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Message |
    
papayagirl
Citizen
Username: Papayagirl
Post Number: 101
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 3:04 pm: |     |
This may be a naive question, but here goes. The walls in a couple of rooms in our home have small areas that are starting to peel. When you pull away the paint, it's stuck to a brown piece of paper - rather like grocery store bag material.
Is this the back of wallpaper that's been painted over, or something else? One person suggested it may be a surface covering that's frequently used to mask settling cracks, etc. in plaster.
Realistically, will i need to scrape down whatever this is to make the entire wall look decent again, or will i end up with more of a mess than what i started with? |
bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 3287
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 3:14 pm: | |
It is about 99.2% certain you have old wall paper under your paint. Stripping it off is a messy, but not particularly difficult job, involving scoring the surface of the paper, using a wetting agent and then scraping the wall paper off with a large putty or drywall taping knive. As an alternative, wall paper steamers can be rented at most rental stores, although it is (or is this an old wives tail?) possible to wet the plaster to a point where it softens and is damaged. |
nova87
Citizen
Username: Nova87
Post Number: 251
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 3:54 pm: | |
papayagirl - it is a surface covering that used to be used to stop plaster walls from cracking further. We noticed some paint cracking on our walls and ceilings when we first moved in. We had a plaster contractor come and take a look. He pointed out what appeared to be parallel lines runing the length of our ceiling and told us that in the past brown paper, just as you described, was used to stop the walls and ceilings from cracking further.
Nowadays they use a fiberglas mesh. Rather than tear it all down we opted for a new skim coat. What they did was go over the existing walls with a small amount of plaster and imbed the mesh into that compound and went over that with a finish coat. It came out very nice and it is gauranteed for years not to crack.
I think if you try to peel it you'll wind up taking some weak plaster with it and you'll have a larger mess not to mention numerous cracks to fill.
Good luck. |
newtoallthis
Citizen
Username: Newtoallthis
Post Number: 48
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 5:12 pm: | |
We had a radiator removed that took some wallpaper off - found old newspapers underneath (can't see date unless we rip it more, but doesn't look that old...) |
bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 3288
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 7:52 am: | |
This is the first I have heard about using paper to stabilize a cracking wall.
How thick is the paint chip you removed? Can you see seams in the ceiling or walls? Soak the chip in water for awhile and see if more paper comes off.
Having stripped hundreds of square feet of wallpaper over the years it is not uncommon for the brown paper backing to separate from the paper when you remove it. |
ffof
Citizen
Username: Ffof
Post Number: 1365
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 8:04 am: | |
COuld it also be that old style sheetrock - some kind of wall board? We had that in our 3rd floor bathroom. The outer layer was like cardboard. We took the two walls down entirely and rebuilt them properly. |
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