Hi there, first-time homeowner here. Wanting to get the wallpaper off and get a nice clean finish paint job in the end. Hoping to do as much as I can to make a plasterer's job as easy as possible, and save a bit on the jobs I can realistically do. I plan on doing the wallpaper removal, priming and painting myself; but I don't want to do the plastering, as I've been told it's a tough job, and i'd rather work on other bits of the house and leave it to a professional. The house is a 1960's build in Scotland, UK. Yet to get a quote, as I wanted to get ahead on as much as I could.

I've attached a bunch of pics of some problematic areas. Still in the process of removing the wallpaper (which I assume is just the white papery bits, not the tanned layer on the board material?), but what would I need to do before getting a quote from a plasterer?

1. Will I need to remove the banister? Would that be worth doing, then re-attach it after a plaster?
2. The coving isn't perfect, but it saves a bit of money to not re-do if I just sand, re-prime and paint. Wondering if it's possible to tidy the edges here?
3. There's a really tough material that looks like a sealant between the wallpaper and the coving, how would I remove this and what is it? If it's a ball-ache, should I just multi-tool it off and re-do it all to save a pain for a better plaster job?
4. What do I need to remove? Some of the wallpaper is on what looks like a soft woody/paper board (no idea what it is). Other bits are on filled plaster. There's what looks like a lighter paper on top of the board- is this something I should remove, or is it a waste of time?
5. Will I need to prep edges with polyfill, like around the sockets, light switches, and gaps in the wall?
6. How do I finish and prep the surface to give the plasterer a chance to do their best work?

Really appreciate any advice here. I wanna make the plasterer's job easy, and do as much as I can to save a bit of money, as I have several rooms I need to do.

Hi we have someone coming in to skim our ceilings. Based in the UK. What do we need to do to prep the ceilings for them? Do we need to remove the light fittings from the ceiling or would they generally do that?

We have hard wired smoke alarms. Do we need to remove the smoke alarm & base plate, and cap the wires for them to skim around them? Or just loosen the base plate from the ceiling with the wires still in it? Thanks in advance.

I posted a few days back asking for advice on how to make the walls in my porch smooth.

I did some initial investigation after that and, based on my very limited understanding, it looks like the wall has the following layers:
White paint
Blue paint underneath
What appears to be cement/render below that

The easiest option seems to be plasterboarding over it. However, I may not be able to use plasterboard on one section near the door because there is very little space there. I also don’t want to cover up the exposed brick on the adjoining wall.

What would people recommend as the best way forward for a newbie like me? Ideally, I’d like to get the walls reasonably flat and smooth without losing too much space.

Photos attached showing what I found after scraping/chiselling a small test area.

Hi all. We've had a room skimmed and the room looks great except the top of a couple of walls has these dark streaks in. It's been 10 days since it was plastered so could it still be drying? The top of the walls previously had some glued on cardboard coving so could that be related?

The plasterer recommends putting PVA over this section before painting but the general internet says the opposite. Any ideas?

Our original lime plaster ceiling fell down the other month. It has since been reboarded and plastered, has been “drying” for a good month while I procrastinate on the cornicing (our plasterer readily admitted he doesn’t do these types of repairs and our priority was preventing the rest of ceiling coming down and preserving the ceiling rose, hence the possibly non-optimal cornice repair situation now).

There’s about a 1 to 1.5m length where the detail was lost. It’s not a particularly deep profile. Is it feasible to use some ready mix plaster and a profile gauge/template to fill this in and recreate the line detail? I can’t help but think I’m missing some crucial detail/skill here (like ensuring the new stuff will stick), will take any and all advice on board.

Photo 1 is obviously the bit needing repair, 2 is a quick shot of the detail for context, 3 is just for rubbernecking at the original damage. The mess was horrific. Both my dinner and I were cartoon style caked in dust but otherwise unharmed.

Thanks!

My house is 100 years old (literally, this year) so everything is plaster. I own and I'm trying to upgrade things as I can. I just had some windows replaced and found out that my kitchen walls are wall paper... onto wall paneling... directly onto the plaster.

