Plastering bedrooms query

TheDoc

Hi all,

Currently finalising the purchase of a house we have been living in the last six years. It's a very old house, so we have a list of things we plan to tackle. The list has grown as you can imagine, so some things we are tackling first, some things that have been suggested we are just putting on the long finger.

One immediate requirement we are looking at is plastering the ceilings and ideally walls of two bedrooms. The ceilings have cracks and some damage from a leak that was repaired last year. Walls have ancient wallpaper we want gone and smoothed out to paint

I've had a quote already (2,000) and someone popping out tomorrow to have a look. Two lads I've spoken to hadn't the best English so was a bit hard to get some answers I was after

a) These are two bedrooms, do the rooms need to be cleared entirely of furniture etc. ?

b) How long does drying take before the rooms can be slept in?

This work is high on our list but if it's extremely disruptive might just knock it down or have just the ceilings done. Not an option to really move out and nowhere to move furniture too. Appreciate it might not be like painting where you can just throw sheets over things but just wanted to get some thoughts.

Thanks in advance

10-10-20

So depending on the size of the bedrooms they will need to be largely clear of items as the plasterer will need to climb his ladder and move large buckets of plaster around as well as have a table for the wet plaster. If it's only one wall then you might get away with just clearing off half the room.

It takes about 3 days to a week to dry to about 80% and then the residual moisture will take up to a month or more to evaporate. It's not recommended that it be painted until around 4 to 6 weeks later, depending on the drying. You could move back in within 24hrs really, but a window would need to be left open.

TheDoc

Thanks for the response. Funny enough as we were standing in one of the rooms talking about it we got a call from a plasterer we had sent a mail to earlier in the day.

Gave the same indication alright, and that it's the ceilings especially. Walls he could do with just moving things into the middle of the room.

He is going to come out next week to have a look and we have someone out tomorrow. So will get a sense when they look at the room. Worst case scenario we maybe just turn the bedframes up and throw a sheet over them, as they will get replaced in time anyway. Problem is just wardrobes and all the kids stuff, but might just need to streel them around the house while its being done.

Rows Grower

You should investigate online about leaving the wallpaper in place and fixing new plaster board to the walls it is on. If the wallpaper is on exterior walls (they have windows) you could even use insulated slabs. You will need to have the rooms cleared for tradesmen but it's a small temporary hassle for long term gain. Plaster board is cheap and new boards make the plastering work a lot easier as well as giving other advantages.

TheDoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120904952#Comment_120904952

Yeah so in both rooms, one wall in each is external. Not sure why I would fix boards to the other walls as opposed to stripping the wallpaper?

Dry walling is something that was recommended to us, but we decided we arn't going to do at this point and it's not where we want our budget to go. It's also seemingly a monstrous hassle. Not looking to turn the house into a building site. The only downside really we are finding about buying a house you currently live in. This stuff would be plenty easier if we didn't live here :D

Rows Grower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120904974#Comment_120904974

I was just trying to give you some advice from my own experience and to be quite honest I don't know why I bothered. You should go ahead and strip the wallpaper and paint the walls. I'm sure you'll be able to get it done a lot quicker and have a neater finish than my suggestion. Throw up some before, during and after pictures as well if you can.

FJMC

Doing a full re-plaster in rooms is extremely messy - for the sake of a few bits of furniture whicj you would have to move around several times its simply better to empty out the rooms completely and give the plasters full access.

Depends on drying conditions - heating, time of year, weather, ventilation, etc. but about 1 month for full plaster to dry out sufficiently to paint and about 3-4 days for a skim coat.

If you are replastering it might be worth considering insulation to your one external wall as suggested above - subject to what else you are doing, age of property, existing insulation, etc.

F

10-10-20

Agreed on the insulation, I'd install insulated plasterboard on the external walls with a proper vapour membrane. Ideal time too.

TheDoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120905153#Comment_120905153

OK no need to get tetchy about I :) I have never heard of anyone putting plasterboard over existing wallpaper.

Did some looking online as you suggested and don't really see any support for it or explanations about it. I guess the idea is if the underlying brick/materials is severely damaged it's a handier way to sort it?

TheDoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120905224#Comment_120905224

Yeah so I had a guy in who was much more helpful. Gave some options around what he could work around, but we came up with some options/solutions to moving everything out of the rooms or whatever.

I won't lie the insulation stuff is making my head spin and there seems to be so much conflicting information out there.

I have a construction/builder coming out next week on a recommendation, so going to pick his brain about stuff and I guess I'll add it to the list :D Thanks.

TheDoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120905482#Comment_120905482

Just looking at some videos of how this works. Guess it kinda makes sense if the room going to be stripped and empty to get this done.

Definitely the frustration of planning out at the moment. There is so much 'ah sure we might as well do X while we are at it' and it just eats into what's a limited budget

10-10-20

Yep, the scope-creep!

TheDoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120943616#Comment_120943616

Decided while we are replastering the two rooms we will put drylining up on the external walls.

Thanks for the input folks!

Sleepy

As mentioned above plastering is extremely messy work so you may want to consider temporarily lifting your carpets / floor coverings if you're not intending to change them.