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Walls are a little rough, few nicks here and there which I've filled and sanded, bits of wallpaper paste here and there.
Can I just paint it as-is or does it need a coat of something first, and is there an easy way to smooth it without sanding or skimming?
Think cheap, easy, reasonble quality finish (yeah I know, pick any 2...)
lining paper, then paint.
Needs washed down with a sugar soap solution to clean and prep the walls so the paint bonds to the surface followed by a thick undercoat to cover minor imperfections then your topcoat
or just slap on your topcoat as is, then in 6 months time wonder why your paint is bubbling and peeling away from the surface
Fill worst/biggest holes, marks etc.
Size the wall.
As neilnevill said, good heavyweight lining paper.
Will look a bit lumpy when wet (paste the paper), but when it dries....voila....then emulsion.
Wash down, zinsser Gardz to seal, fill rough patches with some easy to sand filler using one of these https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p25000?r=googleshopping&rr=marin&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&gclid=CjwKCAjwoMPcBRAWEiwAiAqZhxm1bP_FKr5_PBkbINwT3FWdeHQ6E7okZKuCKAgbfYcbDfjv9abMwhoCV30QAvD_BwE or similar plastic version. Paint with emulsion, then fill again if needed.
Zinsser gardz is brilliant stuff, i do advise washing down to remove as much paste residue as possible. Use a big sponge like a car sponge in just warm water, no sugar soap or detergent. Any paste still left is dealt with by the gardz. I have done it this way for years and it saves using lining paper in all but the worst cases. Its also a great alternative to old fashioned size, made my job a lot easier I can tell you.
What about something like this or a similar thick basecoat?
Lining paper? Do you want it to look like an old people’s home?
What you need to do isn’t easy or fast but is the only way I have found that works and lasts.
1) strip paper with steamer
2) steam wall surface and scrape to remove remaining wallpaper paste. You need to scrape the glue whilst it’s hot
3) repeat no.2 going over it all again
4) repeat no.3 going over it yet again
5) clean walls with scouring pad and hot water
6) repeat no.5 clean it again
7) repeat no.6 clean it even more
8) repeat no.7 clean it yet again
you get to the point where you can feel the walls are clean enough to be painted. I would firstly give them a good coat of white emulsion which highlights any problem areas that need filling or sanding.
I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to walls and hate to see lumpy walls and couldn’t stand to see the joints of lining paper. Nowadays I get a good plasterer in to skim the walls as it’s much quicker, easier and less messy. Sometimes I will get walls over boarded which again solves various problems.
Gardz is very good for sealing the surface if you have to scrape off lots of old paper and glue.
Bigwatts- all that steaming, hot water and scrubbing I assume your walls are in a much better state than any I have owned. IME you’ll just make the walls worse if you overdo it damaging the paper finish on the plasterboard or lifting the Ames tape... Which is probably why you default to:
Nowadays I get a good plasterer in to skim the walls as it’s much quicker, easier and less messy.
Good Plasterers are expensive - you can probably get a good decorator for the same cost and get a finished job for the price (he’ll not reskim the walls but tidy up where required)
Lining paper.
disclaimer - not a decorator!
depends on what standard of finish you want - if you are happy with lines every 18 inches or so, the lining paper is a quick and easy way to get a reasonable finish on crap surfaces. having done this once, and then spent time prepping a wall, I'll never use it again personally.
if its something approaching perfection, then as others have said above, preparation is the key. When we had offices renovated, i couldn't understand how the quote was so much for what we wanted but when we went with a trusted company, they spent their time 4:1 prep: painting. a weeks work was 4 days prepping every wall and a day doing the actual painting.
removed the god awful wallpaper from everywall in my house using the steam , sugarsoap, skim to fill holes , mistcoat (water down cheapo emuslion) and paint.
Grand.
lining paper looks awful - in some cases this was the bodge i was removing. in others it was 4 layers of paper to find the wall.
only exception was where i overboarded the artex on the hall celing just to not have to deal with it.where i taped and skimmed it then misted and painted.
that was 7 years ago. no issues. with paint bubbling off anywhere.
I detest wallpaper.
