woodchip wallpaper horror

[georgie34]

DS's room is still covered in woodchip after 18 months in this house but we will have to get round to sorting it out soon. Has anyone successfully dealt with it other than having to steam it off and replaster? The walls don't look too bad but I'm assuming the woodchip is there because the plaster's in an awful state underneath. Haven't tried getting it off yet but I have a feeling the plaster will come with it when we do! Any ideas or suggestions very gratefully received!

sponged, scraped, filled and sanded
didn't need to replaster

but this was in a 1960s house so no hidden Victorian horrors, and the plaster had been painted several times (ie well sealed) before they'd hung the woodchip.

Thanks...it's Victorian so have a feeling there are bad things underneath. Praps I'll have a go at one wall in an unobtrusive area and see how it goes!

I'd leave it till you have a contingengy fund for replastering...
My house is victorian also and when I went at my wall paper all the plaster was coming off with it!
Isn't wall paper supposed to be coming back in?

ugh, woodchip can be a nightmare!!! i dont envy you at all!! Why would anyone put the stuff up in the first place?!!!!

In this house it was probably to keep the walls from crumbling completely...aggh. Ah well, another expensive and time consuming job to add to the long list!

to hide amultitude of sins.

can you bribe a bunch of people to come round and do it for you? a decorating party. you bake cake and provide beverages, they work like slaves and get loads more done in a day than you could alone.

bloody woodchip is souls destroying tackled alone

yeah, alot of woodchip holds up the walls in Victorian houses, doesn't it?

I'm not sure what is worse tho - woodchip wallpaper or artex on the walls!

Ack, woodchip... I once had a flat that was covered in the stuff. It took me about two weeks to strip one (small) room before I learned to live with it everywhere else. The plaster was far from great underneath but replastering wasn't a financial option for me at the time, so I repapered with heavy duty lining paper (after lots of filling and sanding) and it looked sort of OK afterwards.

I swore afterwards never to buy anywhere with woodchip. We've recently bought a house covered in anaglypta which at least is much easier to get off!

Oops. We have anaglypta too, painted in gloss paint gone yellowy. All the way through the hall, stairs and landing beneath the dado rail level. Have been pushing the thought of dealing with that out of my mind. Can't remember why on earth we thought it was a good idea to buy this house. No artex though, so I should be thankful for small mercies. (All my friends houses are falling down too so there's no way I'd be able to lure any of them round to help sort mine out, even with the promise of cake and booze..!)

I wish we only had glossed anaglypta to deal with! The amount DIY bodge jobs in this house is absolutely laughable! We've only been here since July and have spotted so many crap bodge jobs, including artex on walls and ceilings and one of the walls even has been made to look like a bare brick wall with.... yes, bare bricks, which has obviously shortened the room by a good 6 inches! The room just isn't big enough to cater for that kind of "decor".

Wow - what a fantastic design statement that must be! I have to say that's made me feel better. (Sorry it has to be at your expense though!)

I know georgie, it's horrific!! The bricks have been stuck straight onto the (artexed) wall behind it. Oh what fun that will be when we decorate this room!!

Same dilemma here, but I got abit off and the wall is so awful behind it, it's going to be a strip and replaster job.

Leave the woodchip where it is. In time you won't notice it. I removed woodchip from our kitchen when we first moved in - it had been painted with orange gloss paint. Never again.

Life is too short.

Take the chance & get it off, you might be pleasantly surprised. We are in the process of removing anaglypta AND woodchip & are very pleased with the walls underneath : - )

Good luck, borrow/hire a steamer, a flat scraper tool & away you go !

RGPargy, do you live in my old house - artexed walls, 'brick effect' tiles and crumbling plaster, sounds very familiar... (we only had woodchip to deal with here - artex is worse)

I like stripping walls {madwoman emoticon}

Homebase do a wallpaper that covers woodchip, its a blown vinyl and is plain so you can paint it after you have put it up. Wish I'd seen it before I'd started the stripping hell in ys room.

Woodchip is a crime to houses. It destroys the look of any wall and swallows light. The people who put it up should be made to eat it.

Don't worry about the state of the plaster- it is unlikely to be as bad as the horrors of the woodchip! It is a lazy way of decorating, like the ubiquitous use of magnolia. You may well find,as I did, that the walls are perfectly ok.

YOu need to soak the walls, and it's really just a lot of elbow grease and commitment and scraping. A steamer may help a bit, but I think you will have to cut the wallpaper so the steam can get through to the wallpaper glue.

You will be so so pleased if you get it done!

I don't know if I have the energy to de-woodchip another house. I loathe it!!