Hi,

This sounds like really stupid question - but bear with me...

How pedantic would you be in washing off the old wallpaper paste after
wallpaper stripping, especially on ceilings?

Obviously, you wouldn't just leave it on in lumps.

I haven't come across such slimy gooey paste before - and I intend to
contribute to the wall paper stripping wiki in due course, so I'd like to
give best advice.

Scenario: Celing paper strips easily with steam, leaving bare plaster and
painted plaster.

More steam and a scraping blade takes off 90% of the paste very quickly.

An immediate wash with hot water and a drop of Flash takes off a bit more
quite quickly, but leaves a thin film of slime that takes inordinate
amounts of hard and repeated washing to shift (as in double the length of
the job).

So far, I've been washing it to the point where there's a hint of slime
whilst wet, and when dry, you can see a faint light haze in patches, but
otherwise you wouldn't know it's there.

Washing it off 100% will probably take as long again (quadruple the original
paper stripping time) as it's an absolute bugger to shift - moreso on the
bare plaster than the paint.

----

Do you reckon this is:

a) Good enough;

b) Too good and I could have stopped after the first scrape and quick wash
off;

c) I need the plaster to be crunchy clean - as in feels rough when wet.

----

I'm rather hoping it's not c) - but if it is, then I'd better do it and
recommend accordingly in the wiki (which should, IMO reflect best practise,
but I'd rather be practical rather than perfect about it...

Cheers

Tim