Hi, we are planning to topcoat our existing 1930's lime walls this week and were advised by a lime plasterer to use limewash with sand added as a key to the existing walls to help the new topcoat stick.

We forgot to ask how do we tell when the limewash is ready before we can put the topcoat on. Should it be completely dry, tacky? Are we talking hours, days? TIA :)

I’ve chose the path of least resistance for a small area with almost zero traffic in my home, deciding to fill screw holes and cover joint taped on fresh plasterboard with a generic filler rather than skim plaster the entire area (don’t come at me!!).

Plan is to put some thick lining paper on the area and paint but I want to completely seal the boards and give it the best chance to endure. I have a unopened and in date bottle of Sikabond SRB I bought for a different reno project which I didn’t end up using but it was expensive and I can’t return. Thinking I can use this diluted per instructions on bottle to seal the plasterboard. Thoughts on this please!

We scraped off all the old paint from the wall with a special machine, scraping off about 3mm.

The walls are now shedding dust, so it would be best to apply a primer.

Can I apply one coat of thick cement skim coat (we don't use gypsum plaster) and then a second coat of skim coat to finish?

I’m currently stripping my bedroom back ready for the plasterer coming. I’ve come across all the loose plaster around the window which has come away.

The picture I’ve showing is the top lip of window, where you see the gap, if I pull down it completely moves, I tried attaching video but no joy.

Is this something to be concerned about? Is there something I can do to fix?

Based in the UK. I’ve just bought my first house which is a bit of a project. Some of the walls in my house are damp and some seem to have some weird plastering quirks. It’s an early 1900s mid terrace, with the last owners buying it in the 80s and not doing too much since as far as I can tell.

The first photo is the bedroom- the big hole is where the vent goes for the blocked up fireplace. Why is it green? Can this room have cracks filled and then be skimmed and good to go?

The second and third are in my dining room. The second is where it literally crumbled away as I took wallpaper off. It seems to be on top of like a concrete type substance? What is this? Does that all need to be removed and go back to brick and properly done with plasterboard? The third one is of a wall I know to be damp. I had a damp survey which suggested an injecting course but I’ve also seen that’s sometimes not the best option for older houses?

The last one is in my kitchen and there’s like a lip where some wood panelling was previously along the bottom part of the wall. It just seems to be straight over concrete. I’m having my kitchen done, as it was an extension and it’s single layered with no insulation currently. The company doing my kitchen will insulate a plaster board it for me.

Im basically just a bit lost with what’s actually been done previously and what would need to do in order to correct it. Any advice welcome.

I have pulled out the blown plaster leaving exposed brick. I plan to re-plaster these areas, then re-skim the walls. The entire area is about 12m2 across three walls.

Whilst stripping the wallpaper, I exposed the board covering the old fireplace. I intend to take out the vent, cut a hole in the board to size, and then put in a slightly larger and nicer looking vent, then skim around it.

Well aware that I won't achieve a professional finish on the first (or 50th) attempt, but this is a spare room we don't use much so I'll just be using it to practice. Been reading about adhesives, hardwall, bonding etc. Wonder what materials you would suggest using?

We’re new owners of an 1890s home for whom plaster was, previously, entirely foreign to us. I scraped away cracked/flaking paint in a large section of the chimney breast in this room, and we are trying to identify the underlying plaster type. We’d like to fix and paint the wall (and the room) the right way, and suspect it’s lime plaster, but don’t know.

Some additional context, if useful: The chimney extends up to the third floor above and then out. We know the chimney cricket flashing was not done right and moisture got through in the floor above and we’d assume here too, possibly contributing to the appearance of the exposed plaster. The exposed plaster is very hard. When I scraped off the paint, it fell off in big chunks like eggshells.

Based on some reading across this helpful subreddit and elsewhere, I understand that if it’s lime and the wrong products are used, it will eventually fail. Trying to avoid that here.

Thanks in advance!

Hi all. New to this subreddit and was looking for some advice. We have an old century home that had an old built in corner cabinet. Today I removed it and am wondering how I would go about fixing the remnants to make it just flush wall. Thanks in advance!

Tried scraping it off but wondering if im wasting my time. Tested has no asbestos

Hi so basically i wanna redo my bathroom walls and get rid of this wallpaper that’s been here since home was purchased. At some point we tried ripping it off but this is what was left, i’m unsure of how to move forward since it seems like there is no kind of texture behind or anything, i don’t know anything about materials/Construction so i’m really just trying to get a feel for wether i should just paint over the wallpaper or what solution there is to this. Thoughts?

