I have stripped my walls back to bare plaster/plasterboard in readiness for re-painting. Unsurprisingly they were papered probably to hide cracks and their poor condition.

Before painting is it best to re-plaster or put on cross-lined lining paper? Paper seems like a lot less hassle.

Thanks for any advice provided.

It all depends on how bad the wall is without a photo it's more hard to work out.

I have papered some really bad walls which should have been plastered but with alot of hard work and filler & lining paper you can bring them up like new.

If the wall is bare plaster, then you can paint straight onto it, filling the places where they are dents, holes etc.

I use a mixture of lining, plastering and making good depending on how bad the condition of the stripped walls is. if there are just a few blemishes and holes, thenI fill them and paint. If the wall is flat, but has alot of cracks and different textures of plaster, then I line it and if it is poor and there are clear joins and alot of filling also needed, then I would skim.

Ask on the plastering forum, and you would get a very different answer to this one.

As T J says, its impossible to advice without seeing clear photos.

In my experiance lining paper, even thick lining paper will not cover up really bad walls it only covers minor imperfections.

Yeah, bad walls are a mystery without seeing them.

It also depends on how much light the room receives, and if the light is strongly directional. The flatter the emulsion you put on will also help, but short of skimming, you could try Wallrock but go with the Power Adhesive if you choose this option.

I've just lined a room in my house with Wall Doctor paste-the-wall lining paper and it was brilliant. VERY easy and quick to put up. All the joints butted together perfectly. I would always opt for lining paper over skimming the walls ... unless, like Animal said, the imperfections are bigger than hairline cracks and a few holes.

If it was me I would get it skimmed every time. Lining paper is great for under finished paper but I'm not a fan of it being painted. Lining would be the cheaper option though.

Decorators often spend ages filling sot hat they can line walls when skimming would be the most appropriate way.

Skimming isn't always suitable, especially where there are external corners and the angle bead used will protrude, ruining the detail of the skirting or cornice. This is even worse if there are picture rails and dados as well. In those cases, all that filling and sanding before lining will be worth it.

Hi Tom, I'm confused...I thought that when using lining paper you had to leave a hairline gap? Have I misunderstood? or is it because you are pasting the wall rather than the paper

Cheers M

There was a discussion about this on a recent thread but I can't remember what the conclusion was ...

I don't leave any gaps as I don't see why you would need to. The lining paper I put up this week is going to be painted so there's no point in leaving gaps, filling, rubbing down, etc., but I don't see the need to leaves gaps even if you are papering over the top.

I suspect that the reason for leaving a hairline gap is to avoid the obvious, which is a small overlap which cannot be looks amateur.

If a wall has been lined and painted, you shouldn't know that it has been lined unless you are inspecting up close.

Butt join if it's getting emulsion put on, and 1mm gap for hanging paper. The main reason for leaving a 1mm gap is to prevent against overlap which would show through thinner papers. It's more of a precaution than anything else.

Different decs will do different things I'd imagine, but I'd never butt join when hanging a finish paper over lining (woven or non-woven), for the above reason.

Didn't Fordy, or maybe someone else, calculate that you would have to have a very long wall for any remote chance of overlap?

The length of the wall would be less likely to cause overlap than good old fashioned human error. All it takes is the paper to get slightly twisted during application then it's fun and games.

It was me, but that was about the risk of a vertically hung lining paper co-inciding at a joint with a joint of the finish paper.

I think Dynamod is talking about leaving a tiny gap between lengths of lining so as to avoid the risk of overlapping them which would show through as a ridge on the top paper.

Having said that, dynamod doesn't seem to agree with me (in the other thread you mention - your one about B & Q paste the wall lining paper)when I suggested that was the reason for leaving a gap!