Hi all,

busy skimming out a 3bed semi. Previously the carlite plastered walls were painted with a gloss egg shell paint then wall papered. 99% of the paper is off with only the most stubborn flecks of paste/paper hanging on for dear life. The gloss paint has become flaky in places and so i scarped off all the loosest stuff. I could have kept scraping and picking at it for days but decided to seal the walls using WBA. My question is will this give me a bomb proof base to skim over? Am I worrying too much about the tiny little bits left on the wall prior to applying the WBA? I did try PVA to seal the walls but that went snotty as soon as wet plaster hit it (lesson learnt!)

Having only skimmed new boards before I would appreciate the advice.

WBA is a delight to skim onto. Not cheap though. Selco do a similar product call plasterers pregrit which I think is £35 for ten litres instead of £ 15 for 3litres. A bit cheaper if you have a branch near you.

Am I using it for the correct purpose, i.e to cover a less than solid background. The surface I have covered was not falling of the wall in sheets but would soon flake up with a trowel dragged over it. I just can't face getting off the remaining 200 square metres around the house!

I would get a razor stripper and some spare blades. That should take off the loose which you cannot plaster over. Any gloss spots should be coated in WBA and left to dry before you pva the wall.

Tried that, and the paint hangs on a bit, so I felt I was forcing off paint rather than removing loose flakes. That and the razor seems to catch and dig lumps out of the uneven old wall giving me another job! In essence will the WBA create a bonded surface stabilising and locking in any remaining iffy bits?

Thanks for your help!

If they won't come off with the razor scraper, then they are not that iffy. The bonding agent will bind up a surface which is a little bit loose, and it is designed to prepare non-porous surfaces for plaster, but it will sit on top of what is there.; It will not penetrate the flakes and bind them to the surface.

cheers. Should be OK then. Time will tell I guess!!

I often hire a textured surface remover from hss if we have alot of suspect walls. It strips off the surface paint, leaving a direct bond to the old plaster aggregates. Horrible job to have to do, but you cannot go wrong that way.