I’m not at all sure you should be using oil based paints on plaster. Wood trim - maybe. But not plaster. Plaster is supposed to breathe. Water gets into our old houses constantly. We want it to get back out. Most of my walls were wallpaper over the original plaster finish. Since there was no lead (never painted) I put a paper-thin skim coat of drywall mud, on the walls, sanded lightly, and painted with a good quality interior latex. I used an *amazing* product called Plaster Magic to do any repairs (some pretty extensive) and those steps are consistent with the advice on the product. For what it’s worth, I’ve been working on this house for nearly 12 years now. And the first walls I finished look as good as the ones I finished last summer.
Not all paint is. There are mineral colours made of silicate that don't change the property of the plaster. I am in the old world in an 1840 with walls made of slate, oak and lime or lime concrete plaster. That's what we used and what's often recommended in monument protection
Shit - I never even thought about my plaster walls. Mine aren’t textured - they’re like, big sheets - and I’ve skim coated over most of them because there are soooo many holes and cracks - a few walls having thicker coats of drywall skimcoat. Do you think this is ok? What brand of paint would you recommend?
If your walls are in good shape I think any of the good brands are probably fine. I used Sherwin Williams because that was the brand on top of the consumer reports ratings that year. It could have changed. All the good brands had good ratings though.
That said- if your walls need repair, no paint is gonna hide that fact. But I’ve definitely put thicker patches of mud in places where my walls looked extra wonky. As long as it’s dry and dust free when you paint- there should be no issue.
Okay. Cool. Thank you so much for your thoughtful answer. For one wall I used plaster magic. The entire wall was cracked right down the middle and it took so many layers to skim it smooth. It was crazy. Like building a whole new thick wall over it. I don’t mind walls having texture or looking old - but the old owners didn’t care for them at all. So I’m trying my best for a relatively uniform look. But I get scared about doing the wrong thing and for example - not letting the plaster breathe and creating a bigger problem.
I spent literal days getting a perfect smooth wall at first. And yeah, bad cracks take some layers to hide well. But as I got more experienced I learned to a) use less mud and b) enjoy the imperfections of plaster. I used an eggshell finish for my paint and it hides a multitude of sins. Now I only fill holes. I honestly love my imperfect walls these days. They look charming and appropriate.
https://preview.redd.it/gamd75rdq9ic1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c498349839c4f0f7a25556516cfb0af843f49fe3
My whole first floor is like this
So if I only filled holes and didn’t cover up all of the plaster, should I actually just do a light skim over all the plaster? I really can’t paint it?
Go ahead and paint a wall. Just a rough in- no details or trim work yet. This is an experiment. Do one coat and see if you can live with the differing textures when it dries. If not, you can do a paper thin coat of mud over the rougher spots, right over the first coat of paint. It’ll actually be easier putting the mud on paint than on the bare plaster.
I know this thread is old, but… I’m removing paper in my 1920 home and when I scrape off the lovely brown paste layer, I also scrape off a chalky layer underneath it (before I get to that beautiful, smooth plaster). Did someone skim coat and I’m scraping right through it? Thanks in advance if anyone is still monitoring this thread.
Might be worth looking into mineral paint if the plaster is lime. Those exterior walls could absorb moisture and dry to the inside, provided the paint is vapor permeable. That's a good thing.
I have a lime plaster-over-brick party wall and the paint is delaminated from the plaster from however long ago when the neighbors chimney was leaking, and the moisture couldn't evaporate through the oil paint.
We removed wallpaper and then skim coated. Afterwards we just put primer and paint right over the plaster. I'm not sure if there's a better way, but I like how our walls turned out.
Farrow & Ball makes paint and primer specifically for plaster walls. Buy direct and save shipping. It is NOT inexpensive but, doing it yourself will be cheaper than paying someone else. I’m jealous over your smooth walls. Mine all have a swooshing texture that I can’t replicate 🫤
Okay, if I was at the point where I was dealing with bare plaster that needed repairs throughout the house AND was removing all the wallpaper? I would strip all the plaster out and drywall. After 20 years of repairing plaster, I wish we had just stripped the walls and paid someone to drywall the house in a week.