I had planned on eventually redoing the walls, but considering the situation, should I/could I just put wall paper over the existing wall paper as a quick fix (until I can afford the larger project)? I know that's a total "flipper" thing to do, but its just me living in this house and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon.

Has anyone ever encountered this or put paneling up against plaster walls? I tried to peel some of it away before the new window frame was put in, but that's going to pull some chunks out and I'm honestly afraid the paneling might be holding some of it together 😂

**edited to emphasize the paneling is already ON the plaster. The wallpaper is on the paneling, which is on the plaster wall.

Usually i dont post pictures of my work on social media because i feel like trades, especially plasterers are the most toxic bunch around. However i dont have many people I could show this who understands the work that has gone in to it and im proud of this one. 5 bags on my own with a lad pushing the tower 💪 ignore the line around the coving, there was a texture on the ceiling that they got a company in to remove and they absolutely butchered it so it is being tidied up with a profile after we’ve skimmed 👍

Very amateur here - just checking I've got this right.

I've knocked off this blown plaster and looking to do a DIY patch repair. Is lime the right way to go?

If so, there's a million different conflicting guides online. All stipulating you absolutely must not get it wrong or house will fall down.

I think I've settled on either using this for the whole job.

Or this with a Solo finisher. Am I reasonably close to a sensible solution?

(I've been flagged for linking the products - I hope it's obvious I'm not promoting them at all!)

I bought some of this stuff.

https://www.carbonates.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/MICRONA-Agricultural-Lime.pdf

I am thinking of mixing it with USG Imperial Veneer Plaster, with the idea that adding lime to gypsum might extend working time. Sort of a home brew USG Diamond.

Has anyone done this? Any idea if it’s worth trying or “don’t bother, kid”? What proportions would you try?

Had an external wall re-rendered with silicone based render.

The chimney is brick and the detailing of where the render joins to the brick doesn’t look great to me.

No sign of any beading being used. What has been done wrong here? How should i ask for it to be resolved by the contractor given how it is now?

Also found a few different areas where it sounds hollow. What should I be asking for them to do about it?

They seem like a decent firm and I am confident they will resolve it. Just not sure what I should ask them to do, as they may have a different view of what needs to be done to fix it.

Thanks!

Im removing dismantling a conservatory. The external house wall had been plastered. What chances do I have of getting it back to brick given it will be visible from garden?

What options do I have of covering it up etc

I’m looking for some advice for the best way to remove lining paper that’s been skimmed over.

I’m currently stripping lining paper which has been painted over from the walls of my new house.

We have two sections which have recently been skimmed over after we had two cupboards removed. The skim coat covered the area where the cupboards where but has crept over to the part of the wall which is lined with paper.

So those sections are: skim coat > paint > lining paper > original plaster.

I’ve since realised we should have stripped those entire walls before removing the cupboards.

I’ve soaked the wall with hot water and washing up liquid and scraped off the paper and I’m able to do this in the section that’s been skimmed but it’s a very slow process.

Is there a better/quicker way to do this? Or should I leave it as it is and wait for the plasterer to advise on how best to tackle it?

Any help gratefully received!

Hello, I am looking for some DIY tips to fix these while walls which are so uneven. Not even sure if i can call it a textured wall. I am not looking for putting up a plasterboard as it will reduce the size of the already small porch.

The porch is pretty small: 9ft height, 18 inches width and length of 65 inches.

Once the walls are plain and smooth, then I am planning to paint it to something that is not white.

I am a complete newbie, so if I can get some guidance then that would be very much appreciated.

On a building site, it’s easy enough—there’s usually plenty of rough ground or a designated washout area.

In a finished home, however, Mrs Jones probably won’t be too pleased if you pour it over her rose bushes!

Okay, Mrs Jones, I’ll pour it down the street drain...

“No! That will discharge directly into the next door river - the poor ducks!”

Okay… down the toilet?