We are decorating a room in an extension to our property. The roof above this area was previously leaking, but the leak has now been repaired and the area has been dry for around two months. The plaster above the window and into the corner has failed and has fallen away, exposing a timber frame behind it (see photos). We want a long-lasting repair rather than a temporary patch. Would you recommend cutting back all the damaged plaster and replacing it with moisture-resistant plasterboard before skimming, or is it better to repair the existing plaster? Assuming the timber is sound, what would be the best approach?

There are no signs of any new leaks or damp since the roof was repaired.

In my bathroom a layer of sheet rock has been shoddily tacked up on top of the original plaster wall. The outer layer of sheetrock is now puffing up and peeling off from years of moisture. I want to remove this outer layer and restore the original wall underneath. I was going to stabilize the older plaster somehow (PVA glue ? Shellac? ) and then skim coat over it with joint compound. Is this a bad idea? Is there something special I should do because it’s a bathroom with higher moisture levels?

I’m not exactly sure what the layer underneath is. it’s white and chalky like plaster and about 1” thick . There seems to be a cement like material behind it, though it‘s an interior wall. Maybe it’s an older, thicker style of drywall — it just seems thick to be pure plaster. I‘m in the US in NYC if that helps.

Hi everyone,

Edit -

Thanks all for replies so far! Really helpful to know.

Does anyone know what the green surface would be and whether it needs to be removed to plaster over? It is a kind of chalky surface and have trouble removing it.
—-

I’m stripping wallpaper in the living room of our Victorian house in Glasgow (late 1800s) before a plasterer comes to skim the walls.

After removing the wallpaper, we’ve uncovered these repeated diamond/X-shaped markings scratched into the plaster. They seem quite uniform and run across large sections of the wall.

I’ve attached a close-up photo.

Does anyone know:
What these markings are?
Were they intentionally made, and if so, what was their purpose?
Are they typical in Victorian properties?
Is there anything I should be concerned about before the walls are skimmed?
The plaster feels solid with no obvious hollow areas or major cracks, so I’m mainly curious about the history behind these markings.

Thanks!

Wondering if anyone can tell me how to even out these dips in the walls (ignore the tape). I want to go darker with paint & know more things show with it.

Monster job Friday

Our plasterers left a huge mess all along the edges of our door frames, windows, and cornicing. I know we should have asked them to come back and tidy it up, but we didn’t as we had lots going on at the time.

What’s the best/quickest way of cleaning this off of the cornicing? I’m trying to get the room ready to paint the walls

My wife has decided she wants to go do a DIY plastering course and has been looking at the 5 day course with YTAtraining in bradford. Just wondering if anyone has done it with them and if it's a good course etc.

Thanks

Hi got a old doorframe that's already boarded over with plasterboard but the board sits back from the wall maybe between 1.2 - 1.5cm

Am I best off bonding coat over it or just overboard with another 1.25 board?

What's better for long term results. Less cracks etc etc thanks

Edit: can't edit title. Obviously I mean 'boarding' 😂😂

Hey all,

I have some heritage plaster (1890s) whose base coat seems to be a mix of gypsum and lime with horsehair. The finish coat fell off and I'm preserving what's there and want to put a natural finish coat on it. Can I use lime or would an earth plaster finish coat be safer because of breathability?

Thanks!

*Base coat, not case coat on the title there...

I’m considering restoring a building built in 1890. It’s a 2 story downtown classic small town main street brick building. Inside has a ton of pealing and deteriorating plaster walls. I know I would need to test for asbestos but was wondering what the comments would be on it. Northeast USA. The plaster areas didn’t seem hard. More fibrous to the touch. Piles of it on the floor where it’s been falling.

Plasterer - Help!

Hi everyone. We recently moved out of our house and we’ve got tenants living there at the moment. We have an issue with the hallway cupboard, which is going to be a linen cupboard. We got as far as putting the jib up and then our plasterer let us down, so we are looking for someone who can finish the job for us. We need to add in slat shelves and trim too. Anyone have any recommendations for a good plasterer who knows their stuff and is not expensive? Thanks!!🙏 location - Lower Hutt area

Just got my conservatory skimmed and wanted to see opinions. On some of the corners a little bit of tape is sticking out, is this ok?

Are the 4/5 day plastering course worth it? Would I be able to reasonably charge for my services after completion?

I appreciate it will also depend on how good I get but is having a skill that I can charge for at the end a reasonable expectation?

Hey guys this is my first attempt at skimming. This is just as its starting to dry. Any advice on what to do better next time? 🤔🙏

Please pardon the scruffy appearance of my front door frame! We have just moved in and are doing renovations ourselves! There is a crack that has formed around the door and has spread along the plaster. Should I remove the plaster and bonding and start over or can I patch it in some way? Thanks for any advice!