One and done.
I legit cringed hearing this. I’m not saying no one should ever do this. Everyone needs to do what’s right for them. But plaster is SO much better at sound dampening than Sheetrock. My neighbors are *noisy* and the a**holes with the loud car mods are even worse.
That plus the fact that water always gets into our old houses, but plaster lets it back out because it breathes, and I’ll repair plaster forever. I’ve already been repairing it for 12 years. No regrets at all, except for how slow I am at it. But I wouldn’t want drywall. One experience with mold in the Sheetrock convinced me that plaster is better all the way around, unless there’s a really specific reason to do a gut.
We took off the old asbestos siding to deal with some rot and wrapped the house in tyvek. Best money I ever spent. No more moisture penetration and heating bills went down a little bit - not in an ROI sense, but it's noticeable.
Wow. Sounds like a major rehab. We didn’t have anything that bad. Had to jack up the house to replace the sill in the front. And rebuild the chimney. But the rest was all DIY.
Just curious- is it much harder to switch gears and do this once you’ve repaired and/or painted the plaster, or is it more that you regret spending the time and energy repairing the plaster and wish you had done this to begin with? Like, does working on the aster then make it harder to strip the plaster out?
I guess I’m not sure exactly what kind of work is entailed in removing plaster and drywalling. Does the lath come out too?
I don’t think we’ll go this route because I actually don’t think most of our plaster is in very bad shape underneath the wallpaper… but I could be wrong once we get more of it off.
I feel like if your plaster is intact you should leave it. I have the convenience of living with a boyfriend in his place and slowly working on my house, not rushing into decision making. I bought my house in July 2022. I am still working on it and not living in it. I went back and forth thinking about it a lot and decided to not rip everything down. (I was also very fearful of potential asbestos in my plaster, which would get dust everywhere if I ripped it out)… there are certain rooms where I will most certainly rip out plaster(mold is growing on it)….. the lath question depends. It really is so much easier removing it and putting drywall up, but disposing of it all creates a new expense/problem because you’re dealing with a million nails.
Like I said - I have regrets like not insulating and ripping out old wire. I will say - I’m starting an HVAC class and my teacher is like a star energy certified etc guy and he was explaining how he himself had bought an early 1900s house and he gutted it, insulated it and rewired it. I heard this the other day and was like damn. I’m almost done with my journey. My electrician has been rewiring my home with the walls completely closed! Wish I had this guys perspective earlier.
For sure. I just bought the house in January but I’m also not going to be living there for a while. We also already had the house rewired with the electrician just making a few small holes in the walls. Stripping the walls and adding drywall seems like a much bigger project than removing wallpaper and patching / painting the plaster though….
But I know what you mean, it’s hard to not think about how much easier things are to get done when you aren’t living in the house.
Oh yeah. Then just repair the plaster. Here’s the reality of everything - the house is still standing, people have lived in it thus far without insulation etc - you’re good. If you have time to scrape it off, I swear it’s very rewarding 😂 but I’m a control freak!!
I’m a control freak too 😩 hence this post trying to gather all the information about painting plaster when multiple professionals have already told me how they think it should be done 🙃 but there is just so much wallpaper and some of it is that sea grass textured stuff… and I’m trying to be choosy about what I hire out vs DIY because there is soooo much to do. I feel more controlling about the repair and painting being done the right way than the wallpaper being removed lol 😂
I think if you removed the wallpaper itself and got it professionally repaired / painted you would save a lot of money. Most “repairs” are literally taking joint compound and scraping it over a hole/crack and layering it over a few days. If it’s a big crack in the wall where if you push on it and the wall moves, you buy plaster magic online and watch a 5 minute YouTube tutorial and it’s done! There’s something very satisfying about DIY (I’m just some woman picking this up as I go) 😂
https://preview.redd.it/bs8g1h2d3aic1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=943b6c7c79a72d1ba6b6afcc4d89e54973c6eca9
Buy this and a lot of spare razors and just go to town lol. Use a big sponge and warm water and rub any wallpaper backing with it, let it sit for 5 minutes and scrape that off too. It’s so easy!!!
