Many old plaster walls were papered, sometimes with real cloth if
there were problems.

The paint peeling off is disturbing. If it was a vinyl wallpaper
and latex paint this would sound right. If it was vinyl paper,
you might be able to steam it off after rolling a Zinser paper
tiger all over. Some the chemical strippers are very good. If it
is old paper wallpaper and it had a grease film on it, the paint
would peel.

For minor repairs, drywall compound should stick quite well.
Learning to patch real plaster and developing the original texture
is a bit of learning curve. Wash the walls with real TSP and skim
them out with drywall compound. Create whatever texture you
desire. Plaster exterior walls on masonry may prefer oil based
paints to be able to breathe.





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______________________________
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




"Steve" wrote in message
. ..
Daughter just bought a 100 yr old home.
The bedroom walls, I'm told, are horsehair plaster.
I got a quick look at one of the walls today while they were
Opening a wall up to connect two bedrooms.
Looks like a 3x3 stud with horizontal lath.sp? About 3/8" of
plaster over the lath.

All the bedrooms were painted over wallpaper.
The paint peels right off of the paper in full sheets.
15 minutes to peel all the paint off the paper.

Now how to deal with the paper???
We've been told removing the paper can damage the plaster...
Son in law asked to borrow my sander to sand it smooth....

Anything special about horsehair plaster I should know ???

I've never seen paint peel off like this did...

What would be the best way to finish/repair these walls???

TIA

Steve