I've just been stripping the wallpaper in the third bedroom in my 1930 brick-built semi.

I was interested to find that when it was plastered they created a very neat strip of dark grey plaster about half a metre wide down from the ceiling and the rest of the wall was done in much lighter plaster.

There's a very neat joint between the two.

This was probably the height of fashion in 1930 and there's evidence of some kind of paint pattern on it in some places - I've never come across anything like this before - but most of my previous experience of stripping walls has been in houses built in about 1880!

At a guess I would suggest there was a picture rail which was quite common in the 30's probably someone removed it and rather than just patching in the holes where the wooden wedges would have been that the rail would have been nailed to, they have replastered the section above. If the rail was attached before plastering there could have been a difference in the plaster levels neccesitating the replastering of the upper portion.

Richard

Don't know but this terrace was built in 1939, and apart from some of the
rooms being less than square at the corners, the only thing I used to see
was that it was apparently common to use some kind of varnishy stuff over
certain parts of walls. I have no idea what that was either, but when the
house needed to be rewired in the 70s, the electricians asked me about it
when they were making grooves and fitting conduit boxes.


All I can think is it might have been some kind of damp reducer. These are
single brick thickness outside walls, and its only those which have the
coating.

Brian

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From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
Remember, if you don't like where I post
or what I say, you don't have to
read my posts! :-)
"Murmansk" wrote in message
...
I've just been stripping the wallpaper in the third bedroom in my 1930
brick-built semi.

I was interested to find that when it was plastered they created a very neat
strip of dark grey plaster about half a metre wide down from the ceiling and
the rest of the wall was done in much lighter plaster.

There's a very neat joint between the two.

This was probably the height of fashion in 1930 and there's evidence of some
kind of paint pattern on it in some places - I've never come across anything
like this before - but most of my previous experience of stripping walls
has been in houses built in about 1880!

In most rooms we still have picture rails, but removing those in some rooms
was very easy and did not seem to make holes that could not be filled with
polyfilla.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
Remember, if you don't like where I post
or what I say, you don't have to
read my posts! :-)
"Tricky Dicky" wrote in message
...
At a guess I would suggest there was a picture rail which was quite common
in the 30's probably someone removed it and rather than just patching in the
holes where the wooden wedges would have been that the rail would have been
nailed to, they have replastered the section above. If the rail was attached
before plastering there could have been a difference in the plaster levels
neccesitating the replastering of the upper portion.

Richard

The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is interesting but my gut feeling it's not that. This is however the kind of house that might have had a kind of plate display shelf in the hall downstairs. I don't think it's the era for a picture rail.

Where there was a plate shelf downstairs it was clearly attached on top of the plaster rather than having been attached to the brick.

It's so neat I think it was done as a feature - it's quite clever I guess and it's been done really well rather than looking like it was the done after anything was removed.

Just for the record the house has cavity walls.

On 17/12/2015 21:46, Murmansk wrote:
The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is interesting but my gut feeling it's not that. This is however the kind of house that might have had a kind of plate display shelf in the hall downstairs. I don't think it's the era for a picture rail.

Where there was a plate shelf downstairs it was clearly attached on top of the plaster rather than having been attached to the brick.

It's so neat I think it was done as a feature - it's quite clever I guess and it's been done really well rather than looking like it was the done after anything was removed.

Just for the record the house has cavity walls.


I've seen this sort of expertly made transition associated with damp
treatment and with removal of plaster coving as well as other repairs,
but never dead straight to make me think it might have been a feature.
When was unpainted plaster ever a feature?

On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:46:53 -0800 (PST), Murmansk
wrote:

The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is interesting but my gut feeling it's not that. This is however the kind of house that might have had a kind of plate display shelf in the hall downstairs. I don't think it's the era for a picture rail.

My parents' 1930s semi had picture rails, and cavity walls.

"Peter Johnson" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:46:53 -0800 (PST), Murmansk
wrote:

The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is interesting but my gut
feeling it's not that. This is however the kind of house that might have had a kind of
plate display shelf in the hall downstairs. I don't think it's the era for a picture
rail.

My parents' 1930s semi had picture rails, and cavity walls.

Indeed.

Years ago it was the fashion to paint the upper section of walls white
same as the ceiling, possibly to compensate for poor lighting. In houses
without picture rails the fashion was for dados. Patterned strips of paper
laid horizontally to cover the join between the wallpaper paper
and the white bit. IOW, picture rails so called, weren't necessarily
for hanging pictures.


michael adams

....

In message , Peter Johnson
writes
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:46:53 -0800 (PST), Murmansk
wrote:

The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is
interesting but my gut feeling it's not that. This is however the kind
of house that might have had a kind of plate display shelf in the hall
downstairs. I don't think it's the era for a picture rail.

My parents' 1930s semi had picture rails, and cavity walls.

Our Victorian farmhouse has a chair rail in one of the upstairs rooms.
Presumably once used as a lounge although my parents used it as a
bedroom.

