Hi everyone,
We recently bought an Edwardian property (built around 1910). There's lining paper on all the walls and ceilings in 3/4 of the house (apart from the extension and loft conversion). It's most likely lath and plaster underneath the lining paper.
On some of the walls and ceilings, lining paper has come off, can see the joints/lines, has bumps and has some halls (house used to be rented out to a family with kids). Both my partner and I have an eye for detail and we would like the walls and ceilings to be smooth before they are re-painted so we are thinking of removing lininng paper and re-plastering. We want to retain period features like covings and ceiling roses.
We've had quotes from a few plasterers and couple of them said it's risky removing wallpaper off old lath and plaster (especially the ceilings) and replastering as the old plaster under the paper could be already cracked, could get damaged, could crack in the future and will show through the new plaster, parts of the ceiling could collapse, etc. Couple of the plasters said it's fine and they can put fiberglass mesh if there are cracks.
One guy said it's best to overboard (brining down the ceilings is out of the question) where possible. We could potentially do that in some of the rooms but it's not an option in the living room as we want to keep covings and ceiling roses.
We are not looking to the do any of the work ourselves as it's too much work for us (both of us are very busy at the moment) though we are not afraid to get our hands dirty, we don't think we have the necessary skills.
We have allocated a budget for removing wallpaper, replastering and then decorating/painting. We would like a good finish and something that would last a long time. We are concerned that removing wallpaper and replastering old lath and plaster ceiling might be opening a can of worms.
What are your suggestions/advice? Should we go ahead, get someone to remove wallpaper and re-plaster? I guess they'd need to be really careful when removing wallpaper from ceilings not to disrupt the lime plaster. Perhaps no steamer and only use water spray? Are we likely to encounter problems after removing wallpaper?
Thanks very much for reading.
PS: We bought a period conversion flat (think it was also Edwardian) about 6 years ago and did a complete refurbishment including removing wallpaper and replastering. And the end result was great and there were no cracks in the 6 years we lived there however I am not sure if the ceilings were lath and plaster or had plasterboards already perhaps from the conversion. Ceilings did have covings and ceiling roses.
We recently bought an Edwardian property (built around 1910). There's lining paper on all the walls and ceilings in 3/4 of the house (apart from the extension and loft conversion). It's most likely lath and plaster underneath the lining paper.
On some of the walls and ceilings, lining paper has come off, can see the joints/lines, has bumps and has some halls (house used to be rented out to a family with kids). Both my partner and I have an eye for detail and we would like the walls and ceilings to be smooth before they are re-painted so we are thinking of removing lininng paper and re-plastering. We want to retain period features like covings and ceiling roses.
We've had quotes from a few plasterers and couple of them said it's risky removing wallpaper off old lath and plaster (especially the ceilings) and replastering as the old plaster under the paper could be already cracked, could get damaged, could crack in the future and will show through the new plaster, parts of the ceiling could collapse, etc. Couple of the plasters said it's fine and they can put fiberglass mesh if there are cracks.
One guy said it's best to overboard (brining down the ceilings is out of the question) where possible. We could potentially do that in some of the rooms but it's not an option in the living room as we want to keep covings and ceiling roses.
We are not looking to the do any of the work ourselves as it's too much work for us (both of us are very busy at the moment) though we are not afraid to get our hands dirty, we don't think we have the necessary skills.
We have allocated a budget for removing wallpaper, replastering and then decorating/painting. We would like a good finish and something that would last a long time. We are concerned that removing wallpaper and replastering old lath and plaster ceiling might be opening a can of worms.
What are your suggestions/advice? Should we go ahead, get someone to remove wallpaper and re-plaster? I guess they'd need to be really careful when removing wallpaper from ceilings not to disrupt the lime plaster. Perhaps no steamer and only use water spray? Are we likely to encounter problems after removing wallpaper?
Thanks very much for reading.
PS: We bought a period conversion flat (think it was also Edwardian) about 6 years ago and did a complete refurbishment including removing wallpaper and replastering. And the end result was great and there were no cracks in the 6 years we lived there however I am not sure if the ceilings were lath and plaster or had plasterboards already perhaps from the conversion. Ceilings did have covings and ceiling roses.