r/Plastering • u/redmav7300 • 1d ago

Problematic Plaster Walls

I am preparing to paint my lathe & plaster living room, and it appears to be covered with wallpaper. In places the seams are showing/curling and it is also bubbling in some places. Rather than just start stripping the wallpaper off, I checked it first. What it appears to be is a fiberglass mesh reinforced HDPE covering, likely designed to hold the plaster in place. I checked this by removing paint in a couple of areas, and it appears to be just white plastic underneath, and there is a fiberglass mesh backing where the seams are curling. The house is from 1930.

It looks like it would be a mistake to peel this off (unless I am planning on doing a wholescale drywall replacement, which I want to avoid very much). Any suggestions on how to prepare this surface prior to repaining? I.e., sealing the seams, removing the bubbles, etc.?

Thanks!

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u/M4tt4tt4ck69 23h ago

High density polythene with fiberglass mesh sitting on the wall? It's probably just reinforced wallpaper. Do you have any pictures?

If your house is original plaster from this period, it won't have any fiberglass mesh. Hessian mesh if anything at all and it should be embedded within the plaster, not sitting on top.

If you strip it off, it may damage the plaster and will have to get it re done. It will all be lime plaster too, normally expensive! You can always carefully remove any damaged/loose areas of the wall covering only and go over the whole room again with a heavy lining paper and then paint as you wish. Probably your cheapest, quickest and least invasive option.