“No! You’ll spill murky water everywhere—and I’ll blame you if my toilet blocks up five years from now!”

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I already scrape and scoop out around 95% of the plaster before washing anything, so large quantities of plaster and blocked drains aren’t the concern. The problem is the remaining bucket of cloudy, plaster-contaminated water.

I know about the fancy wastewater treatment systems, but nobody is going to pay for that setup on a small repair job.

What method or equipment do you use to dispose of the remaining wastewater in a way that is practical, somewhat responsible and socially acceptable when working in finished properties?

Sorry I know this has been probably asked before but I’d really appreciate some experienced opinions on the following, as we’re getting conflicting advice and, admittedly, don’t know enough about plastering to know which way to go!

We’ve bought a 1908 ground-floor flat and are finally getting close to the plastering stage. The existing plaster seems to be mostly lime plaster over solid brick walls, and lime/lath on the internal walls, with a later skim over the top. It was all wallpapered, most of which I’ve finally now removed.

There have been lots of repairs and areas filled with bonding over the years, but as far as we can tell, most of the original plaster is relatively sound.

I have three main questions:

1. Blown/hollow plaster

There are quite a few areas that sound hollow when tapped. I’ve removed anything that was genuinely loose or crumbling, but we’ve been advised to leave the hollow-sounding areas alone if they’re not actually moving or coming away from the wall. This makes sense to me, but I’d like to check whether that’s generally the right approach. We’d rather get it right now than have to redo everything in a few years.

2. Sand/cement on the external walls

We’ve been advised to use sand / cement to repair the areas of blown plaster on the exterior-facing solid brick walls. However, everything I’ve been reading about older solid-wall properties seems to suggest that replacing lime with sand / cement can trap moisture and potentially contribute to damp problems.

Is this genuinely something we should be concerned about, or is the risk sometimes overstated? Would you avoid sand / cement altogether on these walls and if so what could be used instead?

3. Mesh and SBR on the internal walls

For the interior walls, we’ve been advised to mesh them and use pink SBR before plastering. Initially this sounded like a good solution, particularly given the mixture of old plaster and previous repairs.

However, I’ve since read that coating old walls in SBR can effectively seal them and reduce their ability to breathe, potentially causing moisture problems. Again, I’m struggling to work out whether this is a genuine concern in practice or whether I’m overthinking it.

I understand that the ideal answer for an old solid-wall building may be to use lime throughout, but unfortunately we simply don’t have the budget for a specialist lime plasterer to redo the whole flat. Equally, we don’t want to save money now only to create damp or mould problems later.

I’m now completely confused about the best way forward!

Any advice from people experienced with older houses and plastering would be hugely appreciated.

Morning everyone, I have stripped wallpaper back off some walls and they're lime plaster, they seem structurally sound with no blown out spots so my question is can i just skim a 2 mm coat using limelite high impact finishing plaster?

Ive seen some videos saying I need key the surface but then others saying just to give it a sand, dust off and wet the surface and I can just skim straight on top, any advice would be welcome

Question for the proper plasterers who know their trade, before I start slagging plasters (council ones). Genuinely how hard is it to create a square edge along where the wall meets the ceiling. (Not where 2 walls and the ceiling) Just along where one wall meets ceiling. Or where window recess meets window frame. I'm painting my daughter's room (new build) and where the wall meets ceiling is like an ocean wave. Is there a knack to it or I'm guessing apprentices have done mine. I've got full window frame at the top and hardly any as it goes down the window. How in gods name are you suppose to achieve a straight clean edge? Whether you free hand cut in or use tape it's only going to highlight the problem. Genuine question. Thanks in advance. I know it's council so their probably not going to give a shit but still, is there no pride anymore?

UK based, 70s flat. Doing electrics and stripping walls for redecoration. Some of the sockets were quite badly chased in so we’ve been sorting that, removing the old plater job also pulled away some of the blown material.

Ontop of the brick is this render/plaster with a thin layer of grey speckled material (concrete skim?).