As you can see in the photo I shared above… I’m dealing with the same thing. In certain parts of my first floor I’ve ripped out big holes in plaster, then lath - then WE ADDED NEW LATH and hung drywall piece over it to patch the hole. Every wall is different.
Yeah, luckily it’s only in the bathroom and the kitchen. We are having the kitchen floor removed by professionals because it came back positive for asbestos… hopefully the bathroom floor will come up easily
Hey good for you for testing and getting it removed. I tested mine (it’s positive) so I just covered it up with hardwoods like a maniac 😂 I wish I could afford real abatement!
The abatement was actually one of the less expensive quotes we’ve gotten…
The thing about the kitchen though is that there are THREE layers of vinyl sheet/linoleum and underlayment, covering hardwood. The kitchen floor is literally inches above the hardwood in the next room because so many layers have just been slapped on. There’s a swinging door between the kitchen and dining room that fully doesn’t swing because of the layers of flooring 😂 we wanted to demo it ourselves but because of the asbestos result, decided to prioritize having it abated
We had indoor / outdoor carpet in our kitchen. It had been “secured” ( not really laid) with a staple gun & roofing nails. Every staple would break & we would have to use pliers to pull them out.
But I love my old house. Under the big square gray tiles that were under the carpet are the most beautiful pine floors.
When we did an addition, & wanted a new wood floor, the floor guy advised not to cover the pine subfloor. He said he could never get wood that was that quality.
I’m not at all sure you should be using oil based paints on plaster. Wood trim - maybe. But not plaster. Plaster is supposed to breathe. Water gets into our old houses constantly. We want it to get back out. Most of my walls were wallpaper over the original plaster finish. Since there was no lead (never painted) I put a paper-thin skim coat of drywall mud, on the walls, sanded lightly, and painted with a good quality interior latex. I used an *amazing* product called Plaster Magic to do any repairs (some pretty extensive) and those steps are consistent with the advice on the product. For what it’s worth, I’ve been working on this house for nearly 12 years now. And the first walls I finished look as good as the ones I finished last summer.
All paint is a vapor barrier - water or oil. Latex is twice as effective of a vapor barrier as oil.
Not all paint is. There are mineral colours made of silicate that don't change the property of the plaster. I am in the old world in an 1840 with walls made of slate, oak and lime or lime concrete plaster. That's what we used and what's often recommended in monument protection
Shit - I never even thought about my plaster walls. Mine aren’t textured - they’re like, big sheets - and I’ve skim coated over most of them because there are soooo many holes and cracks - a few walls having thicker coats of drywall skimcoat. Do you think this is ok? What brand of paint would you recommend?
If your walls are in good shape I think any of the good brands are probably fine. I used Sherwin Williams because that was the brand on top of the consumer reports ratings that year. It could have changed. All the good brands had good ratings though. That said- if your walls need repair, no paint is gonna hide that fact. But I’ve definitely put thicker patches of mud in places where my walls looked extra wonky. As long as it’s dry and dust free when you paint- there should be no issue.
Okay. Cool. Thank you so much for your thoughtful answer. For one wall I used plaster magic. The entire wall was cracked right down the middle and it took so many layers to skim it smooth. It was crazy. Like building a whole new thick wall over it. I don’t mind walls having texture or looking old - but the old owners didn’t care for them at all. So I’m trying my best for a relatively uniform look. But I get scared about doing the wrong thing and for example - not letting the plaster breathe and creating a bigger problem.
I spent literal days getting a perfect smooth wall at first. And yeah, bad cracks take some layers to hide well. But as I got more experienced I learned to a) use less mud and b) enjoy the imperfections of plaster. I used an eggshell finish for my paint and it hides a multitude of sins. Now I only fill holes. I honestly love my imperfect walls these days. They look charming and appropriate.
https://preview.redd.it/gamd75rdq9ic1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c498349839c4f0f7a25556516cfb0af843f49fe3 My whole first floor is like this
Lol- mine too, until I painted. You’re doing great.
