In article ,
"Phil Anthropist" writes:
I have stripped wallpaper using my steam stripper loads of times but today I
have been doing a neighbour's room and had to stop after several areas of
the skim coat cracked and bulged forwards. Presumably there was air under
the skim coat and the heat from the steam caused the air to expand and blow
the plaster. The house looks about 30 years old. Was this due to poor
plaster or plastering? I didn't leave the stripper plate on one spot for too
long, and some of the plaster cracked after only a few seconds of steam.

Was the wall damp? The stripper will cause moisture
in the wall to boil, which might blow the plaster.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]