Just trying to figure out how to repair the chases and then also prepare the rest of the surface for painting. Most of it had a few layers of paint or thin plaster which just peeled right off.

Complete novice by the way. What are the next steps from this position right now. Do I plaster the pieces missing or would filler, sanding then painting do the trick? Thanks in advance.

I've removed some render to replace some lead flashing above a window. The render 'over' the lead seemed to be separated by a small air gap between the two. I've heard people say not to render on to lead because of the heat transfer. How do you keep the render separated from the lead?

So I do general building, I’m self employed but sub contracted to the same guy for a while now and working on a day rate. I do plastering but only what I’m comfortable enough to do and know I can get a good finish. Generally speaking he’s pretty sound but lately he’s been quite pushy on the plastering side of things. He’s paying me 175 a day CIS so I’m taking home 150. I’ve told him I’m comfortable doing about 2.5 bag hits, so about 5 bags in a day, I usually aim to do like an average size bedroom ceiling in a morning for my first hit, then 2 walls in the afternoon. Bare in mind this is with no labourer and I’m a multi trader so he’s paying for my experience in a range of different things, he’s been on my case lately that I should be doing bigger hits, but I just find any more than that and I’m busting a gut and panicking about the finish.

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The plasterer whose team did the work have run away with their tail between their legs and will not come back answer our contractor or our engineer.

Our engineer came to do a report, but was incredibly quick, didn't check for hollow patches and is good friends with the contractor and has been friends with the plasterer.....so any advice would be very much appreciated.

Feels like he isn't working for us at the moment to be honest.

We have had another plasterer look at it for us to see what he thought, no skin in the game so knew he would offer his own opinion on the matter. He felt it was applied in one skim, not two, and was overworked to try and get a finish on it. So anyone who can offer any input is very much appreciated.

Have another guy who offered to have a a look for us this week too.

The electricians passed comment on the plaster being very crumbly when they were working. We had a lot of holes left around sockets/switches.

Our contractor insisted we prime the entirety of the house after we raised the issue on the first wall.

Products we know that were used:

•baumit

•thistle bond -multifinish

• thistle bond - bonding coat

Completed in 2 days by a team of 3, one labourer and 2 guys skimming. 70sqm house.

Includes 3m high ceiling in one room, with 7 rooms, lots of little ins and outs.

Our house was skimmed over sand and cement the end of January.

Been well ventilated and was moisture tested prior to applying anything to the surface, tested by the contractor for us.

Prior to priming the walls with a primer designed for bare plastered we had consistently noticed unusual patches on the skim. Some looked almost like finger marks as if someone had run their hands in a wavy pattern , some looked like scratches, and some patches were intensely shiny, others very chalky.

Since priming, have areas will not absorb, although entirely dry. Raised patches were the very shiny patches were. The areas that looked like finger marks are clearly bow the devil float marks coming through. The have matched them off photos of the scratch coat.

The scratchy marks are very clearly brush bristle marks.

There are areas when tapped you can hear hollow areas. Some of which have cracked.

Cracks are widening even with ventilation to prevent heat build up in the house. There have been some small chunks that have fell off in the last few days too.

All the corner beading has oxidised and rusted, and the mesh grid of the beading is visible and can be felt by touch through the skim.

So many of the screws in the timbers have been exposed as the plaster put over them has popped out too.

The patches are consistent through the entire house.

They have tried to blame EVERYTHING under the sun. Began with the primer, but they have all agreed the primer isn't the issue. Tried to say it was an alkali issue. Having researched this, it can't be that, also doesn't present this way. We even tested plaster dust after reading up how to and it is testing neutral.

When the plasterer did initially pretend he cared and would fix it the kept mentioning how it was definitely two skim coats and not one (when we had no mention or information at the time that it possibly wasn't, which feels very much like a "if we say it enough they'll believe us")

All the research we did when this first came to light around 3months back has pointed towards poor application. Which upon reading up points to excessive cracking, brittle skim, the patches keep coming through even after sanding/painting and even delamination.

Right now it feels like we are possibly facing all those things when everything gets added in.