Help me strip, prep and paint

[Margo34]

Had a damp issue in 2nd bedroom from neighbours lack of maintenance to their roof. Was pregnant at the time, it was going to be baby's room. Their roof is finally repaired.

Said baby is now 13m old and I'm just starting to decorate, DIY. Replastered the ceiling (plasterer, not me), I've almost stripped 5 layers of wall paper off the walls myself with a scraper and s bucket of water (yes, 5 layers)!!! Lesson learned: hire a steamer if I ever do this again.

What do I do next? Sand the walls? Sugarwash the walls? Book a decorator? (Joking, I really want to DIY).

I intend to paint the room.

Help!

Thanks, from a complete novice

And I haven't even thought about the woodwork yet. The door is original and layered in old paint, you can see it chipping off at the bottom right the way back to what may well be original paint. Old 1890s house!

Seriously, decorators daughter here and experienced DIY decorator (who now has it done professionally).

What were your walls like before the paper? Are they old walls? If so, there is no alternative other than reskimming the plaster OR rubbing down and filling the walls and papering them with thick lining paper then emulsioning them.

If this house has been unloved, it needs some serious professional TLC.

As for the door, you either rub it down really well, undercoat and paint or get it dipped and stripped.

Surely if it was the neighbour's fault, then their insurance should be paying for a decorator to repair the damage they've caused?

They are old walls. The plasterer who did the ceiling suspects the walls might be original horsehair/lime render (as the ceiling was).

My insurance wouldn't cover it as the damage was due to negligence rather than spontaneous water leak.

Also, it was previous owners who put paper up, not us!

Our house is 1892 and our remaining old plaster is the hairy kind of plaster - ours is made with some kind of ash or something, filthy dusty grey/black stuff.
If your plaster is still well stuck, which it sounds to be as stripping the paper didn’t pull it off, then sand lightly, wipe down, and cover with thick lining paper before painting.
You should really deal with the woodwork first though…

Think you may need to be careful with the woodwork. If there are loads of layers, then lead may be in one of the.

If you’re just going to lightly sand or sugar soap then paint you should be fine. If there’s loads of layers going back decades and you want to remove it, you’d need to use a chemical stripper.

For the walls I suggest you wash down with sugar soap, then rinse. If the surface is sound then you’ll be ok to pain. Any cracks etc should be filled with a lime based putty.

Lime plaster is designed to and needs to breathe otherwise you get damp. If you paint with a non breathable paint it locks the moisture into the house.

One of these would be my choice. I’d dilute the paint 50;50 with water for the first cost, then wait till it’s completely dry before applying a full strength coat.

I always prep walls, then trim, check for holes, crack etc and fill them. Then paint walls before trim.

If I was to put thick lining paper up (I don't want to really) but say I did and then paint, would I need to remove the lining paper to repaint next time I decorate the room (if it whenever that may be...)?

Not if you do it properly

@Margo34

If I was to put thick lining paper up (I don't want to really) but say I did and then paint, would I need to remove the lining paper to repaint next time I decorate the room (if it whenever that may be...)?

No - you can repaint indefinitely. Lining paper just holds everything together, smooths over small imperfections, and gives you a good even surface to paint. It’s great stuff