Decorating nightmare

Soldato
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I've taken a few days off to decorate my daughter's bedroom and i'm out of my depth on day one! We bought this house last year and it's a 1970s build.

Anyway the room i'm talking about is painted but we know that it did have wall paper at one point. Looking closely at the paint you can see that it's very rough in places and even if I sand + paint on top I don't know if it would look respectable.

The most obvious problem is that the tape between the aertex celling and walls has failed and needs to be replaced or covered with coving.

Where there are holes or damage that need filling i'm finding that the paint is flaking off quite badly in places.

In other places where there are hairline cracks i've started to chase them out to fill but found paper strips underneath which are covering the seams between the boards.

At this point i've realised that this room has probably never been plastered and the old wall paper was removed (badly) from the boards and then painted on top and perhaps without properly sealing the boards, and so the paint hasn't adhered properly.

Does that sound likely? This is probably the same genius that stuck the fire alarms up with mastic

I'm thinking:
  • continue to remove flaking paint
  • remove failed paper around the ceiling
  • wash down
  • patch up holes etc with filler
  • phone a plasterer (not going to be easy to find one at the moment)
  • paint
  • get coving fitted
Any advice would be most welcome

Some epics

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Soldato
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Although it's not ideal, I think there's really only one option here. The fact you're pulling up all these details suggests you want a proper job with no niggles outstanding (rightfully so I say). Given that, really, it's going to be a case of biting the bullet and getting it skimmed. Just start fresh rather than try to patch up someone else's poor workmanship.

Throw up some cheap vinyl transfers if you want some colour while you await a plasterer or get creative with blankets/throws, but ultimately I think it's the only way to be truly happy with the result.
 
Soldato
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We had a similar room in a similar age house. We got a respectable finish with some filling and sanding, but it took so much effort it would’ve been better in hindsight to get a plasterer in.

I’m sure you’re aware but just in case - don’t sand the artex ceiling, probably contains asbestos at that age.
 
Soldato
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We had a similar room in a similar age house. We got a respectable finish with some filling and sanding, but it took so much effort it would’ve been better in hindsight to get a plasterer in.

I’m sure you’re aware but just in case - don’t sand the artex ceiling, probably contains asbestos at that age.
What's the crack with getting rid of artex? Easier to board over and reskim?
 
Caporegime
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What's the crack with getting rid of artex? Easier to board over and reskim?

Depends if it's asbestos or not.

If it's not you can sand it off but it'll make a right flipping mess.

If it's old hat and asbestos board it up, or cut it out (safely of that's a thing) then board it up

Tbh I'd board it up regardless :D
 
Soldato
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Depends if it's asbestos or not.

If it's not you can sand it off but it'll make a right flipping mess.

If it's old hat and asbestos board it up, or cut it out (safely of that's a thing) then board it up

Tbh I'd board it up regardless :D
Top man thanks. Second question - Who tf thought artex looked good? I mean, it must have been a post war generational thing, but my god? What the hell? :p
 
Soldato
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Top man thanks. Second question - Who tf thought artex looked good? I mean, it must have been a post war generational thing, but my god? What the hell? :p

I hate the stuff but the wife isn't bothered so it stays. We've got some in the kitchen even and the bit above the cooker hobs is grim. I know it's not particularly dangerous but I don't really want to muck about with it even to wash it down
 
Soldato
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I hate the stuff but the wife isn't bothered so it stays. We've got some in the kitchen even and the bit above the cooker hobs is grim. I know it's not particularly dangerous but I don't really want to muck about with it even to wash it down
Yeah it only dawned on me over the weekend that despite decorating my Mums house almost every other year (when I was there) and doing some major works since moving out; we have neglected all of the artex ceilings. Definitely on the list this year/next to board and cover up.
 
Soldato
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I've had two plasterers come and quote. One has refused to take the job because the parition walls are 'stramit' which is made up of compressed straw. It has a sort of paper lining which you can see in the 4th & 5th pictures in the OP but he wasn't confident that the plaster would stick properly, and indeed in the hallway we do have a partition wall with plaster just falling off it. We thought it was just the previous cowboy owner doing a poor job, but maybe not.

So I'm really stuck now, I just don't know what to do. I'm waiting for the other quote to come back (he didn't have any reservations taking the job on) but I'm worried that the work he does will fail like the wall in the hallway.
 
Soldato
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Just get the thickest wallpaper you can buy and paper over it and get the polystyrene coving to cover where the wall meets the ceiling you'll have a small room done in a couple of days
 
Soldato
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Just get the thickest wallpaper you can buy and paper over it and get the polystyrene coving to cover where the wall meets the ceiling you'll have a small room done in a couple of days
There's nothing like wanting something done properly to instead just paper over it. Lol

Any rooms in my house like that I've gone back to brick and re-plastered the walls, new plasterboard ceilings, new skirting. Do it properly first time I say.
 
Soldato
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There's nothing like wanting something done properly to instead just paper over it. Lol

Any rooms in my house like that I've gone back to brick and re-plastered the walls, new plasterboard ceilings, new skirting. Do it properly first time I say.

Depends on the situation, I've done that in one of my rooms and it looks absolutely fine you would never know unless you started inspecting the walls closely, didn't have the time to replaster it all with a baby on the way and the money was put elsewhere

I do regret not getting my house completely re-wired though so in hindsight if I had that done I would have had replastered but there was not enough time
 
Soldato
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Liner paper in good hands can be excellent. Got one of our rooms done by a professional with this after finding similar terrible plaster and previous DIY and it’s still in very good nick over 5 years later.
 
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