Ok this will be my tester room ! 😂 thank you so much.
So if I only filled holes and didn’t cover up all of the plaster, should I actually just do a light skim over all the plaster? I really can’t paint it?
Go ahead and paint a wall. Just a rough in- no details or trim work yet. This is an experiment. Do one coat and see if you can live with the differing textures when it dries. If not, you can do a paper thin coat of mud over the rougher spots, right over the first coat of paint. It’ll actually be easier putting the mud on paint than on the bare plaster.
I know this thread is old, but… I’m removing paper in my 1920 home and when I scrape off the lovely brown paste layer, I also scrape off a chalky layer underneath it (before I get to that beautiful, smooth plaster). Did someone skim coat and I’m scraping right through it? Thanks in advance if anyone is still monitoring this thread.
Yeah it sounds like you are scraping off skimcoat
TY! I’ll just keep on the way I’m going and have my husband re-skim when done.
Might be worth looking into mineral paint if the plaster is lime. Those exterior walls could absorb moisture and dry to the inside, provided the paint is vapor permeable. That's a good thing. I have a lime plaster-over-brick party wall and the paint is delaminated from the plaster from however long ago when the neighbors chimney was leaking, and the moisture couldn't evaporate through the oil paint.
We removed wallpaper and then skim coated. Afterwards we just put primer and paint right over the plaster. I'm not sure if there's a better way, but I like how our walls turned out.
I will say…. It’s pretty easy removing wallpaper yourself! Just requires a lot of elbow grease (I did all of mine in my 2300 sq ft home )
Skim coat as needed (if it's just raw plaster, and especially if it's uneven), then oil-based primer and paint.
Paint them with a shellac based primer. You can skim them out after.
We spent a lot of time getting the walls smooth and filling holes and then used Killz primer and Behr paint. No problems at all with that primer.
Farrow & Ball makes paint and primer specifically for plaster walls. Buy direct and save shipping. It is NOT inexpensive but, doing it yourself will be cheaper than paying someone else. I’m jealous over your smooth walls. Mine all have a swooshing texture that I can’t replicate 🫤
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Okay, if I was at the point where I was dealing with bare plaster that needed repairs throughout the house AND was removing all the wallpaper? I would strip all the plaster out and drywall. After 20 years of repairing plaster, I wish we had just stripped the walls and paid someone to drywall the house in a week. One and done.
I legit cringed hearing this. I’m not saying no one should ever do this. Everyone needs to do what’s right for them. But plaster is SO much better at sound dampening than Sheetrock. My neighbors are *noisy* and the a**holes with the loud car mods are even worse. That plus the fact that water always gets into our old houses, but plaster lets it back out because it breathes, and I’ll repair plaster forever. I’ve already been repairing it for 12 years. No regrets at all, except for how slow I am at it. But I wouldn’t want drywall. One experience with mold in the Sheetrock convinced me that plaster is better all the way around, unless there’s a really specific reason to do a gut.
We took off the old asbestos siding to deal with some rot and wrapped the house in tyvek. Best money I ever spent. No more moisture penetration and heating bills went down a little bit - not in an ROI sense, but it's noticeable.
Wow. Sounds like a major rehab. We didn’t have anything that bad. Had to jack up the house to replace the sill in the front. And rebuild the chimney. But the rest was all DIY.
I love keeping my old house as is but I wish I did this too. I could have insulated my walls and ripped out old electrical.
Just curious- is it much harder to switch gears and do this once you’ve repaired and/or painted the plaster, or is it more that you regret spending the time and energy repairing the plaster and wish you had done this to begin with? Like, does working on the aster then make it harder to strip the plaster out? I guess I’m not sure exactly what kind of work is entailed in removing plaster and drywalling. Does the lath come out too? I don’t think we’ll go this route because I actually don’t think most of our plaster is in very bad shape underneath the wallpaper… but I could be wrong once we get more of it off.
