Woodchip Wallpaper Over Lime Plaster Walls

5 years ago

The Victorian mid terrace house we have recently bought as a doer upper, has three floors of woodchip wallpaper to every wall and ceiling. The walls and wallpaper seem to be in good nick, apparently the guy who lived here previously, who lived in the house since 1969, was a decorator. What are my options when it comes to decorating? We want clean looking matt painted looking walls.

Having stripped some wallpaper off in a corner as a tester, there was a layer of paint underneath, which I could scrape off to reveal the lime plaster wall. The lime plaster wall if rubbed hard enough feels grainy, and it's not too hard to rub specks of sand away.

So much conflicting information on the net, i think my main options are to line with lining paper and then paint to ensure smooth wall. Painting the lime plaster direct may not get a smooth finish. Any suggestions?

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Comments (4)

Steve Mac
Original Author
5 years ago
Decided I should be using limewash, Farrow and Ball seem to do a good range of colours. However, I have noticed when stripping the wallpaper, some areas have been replastered with gypsum plaster, where they have broken our for electrics etc. Will it be ok to use limewash in these areas considering the rest of the wall is lime plaster?
PRO
Novitas Decorators Ltd
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Steve, I would line the walls after rigourous preparation work. One thing you could do is cross line the walls. Basically this is to make good the walls with easi-fill (with the woodchip paper off), rub down and size the walls with a thinned out coat of paste. Let the size dry fully and hang lining paper either vertically or horizontally. Once hung and dried, look at the condition of the walls re-fill the bad areas again and rub down. Just size the filled areas only and then re-line the walls in the crossed direction of the first hang. So if you hung vertically on the first, hang horizontally on the second hang and vice versa. Once complete paint as normal. You should see a marked difference in the smoothness of the walls,
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Hi there, I was considering spending £700 to remove woodchip wallpaper in my living room (quote for removal + skim in London). Couldn't believe the price, so spending that on a new kitchen floor instead! I really still want to transform the lounge and paint the walls a lovely terracotta pink. Any examples of painting over woodchip not looking awful? It's currently white and woodchip is quite subtle, I could very much live with it as it is, but painted pink it could look grim. Any ideas / inspo? Thanks!
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PRO
Earl & Calam Design and Build Ltd
5 years ago
Hi Steve, How lovely to have a victorian property! In our experience wood chip is used to cover up a multitude of sins. sounds like you are already finding the electrical chases filled with modern plaster. We usually strip the wood chip then asses whats there. tap the existing paster and if it sounds hollow you may need to go back to the brick and do some replastering, hopefully not. once you know what you are dealing with in each room you can decide if replastering is more cost effective than papering. It also depends to what extent you want to go. I replastered most of my house as it was in such a state, but we quite often go the double lining route. Have fun.
Chris Goodchild
5 years ago
I was going to write exactly what Novitas has said, providing you don't have extensive areas of live plaster you will get good results from cross lining.

Woodchip Wallpaper Over Lime Plaster Walls

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Steve Mac
Original Author

Novitas Decorators Ltd

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Woodchip Wallpaper Over Lime Plaster Walls

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Steve MacOriginal Author

Novitas Decorators Ltd

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Earl & Calam Design and Build Ltd

Chris Goodchild

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Steve Mac
Original Author