My girlfriends dad is a plasterer and has offered to help us out with the house we move into next month.

I know from experience that when we remove all the paper from the bedroom and living room that there will be a lot of sanding and filling to repair the walls before painting.

My dad says getting the girlfriends old man to skim them is a waste of time and that we should just sand and fill but Im not sure.

What do you guys think? Am I just being lazy? I know that her dad could get a really crisp finish though.

I'd reskim them. How old is the house?

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I always blame my tools

Erm.. about 20 years.

My brother bought the identical house across the road 3 years ago and we did that up so we know the house well. My brother moves out of his in 2 weeks and i move into mine across the road 2 weeks after that!!

Hopefully the walls wont be too bad...

The walls might be in good condition then. I had a vision of it being a victorian property with mortar on the walls. I'd be surprised if replastering a house of that age would make any noticable difference....other than in your wallet, unless the walls are really bad.

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I always blame my tools

To be honest it was more to make life easier but i dont mind putting in the time...

My parents put up the lawyers/survey fee and the girlfriends dad offered to do a lot of plastering as a present! So i thought it might be worth a shot!! But admitedly the walls probably wont be too bad..

I'd be surprised if there is a lot of filling to do. Buy an electric sander and you'll fly through it. It's surprising how good a wall can look when it has a couple of good coats of matt emulsion.

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I always blame my tools

you could also line the walls after you have filled in any digs and cracks to give yourself a nice level surface to paint over - maybe worth a post in the P&D section to see what the pros there suggest?

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I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?"
She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

I think I will jus fill and sand them.

The pressures on though, well kinda, the girlfriend cant wait to get in and get some nice furniture for the place. Me too. Except I know it will take a while to the place decorated.

One of the main problems with the house is the doors are awkward sizes. And when we rennovated my brothers house which was identical, we had to change all the standards and stops to fit the new doors. It was a nightmare!