Just had the house rewired, now we plan to redecorate everywhere.

What should we do? Wallpaper or get the walls skimmed then emulsion?

Mrs B thinks we should get the walls skimmed but I think this will be expensive and they can soon start to look untidy, if they get knocked.

Wallpapering we will do ourselves (no, I’m not skimming the walls myself), so will be much cheaper.

What have others done?

Mick

Wallpaper is harder to fix than emulsion if it gets knocked. If you use emulsion, you can paper over it later if you like, but once papered you can’t go back unless you skim it. But it needs skimming now anyway, so I’d just go whichever look you prefer.

Get them skimmed. Then you’ve got proper walls that you can do what you like with after that.

Don’t forget to honour the STW tradition while such things are occurring

😉

Skimmed and new skirting, make the room look new.

If you think skimming would be expensive, you’ve clearly not gone wallpaper shopping with mrsmidlife.

Wallpaper? Whatever next? Bootcut jeans?….

Skimming can come away from the plaster underneath and crack. Personally I dislike wallpaper these days and in my flat I just spent ages with filler and sanding to get flat walls for emulsion. Unless its a modern house I wouldn’t change the skirtings – older skirtings are IMO much nicer even plain ones – better timber

skimming the walls means skirtings and architraves may not look right

Skimming can come away from the plaster underneath and crack.

Only if someone who does the skim has no idea what they are doing.

Or you could hang some quality lining paper like Wallrock Fibreliner and then paint. Top tip, leave a couple of mm between the drops and fill with Easifill and sand smooth.

Don’t think of wallpaper as a band-aid.

Lining paper/wallpaper doesn’t cover ropey walls.

If the walls are pitted and look carp now, they’ll still look like that but maybe a little less so with paper.

If you can afford it skim the walls. If they are that bad you would need to do a lot of prep work to make the lining paper look good anyway and if you dink lining paper it looks far more untidy and is harder to fix than plaster. Also a good plasterer will do the job quicker than you could line them with paper. I’m a painter and decorator and have just had a room skimmed in my own house instead of papering. A good skim finish is just better than paper.

We had all our rooms skimmed and they looked lovely, until cracks started appearing a few months later. Even when we took some walls back to the bick, boarded and skimmed, cracks can still appear.

So IMO wallpeper, but if the plaster is wonky underneath it will still look bad, so skim, lining paper then wallpaper.

We’ve had our 1890s house re-skimmed. Way cheaper and less messy than a full re-plaster. You get the odd crack with movement over the years, but just paint over them.

Skim and paint, let the things in the room and on the walls be the focus rather than the walls themselves.

We’ve just had most of our downstairs skimmed.
We had lining paper put on when we moved in 17 years ago and I hate it.
So, I spent what seemed to be ages stripping all the wallpaper and and had it all skimmed and the ceilings over boarded now looks clean and sharp.
It can be quite spendy though. I think we we spent about £6,000 on plastering but that was also part of a bigger amount of building work we’ve have been doing this year.

Personally, get it skimmed.

yeah skimmed and painted. Wall paper is in the same league as net curtains at the moment, get rid. Painted walls much more en vogue

Paint, then dont use horrible point source bulbs, get some nice diffused ones that dont cast harsh shadows over every imperfection.

We had all our rooms skimmed and they looked lovely, until cracks started appearing a few months later. Even when we took some walls back to the bick, boarded and skimmed, cracks can still appear.

Sounds like your house may be experiencing some movement in your case! Or you’ve got a really bad plasterer.
Plaster, full or skim, shouldn’t crack if done properly.

Tt can be quite spendy though. I think we we spent about £6,000 on plastering

Wow! I think I had most of downstairs skimmed for about £500…

Skim and paint, let the things in the room and on the walls be the focus rather than the walls themselves.

If wallpaper is done properly and well balanced and designed to fit the room and it’s contents it’s amazing. Unfortunately there are loads of crap wallpaper designs put on badly in rooms that they dont suit. If you’re not good at interior design choices then paint is safer but I’ve seen enough bizarre choices of paint schemes to know that it isn’t always done well either!!

Just got a quote from the plasterer.

£767 to skim two bedrooms!

Is that how much skimming should cost? I think we will be going for the wallpaper option!