--
Tim Lamb

"Tim Streater" wrote in message
.. .
In article , michael adams
wrote:

"Peter Johnson" wrote in message
. ..
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:46:53 -0800 (PST), Murmansk
wrote:

The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is interesting but
my gut feeling it's not that. This is however the kind of house that might have had
a kind of plate display shelf in the hall downstairs. I don't think it's the era for
a
picture rail.

My parents' 1930s semi had picture rails, and cavity walls.

Indeed.

Years ago it was the fashion to paint the upper section of walls white
same as the ceiling, possibly to compensate for poor lighting.

Thass right. We're doing that too.

Having now looked it up apparently "dado" is the bottom section of a wall,
in places with heavy traffic such as halls which were covered with a heavy
paper such as anaglypta. With a wooden "dado rail" at waist height to protect
the wall.
However I'm sure can remember the patterned strips which came in rolls
being called dados as well.


michael adams

....





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when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another
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On 18/12/15 11:49, Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , Peter Johnson
writes
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:46:53 -0800 (PST), Murmansk
wrote:

The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is
interesting but my gut feeling it's not that. This is however the
kind of house that might have had a kind of plate display shelf in
the hall downstairs. I don't think it's the era for a picture rail.

My parents' 1930s semi had picture rails, and cavity walls.

Our Victorian farmhouse has a chair rail in one of the upstairs rooms.
Presumably once used as a lounge although my parents used it as a bedroom.

'Chair rail' = 'Dado rail' ??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dado_%28architecture%29

--
the biggest threat to humanity comes from socialism, which has utterly
diverted our attention away from what really matters to our existential
survival, to indulging in navel gazing and faux moral investigations
into what the world ought to be, whilst we fail utterly to deal with
what it actually is.

In article , michael adams
wrote:

"Tim Streater" wrote in message
.. .
In article , michael adams
wrote:

"Peter Johnson" wrote in message
. ..
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:46:53 -0800 (PST), Murmansk
wrote:

The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is
interesting but my gut feeling it's not that. This is however the
kind of house that might have had a kind of plate display shelf in
the hall downstairs. I don't think it's the era for a picture rail.

My parents' 1930s semi had picture rails, and cavity walls.

Indeed.

Years ago it was the fashion to paint the upper section of walls white
same as the ceiling, possibly to compensate for poor lighting.

Thass right. We're doing that too.

Having now looked it up apparently "dado" is the bottom section of a
wall, in places with heavy traffic such as halls which were covered with
a heavy paper such as anaglypta. With a wooden "dado rail" at waist
height to protect the wall. However I'm sure can remember the patterned
strips which came in rolls being called dados as well.

When BBC Television Centre was built, some corridors had linoleum on the
walls (as well as the floors) to about 4ft up.

--
Please note new email address:

On 18/12/15 12:02, charles wrote:
In article , michael adams
wrote:

"Tim Streater" wrote in message
.. .
In article , michael adams
wrote:

"Peter Johnson" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:46:53 -0800 (PST), Murmansk
wrote:

The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is
interesting but my gut feeling it's not that. This is however the
kind of house that might have had a kind of plate display shelf in
the hall downstairs. I don't think it's the era for a picture rail.

My parents' 1930s semi had picture rails, and cavity walls.

Indeed.

Years ago it was the fashion to paint the upper section of walls white
same as the ceiling, possibly to compensate for poor lighting.

Thass right. We're doing that too.

Having now looked it up apparently "dado" is the bottom section of a
wall, in places with heavy traffic such as halls which were covered with
a heavy paper such as anaglypta. With a wooden "dado rail" at waist
height to protect the wall. However I'm sure can remember the patterned
strips which came in rolls being called dados as well.

When BBC Television Centre was built, some corridors had linoleum on the
walls (as well as the floors) to about 4ft up.

And now have loose nuts in all the studios


--
the biggest threat to humanity comes from socialism, which has utterly
diverted our attention away from what really matters to our existential
survival, to indulging in navel gazing and faux moral investigations
into what the world ought to be, whilst we fail utterly to deal with
what it actually is.

The Natural Philosopher Wrote in message:
On 18/12/15 11:49, Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , Peter Johnson
writes
On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:46:53 -0800 (PST), Murmansk
wrote:

The suggestion about the picture rail having been removed is
interesting but my gut feeling it's not that. This is however the
kind of house that might have had a kind of plate display shelf in
the hall downstairs. I don't think it's the era for a picture rail.

My parents' 1930s semi had picture rails, and cavity walls.

Our Victorian farmhouse has a chair rail in one of the upstairs rooms.
Presumably once used as a lounge although my parents used it as a bedroom.

'Chair rail' = 'Dado rail' ??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dado_%28architecture%29


Indeed. All (cornice, picture rail, dado rail, skirtings) and
their essential complexities of shape are derived from classical
column architecture. Ionic, Doric, er Greek, roman
etc.

--
Jim K


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