Plastering question.

[henlake7]

Is it ever ok to plaster over woodchip wallpaper?
I just had a plasterer round to do 3 rooms for me and I had to tell him I was cancelling after the first. I honestly didnt trust him to do a decent job as the plaster work looked rough and he actually plastered over a wall of woodchip paper. When I questioned it he said it was fine and he did it all the time!
I managed to wiggle out of the contract but am I right in thinking that plasterers usually dont just skim over woodchip?

Yes you can. We did it last year in a spare bedroom. It’s not as good as if the room had been stripped and skimmed, but it’s a spare room, we were running out of money and it cost £250 rather than £700. It’s liveable with

As above. Depends on the price

Why don't you remove the woodchip yourself? A steamer will help massively.

I know somebody could do it theirselves (and I am planning on stripping the bedrooms) but what I mean is a professional plasterer did it and said it was a totally normal thing to do.
I cancelled the job halfway through because I thought it sounded dodgy.

Well you engaged a plasterer not a wallpaper stripper. Did you expect him to remove the woodchip first? I think that would have been an additional job that he would have expected to be done before he turned up. He did what he was briefed to do, and it does sound quite normal if not ideal.

well, the quote included stripping the wallpaper so yeah, I kinda expected that to happen!

It’s not normal at all.

Well in that case he should jolly well have done it! Whether it’s normal or not it’s not what you asked for and he was cutting corners.

Honestly I was glad he agreed to quit halfway through. He also originally told me it would be more expensive as all the polysterene ceiling tiles would have to be removed....then proceeded to skim over them instead!
Am currently waiting to see if anything falls off!

WTF!!! You can’t do that. The ceiling will soon resemble a chess board, and the new added weight of the plaster may well bring the tiles down.

Whit!?!