Mick

We had 4 rooms done about 5 years ago which cost about £1300. This included one wall back to bare brick, boarded and skimmed in one room and new ceiling boards in another room. We got the spare room done a couple of years ago for about £200. Suppose it depends on how big your rooms are.

Is that how much skimming should cost? I think we will be going for the wallpaper option!

Yeah, but add up the cost of materials for wallpapering, plus the value of your time. I’m quite fussy about getting a neat finish when decorating; consequently wallpapering takes me absolutely ages.

Just average bedrooms. It’s a two-bed bungalow.

Woodchip FTW!

Your prices seem good for 2 bedrooms to be done. I take it that dosn’t include ceilings?
There is a fair bit of work involved as the prep is important.

The only thing holding our plaster on is the wallpaper!! 🙂 🙂

500 quid a room inc celings around my way

money well spent not having to look at naff wallpaper and joints that invariably show up years down the line – and more importantly – not having to strip the damn stuff off every few years.

Just the walls and us doing all the prep.

It’s not going to happen if this is the cost. We will just tidy them ourselves and paper.

Mick

money well spent not having to look at naff wallpaper and joints that invariably show up years down the line – and more importantly – not having to strip the damn stuff off every few years.

This. The wallpaper you put up now will look old fashioned in a few years and you’ll have to start again.
Getting rid of wallpaper and skimming is kind of an investment. One day you’ll be selling the house and crap wallpaper will just put people off.

Mrs B thinks we should get the walls skimmed

Path of least resistance – and she’s right.

but I think this will be expensive and they can soon start to look untidy, if they get knocked

See my point above re the cost. If they get knocked plaster is easy to fix but wallpaper is screwed.
Sounds like your thinking of reasons not to spend what will be just a bit more than wallpapering.

Get another price for the skimming but that one sounds kinda OK.

I’m in the middle of having my place re plastered after getting rid of wood chip in every bloody room. The finish is brilliant and makes the place really fresh. Honestly those prices seem really good. I had a woodburning stove installed and the chimney breast needs sorting quote was £500 for the room for re plaster and another £500 just for the chimney breast as it is recomended to do it in lime to stop the heat cracking normal plaster. As mentioned above it’s an investment and will be easier to keep tidy or change colours at a later date.

Is that how much skimming should cost? I think we will be going for the wallpaper option!

Literally everyone has said skim regardless of whether you want paper or not you want to walls to be good you achieve this with skimming.

£767 to skim two bedrooms!

Depends how many days and is it the ceilings too and if so are they being boarded. Down where I am a good plaster is on around £150 a day, so if its two days £300 labour and £400 materials which sounds about right and matches my quote for my kitchen/diner.

I think we paid about 450 for our 6x4m lounge, including ceiling that I over boarded.

And previously, same guy because he’s good, about the same for study and hallway incl ceilings, which I think was the best part of 3 days work.

Apart from the downstairs toilet we’ve had pretty much the whole house skimmed. There’s a couple of hairline cracks that need filling but it looks great overall. A lot better than wallpaper.

We had our walls papered with decent-quality lining paper (hung horizontally) as opposed to skimming and I am very happy with it. And it is approximately 12 billion times easier to paint over than fresh skim, even with cheap nasty DIY store paints.

And it is approximately 12 billion times easier to paint over than fresh skim, even with cheap nasty DIY store paints.

do you paint with a half brick or something .

Skim-mist-paint coat 1 – paint coat 2 nothing hard or special.

OP, if you’re going to do the wallpaper option, I’d still recommend high quality lining paper first, either hung horizontally or staggered to the finish paper. The Wallrock Fibreliner I mentioned before is the stuff to go for.

Skim-mist-paint coat 1 – paint coat 2 nothing hard or special.

It’s fine if using trade paints I agree, but DIY store paints (even the more expensive brands) take much more than a mist coat and a single top coat on fresh plaster in my experience (having painted an entire house with brand new plaster throughout and, more recently, done similar but with lining paper instead).

I’ll take your word for it, only ever buy trade paint.

Wallpaper is the work of the devil, the interior version of a privet hedge.

skim/fill it yourself and then fit heavy weight lining paper is a good cheap option.  Skimming if done properly by pros can be expensive :(.   It is available cheaper and I took that option only once.  You might be luckier