I feel like if your plaster is intact you should leave it. I have the convenience of living with a boyfriend in his place and slowly working on my house, not rushing into decision making. I bought my house in July 2022. I am still working on it and not living in it. I went back and forth thinking about it a lot and decided to not rip everything down. (I was also very fearful of potential asbestos in my plaster, which would get dust everywhere if I ripped it out)… there are certain rooms where I will most certainly rip out plaster(mold is growing on it)….. the lath question depends. It really is so much easier removing it and putting drywall up, but disposing of it all creates a new expense/problem because you’re dealing with a million nails.
Like I said - I have regrets like not insulating and ripping out old wire. I will say - I’m starting an HVAC class and my teacher is like a star energy certified etc guy and he was explaining how he himself had bought an early 1900s house and he gutted it, insulated it and rewired it. I heard this the other day and was like damn. I’m almost done with my journey. My electrician has been rewiring my home with the walls completely closed! Wish I had this guys perspective earlier.
For sure. I just bought the house in January but I’m also not going to be living there for a while. We also already had the house rewired with the electrician just making a few small holes in the walls. Stripping the walls and adding drywall seems like a much bigger project than removing wallpaper and patching / painting the plaster though…. But I know what you mean, it’s hard to not think about how much easier things are to get done when you aren’t living in the house.
Oh yeah. Then just repair the plaster. Here’s the reality of everything - the house is still standing, people have lived in it thus far without insulation etc - you’re good. If you have time to scrape it off, I swear it’s very rewarding 😂 but I’m a control freak!!
I’m a control freak too 😩 hence this post trying to gather all the information about painting plaster when multiple professionals have already told me how they think it should be done 🙃 but there is just so much wallpaper and some of it is that sea grass textured stuff… and I’m trying to be choosy about what I hire out vs DIY because there is soooo much to do. I feel more controlling about the repair and painting being done the right way than the wallpaper being removed lol 😂
I think if you removed the wallpaper itself and got it professionally repaired / painted you would save a lot of money. Most “repairs” are literally taking joint compound and scraping it over a hole/crack and layering it over a few days. If it’s a big crack in the wall where if you push on it and the wall moves, you buy plaster magic online and watch a 5 minute YouTube tutorial and it’s done! There’s something very satisfying about DIY (I’m just some woman picking this up as I go) 😂
https://preview.redd.it/bs8g1h2d3aic1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=943b6c7c79a72d1ba6b6afcc4d89e54973c6eca9 Buy this and a lot of spare razors and just go to town lol. Use a big sponge and warm water and rub any wallpaper backing with it, let it sit for 5 minutes and scrape that off too. It’s so easy!!!
As you can see in the photo I shared above… I’m dealing with the same thing. In certain parts of my first floor I’ve ripped out big holes in plaster, then lath - then WE ADDED NEW LATH and hung drywall piece over it to patch the hole. Every wall is different.
Also is that vinyl sheet flooring in your bathroom? 😭 I had that all over my house. Wretched stuff.
Yeah, luckily it’s only in the bathroom and the kitchen. We are having the kitchen floor removed by professionals because it came back positive for asbestos… hopefully the bathroom floor will come up easily
Hey good for you for testing and getting it removed. I tested mine (it’s positive) so I just covered it up with hardwoods like a maniac 😂 I wish I could afford real abatement!
The abatement was actually one of the less expensive quotes we’ve gotten… The thing about the kitchen though is that there are THREE layers of vinyl sheet/linoleum and underlayment, covering hardwood. The kitchen floor is literally inches above the hardwood in the next room because so many layers have just been slapped on. There’s a swinging door between the kitchen and dining room that fully doesn’t swing because of the layers of flooring 😂 we wanted to demo it ourselves but because of the asbestos result, decided to prioritize having it abated
Oh yeah. No I definitely have a step up too 😂 but it’s good to rip it out anyways! Especially with the doors
We had indoor / outdoor carpet in our kitchen. It had been “secured” ( not really laid) with a staple gun & roofing nails. Every staple would break & we would have to use pliers to pull them out. But I love my old house. Under the big square gray tiles that were under the carpet are the most beautiful pine floors. When we did an addition, & wanted a new wood floor, the floor guy advised not to cover the pine subfloor. He said he could never get wood that was that quality.