I have been stripping the wallpaper in the kitchen.
On one patch of wall, after removing the paper, the plaster beneath has
been painted with emulsion.
This emulsion coat is flaking off -- even a light scrape with a
wallpaper scraper releases loads of emulsion flakes onto the floor.

What to do? Scrape as much of the emulsion off as possible or seal the
flaky emulsion somehow.

My initial idea is to run a vacuum over it and get most of the flakes
off without causing too much mess.

Bruce

wrote:
I have been stripping the wallpaper in the kitchen.
On one patch of wall, after removing the paper, the plaster beneath has
been painted with emulsion.
This emulsion coat is flaking off -- even a light scrape with a
wallpaper scraper releases loads of emulsion flakes onto the floor.

What to do? Scrape as much of the emulsion off as possible or seal the
flaky emulsion somehow.

My initial idea is to run a vacuum over it and get most of the flakes
off without causing too much mess.

What do you plan to do with the wall when you've finished stripping?

What do you plan to do with the wall when you've finished stripping?

Put some thick wallpaper. Easy to hang and it will hide the
imperfections.
I think I'll just vacuum off as many flakes as I can then bang the
paper over it. And forget about it.

Bruce

wrote:
What do you plan to do with the wall when you've finished stripping?


Put some thick wallpaper. Easy to hang and it will hide the
imperfections.
I think I'll just vacuum off as many flakes as I can then bang the
paper over it. And forget about it.

Bruce

I have just done roughly the same thing. a 50/50 pva / water solution
painted roughly over the wall sealed it up nicely... and gave a good key
for the paper to stick too.

I have just done roughly the same thing. a 50/50 pva / water solution

painted roughly over the wall sealed it up nicely... and gave a good
key
for the paper to stick too.

Thanks. I've never used this PVA stuff before...do I clean brushes in
hot water after use? Or so I need white spirit?

Bruce

wrote:
I have just done roughly the same thing. a 50/50 pva / water solution


painted roughly over the wall sealed it up nicely... and gave a good

key

for the paper to stick too.


Thanks. I've never used this PVA stuff before...do I clean brushes in
hot water after use? Or so I need white spirit?

I was also about to say, I'd treat the walls with PVA first! A 1:4
solution would be plenty strong enough; any more is a waste.

PVA is a multi-purpose adhesive; it's water soluble so just wash out
under the tap. It comes in everything from expensive little 125 ml pots
(woodworker's glue), through 2.5 litre cans of "builder's adhesive" at
B&Q, up to massive drums of the stuff at Jewson's.

David

I was also about to say, I'd treat the walls with PVA first! A 1:4
solution would be plenty strong enough; any more is a waste.

PVA is a multi-purpose adhesive; it's water soluble so just wash out
under the tap. It comes in everything from expensive little 125 ml
pots
(woodworker's glue), through 2.5 litre cans of "builder's adhesive"
at
B&Q, up to massive drums of the stuff at Jewson's.

David

Hmmm...wouldn't wallpaper paste have the same effect?

Bruce

wrote:
I was also about to say, I'd treat the walls with PVA first! A
1:4 solution would be plenty strong enough; any more is a waste.

PVA is a multi-purpose adhesive; it's water soluble so just wash
out under the tap. It comes in everything from expensive little
125 ml pots (woodworker's glue), through 2.5 litre cans of
"builder's adhesive" at B&Q, up to massive drums of the stuff at
Jewson's.

Hmmm...wouldn't wallpaper paste have the same effect?

Better than nothing, certainly. However, when you slop on more paste
later with the wallpaper, I think it would tend to dissolve your
'priming' layer and you'd get your flakes lifting off again.

Using PVA would involve exactly the same amount of effort as paste, but
would dry to make a reasonably resilient, hard surface. And you'd use
about, oh, two-quid's worth for a room. Not worth thinking about!

David