Hi. I'm sure you will realise that I am an extreme novice when it comes to painting and decoration... Anyway I stripped the wallpaper off of one of our walls and under it was a glue like white substance (It looks a bit like white paint when its on the wall but when it peels off it's like dried in glue. So my question is, am I able to paint of this? If not how do I go about removing it? Thanks!
What's a stain blocker? It has been the only walls in the house with it on it (it's the hall) I'll try a patch of paint after I've finished stripping it and see how it goes. Thanks!
Possibly some twit has PVA'd the wall. Sjm, I doubt you'll get a decent paint finish on that wall without a fair bit of work - sorry. I suspect that applying a coat of paint will just create a mess... I'd suggest a wide-bladed scrapper (sharp edge) held at an angle that won;t dig in to the wall surface, and a steamer lightly applied first. With luck it'll scrape off cleanly - it does look like that in patches, as tho' it hasn't actually soaked in to the wall, but is coating the surface. So you could be lucky. Make a flask of coffee, put on some awesome paint-stripping music, and git goin'...
That's a rough old wall. An on-site decorator would know what it is, and what to do with to it to minimize any issues later on. From here though it could be one of a number of things. Id suggest you grab yourself a steam stripper, (wall paper stripper) a good scraper and remove it completely from the wall - then give the wall a good even sanding removing loose bits, snots and bumps. From where you are standing with not knowing what it is, starting afresh will eliminate possible problems later on with whatever is going on the wall. There is only one way to do a good job Good Luck.
If you follow the wallpaper steam stripper advice be very careful as you could blow the plaster off the wall!
Actually come to think of it that may well be an unplastered plasterboard surface by the look of it, so you do need to be very carefull when stripping.
Good point. Sjm, have a good look at that surface - can you tell by tapping it whether it's completely solid or a 'hollow' plasterboard layer?
Looks like it's just a thin(not thinned) coat of vinyl paint. That'll come of like a bit of human skin(like when sunburned), urrgh! Mr. HandyAndy - Really
Yeah, in one of those pictures it is plasterboard the other walls are all stone however. You're correct it is like peeling sunburnt skin, still best just steaming and scraping? I haven't started it yet but I plan on starting tomorrow!
It's pretty clear you ain't going to be able to paint over it - it'll look hellish. See how you get on with the steamer and scraper. Use a good quality, wide-bladed scraper. And don't keep the steamer in one spot for too long...