wall paper Vs plastered walls

[mathew]

okey doke dillema time. im currently renovating a house and was thinking about having the all the walls skimmed/plastered. the only nagging doubt is the potential for cracking as theres lots of hairline cracks in the existing plastered walls as it is. so then i thought about wallpapering the larger areas i.e stairs,landing,hall way. but i dont want any flowery wall paper so im on a mission looking for some sensible wall paper. has anybody had similar work done plaster wise or would you recomend wall paper instead of a plastered finish??

[Ewen]

A cheap way of tidying up older walls is using lining paper, then overpainting. No substitute for re-plastering admittedly, but if the majority of old plaster is still adhered to the brickwork and its just a old few cracks you are worried about, it may do the job.

Skimming will work too, unless the cracks are still moving, and its harder to get a decent finish for paint.

Cracks that continue to reappear could obviously be a sign of a more serious issue underneath, so my lining-paper suggestion is no more than a quick cosmetic type fix.

[QSC]

Are you keeping the house or renovating it in order to move it on ?

[mathew]

Are you keeping the house or renovating it in order to move it on ?

 

i was gona sell it straight away but have decided to live in it for a few years

[dangerous brain]

I had semi-detached plasterwork in my old house. I re plastered one room and the utter mess the old crappy loose plaster made when it came off (i was eating dust for months afterwards) made me rethink doing the same in my other bedroom in similar condition. What I did was get some quality name PVA adhesive not the cheapy B&Q stuff and stuck that in a tin of white paint, again a good name brand like dulux, with some sharp sand. I painted that on the wall and effectively created a layer over the top of my dodgy plaster that adhered it all together. To smooth off the finish a little (was like sand paper at this point) I put a couple of coats of the colour of my choice on. The texture lost the dodgy uneven surface and looked a zillion times better than that textured wallpaper you can get. Using liner paper and painting over that is OK but it does tend to leave obvious lines behind and dries out and peels around the edges over time.