In article , "al"
says...
... a bit of the wall wanted to come with it! Was using a steamer at the
time and the plaster behind the paper bubbled right out. Held it against
the wall until it cooled down and dried a bit. Now it's completely dry,
it's still in one piece, but cracked a bit and definitely not sound (it
pushes back a couple of mm).

What are my options now? Can you knock sections out and put a "chunk" of
plaster back in? Should I ignore it, fill the fine cracks with Pollyfilla
and paper over it? I'm not sure what's behind it - would it be the skimmed
plaster and plasterboard be behind or could it just be thin plasterboard?
It's a 1930's house if that's relevant.


Unless the house has been modified in recent decades you won't have
plasterboard - it will be plaster on masonry or on wood lath. You
might find it's just the surface of the plaster that's loose. If so
you can just remove any loose bits and make good with filler or
finishing plaster. If the full thickness of plaster is coming away
from the wall you could remove the loose bits and fill the holes with
one-coat plaster, but you might find that once you've removed all the
loose bits there's not much left. Or you could patch the cracks with
filler*, cover it up and hope it stays there until the next time you
decide to decorate.


* Scrape the cracks out with a putty knife or similar so you can
actually get the filler in, rather than just smearing it over the
top.