1920s House - Plastering

[JennyB123]

Hi everyone! 

We are currently in the midst of doing up our house, which is a mix of 1920s, 1990s and 2000s building eras. We are working in our hallway, which is original to the house (1926), and have stripped back behind our radiators whilst we have our heating system replaced. Behind the hallway radiator, the wallpaper is peeling off really easily - we feel that all that is really keeping the wallpaper up in the hallway is probably coat after coat of paint. 

From research, it looks like we may have a lime plaster, potentially with a distemper paint over the top. What would be the best option for getting the walls ready to paint? We don't really want to strip back to brick - would lining paper or other options work? Or do we need to go the whole hog and just strip it back?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Sparrowhawk]

Interesting I've got some walls like that too which look to be distemper onto lime plaster. @nod can distemper be plastered over?

[ProDave]

We had distemper in a previous 1930's house.  It could not even be painted over (it peeled off and wrapped itself around the roller in places)

[Gone West]

On 03/06/2024 at 20:40, JennyB123 said:

Or do we need to go the whole hog and just strip it back?

Back in the nineties we had a 1900 cottage with some distempered walls and the builder wanted it all removed before he would plaster them. Wendy set to work with a scutch hammer, she got through a lot of scutch bits.

 

[nod]

1 hour ago, Sparrowhawk said:

Interesting I've got some walls like that too which look to be distemper onto lime plaster. @nod can distemper be plastered over?

It can If its solid But it’s often flaky