this if possible.

My question is how much bother/cost is this as a job? Sounds like we would need to hire people to do it. We have no chain our end and a 3 month old baby. We are staying with family right now so could get this sorted, if necessary, before moving in. The house is on for 270k-280k and has been on the market since early December. It's in a popular area so we were surprised it has been on so long. The vendor said there have been no offers and that viewers have been commenting on the woodchip.

Does anyone have any advice? My research on checkatrade seems to show it'd cost a few grand (3k upwards?) to get this done. I think the property is a bit overpriced anyway so mulling over what to offer and if it's worth it!

I came across an old MN thread where people were saying how much hassle removing this stuff is and it got me thinking!

Thanks in advance!

I removed woodchip in previous house. Was time consuming and tedious, but straightforward. Hire a steamer (from HSS or similar), and do one room at a time. We didn’t have nightmarish plaster afterwards, though had expected to need walls skimmed.

It's a nightmare and there's a chance it will take off some plaster underneath. I'd have seller do it if possible.

You don't need to get a professional in. (unless you want to)

The fact that it is already peeling is actually a good thing.

as PP said, hiring a steamer is great. Score the surface of the woodchip with a sharp knife which helps the steam to penetrate.
Get a good triangular scrapper, and just go one wall or one room at a time. Be careful not to dig holes in th eplaster a syou scrape.
once off, of course the issue will be how bad the plaster is underneath. If it is rough but solid, you could re-wallpaper, or even paper with lining paper and paint. But it is possible that you might need to put a plaster skim on.

Realistically it's less than £2k to remove it yourself and have 3 rooms skimmed - wouldn't put me off personally

Our current house (3 bed) had woodchip in every single room. Just removed it myself with a basic stream stripper.

The plaster was a bit "crazed" fine for being re-wallpapered but painting needed a few extra coats.

Thank you all for your helpful responses. Sounds like it's not too bad an effort after all. Will likely attempt the steam stripping if all goes through

woodchip is usually applied to hide defective plaster

but it is not difficult to take off yourself.

The problem is that it will be painted, and the paint prevents water soaking in. so start by roughly scraping it to take the tips off some of chips. Water will then soak in through them.l

Try not to score it because this will damge the plaster.

I recommend getting a large garden sprayer, fill it with hot water with a bit of WUL, mist the walls lightly. By the time you have got round to where you started it is ready to mist again. Do it several times untl the paper changes colour and looks wet. The wetter and softer it is, the easier to scrape the top off the scabs, and water will soak in faster. Strip it from the top, and spray the wall so that water runs down behind the paper and loosens it. have a large dustbin to throw the bits in, as wet wallpaper scraps are very slippery and you will fall over.

@PigletJohn

woodchip is usually applied to hide defective plaster

but it is not difficult to take off yourself.

The problem is that it will be painted, and the paint prevents water soaking in. so start by roughly scraping it to take the tips off some of chips. Water will then soak in through them.l

Try not to score it because this will damge the plaster.

I recommend getting a large garden sprayer, fill it with hot water with a bit of WUL, mist the walls lightly. By the time you have got round to where you started it is ready to mist again. Do it several times untl the paper changes colour and looks wet. The wetter and softer it is, the easier to scrape the top off the scabs, and water will soak in faster. Strip it from the top, and spray the wall so that water runs down behind the paper and loosens it. have a large dustbin to throw the bits in, as wet wallpaper scraps are very slippery and you will fall over.

Thanks, this is really helpful advice

Having just finished stripping 4 rooms of woodchip (kindly hidden by anaglypta when I bought the house) I can say it is not hard but it is tedious. A steamer cost me £50, and as others have said it's patience, a knife to score the paper and a scraper.

A few things I encountered - the woodchip comes off walls pretty easily where the plaster has already had a coat of paint. In this case I just had to touch up with filler and sanding (tedious but managaable). However in the hall the paper had been put directly onto the plasterboard and as I steamed the top plasterboard layer came off - this where if I had the budget I would have needed someone to come in and skim. I have managed to fix it but it will never be perfectly smooth walls (I am accepting it as its the hall).

Also, is the ceiling woodchip too? The decorator and joiner both advised me it would be cheaper to have the ceiling re-sheeted than pay for for someone to come and skim the celiling. So I had the lounge, dining and hallway ceilings all re-sheeted.

We bought a flat covered in wood chip 10 years ago. It was an 1800s property so it turned out the wood chip was basically holding the walls together

It was a lot of work to remove it, and it exposed awful whattle and daubed walls underneath which we completely removed, insulated, and plastereboard/plastered over the top of.

At the time it felt like Actual Hell, but my God the walls were beautiful when we finished. We sold 8 years later and they were still so beautiful.

Short term pain for long term gain.

Was there a time when woodchip was considered fashionable? Our house is covered in it but it is a 1970s house so I don't think it can have been used to hide defects in every room. I have thought about removing it but didn't want to if it would mean having to get the walls skimmed. The house is small and I can't cope with a room being out of action for weeks at a time while the paper is stripped, walls are skimmed and then painted.

@applesandpears33 - my bungalow is 1970s build too, so yes it must have been the fashion then rather than needing to hide bad walls. Is there a room you could test removing it yourself from? You may not need to skim, just patience with filling and sanding yourself (it will never be glass smooth but I preferred not having the woodchip) and once your furniture is back in its hard to notice any imperfections.

Dh removed woodchip from our whole house room by room. Even took it off a couple of ceilings.
He didn't bother with a steamer, he used cheap fabric softener and water in a spray bottle, spray, leave a bit, then scrape. Came off easier than we thought.
We expected cracked plaster under, but ours turned out to be a fashion statement and all walls and ceilings were good and are now re skimmed and painted.