I've always painted straight onto plaster after stripping paper without further preparation of the overall surface, tend to fill obvious holes where rawl plugs have been but otherwise just paint and not worry. Never had issues with paint lifting. Have had problems 'oversteaming' and lifting a skim coat of plaster.
It helps it's an older house I guess but I don't mind if there's imperfections in the final painted surface - it's a wall not a french polished table.
As i said i'm a perfectionist when it comes to my walls. It would annoy the hell out of me if there were any marks or lumps.
I have never damaged a wall by steaming but the walls i have repaired have always been skimmed i.e. not just taped and jointed board. if you tried steaming unskimmed board then yes you could damage it.
As above preparation is key. No matter what primer or wonder treatment you put on it will sill be lumpy and look rubbish if there is still glue on the wall. The painting is the quick easy bit at the end if the preparation is done correctly.
I get walls plastered nowadays as i have more £££ than i used to and my time is better spent elsewhere.
lining paper looks awful
This. When we moved into our current house the wallpaper was horrible so we stripped it and put up lining paper then painted.
Move forwards 15 years and I hate lining paper (it's stll OK I just don't like the 'look') so we're gradually removing it and having the walls skimmed before repainting - which is the most expensive - but best - way to fix it.
As neilnevill said, good heavyweight lining paper.
This - but not too thick paper as it is a bitch to hang, especially into corners and around doors. And I really don't agree with anyone that says lining paper looks awful - I really don't have a problem with it at all. But it should be hung horizontally, not vertically (so joins are much less obvious) so you need to either be very good at papering or get someone in. I am pretty good at papering but I still get a professional in to do it for me.
If you're happy with horizontal line going around your room then go for it (and we did get a pro to hang it..... but the joins are still visible.)
joins .
im out.
not a single joint to be seen as i look round my room right now. its worth putting the effort in.
lining paper is for hiding stuff you cant be bothered fixing.
you don't need lining paper unless its really terrible
sugar soap - then a good quality white emulsion as basecoat (Johnson's paint), more fillering if required then the colour over that. Don't overthink it 🙂
get a decorators lightbulb to show everything during the work, once a normal bulb goes in you'll have done a good enough job to not worry about it.
What is a 'decorators lightbulb' and where do I get one? Just about to finish off a room.
just a very bright and white light .
I use a halogen flood light array on a stand when looking for imperfections.
Lining paper is fine and you can smear the walls with your own excrement if you really feel you need to improve on it.
lining paper looks awful
+1
I had all our walls re-skimmed after stripping off wallpaper / lining paper...
A plasterer to skim the walls is the right answer. £200 or so for an average front room I reckon. Looks so much better than a) bumpy walls and b) lining paper.
We’re about to embark on redecorating the entire house and this will be the route we take. Don’t see the point doing it any other way
+1 on a halogen bulb, or a really point source LED one, not a big diffuse bulb. The smaller the point source, the more it'll show up imperfections.
Zinser to soak off any remaining paper/paste, then sugar soap to wash the walls, then clean water.
Fill, sand and couple of coats of cheap emulsion to show up anything that will show through paint, then go round and sand it smooth. Then paint in whatever colour you like.
The OH insists on lining some walls, I think the stripes look worse than the walls behind them.
There's one wall that's absolutely horrible in our lounge, but you can only see it with a halogen light bulb. Stick a diffused LED in there and it looks completely smooth. So you can save yourself a lot of work if you plan ahead and know what light fittings you'll have!
Or get a professional in to do it. For about £200 they'll do a proper job in a fraction of the time while you're out on your bike or out and about with your family and or friends. I recently paid a painter and decorator to do my hall stairs and landing including woodwork for £400. Had it licked in a couple of days while I was at work. Done a cracking job - though paper has never been used on the walls. It would have cost me about £80 or so in paint and materials if I were to do it myself and I would have taken a couple of weekends at it and wouldn't have done as good a job.
double at least and then some if you want them to strip paper and make good damage before painting.
as the chap earlier said - like most things prep is 2-3-4 times the time to actually paint depending on how its been done in the past.
No idea how easy this is to work with or if it's any good but I came across the following the other day:
