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Decorating Hints and Tips

Most people are forced to decorate their house at some time, although this can be made easier with a little forethought, careful preparation and a few quid.

The first thing to consider, does your room really need decorating. If on a previous occasion, someone has wallpapered, with a really hideous pattern and is certainly not to your taste, consider if it would be possible to paint over.
If the paper is deeply embossed, then there will be no alternative than to strip it off.

Sometimes wallpaper will have been used that has a flat surface; this is ideal to cover up with a couple of coats of emulsion paint.

When making a colour choice, a neutral colour throughout is sometimes preferable, as you only need to keep one tin of paint for touch up always buy enough paint, of the same make at the same time, different makes of paint may have a slightly different shade. Also if you intend to sell at a later time, a neutral finish can be a good selling point.

If the wallcovering is generally in good condition, there is no reason why you shouldn’t simply paper over with your choice of wallpaper.

Wallpaper called lining paper, is sometimes used to make good old plaster; a simple test, with an ordinary wall, is to gently tap all over , with your knuckles, if a hollow sound is heard you can bet that the plaster is becoming detached from the wall. This means when stripping, you may find some expensive replastering is necessary. Some room dividing walls upstairs can be lathe and plaster and this trick does not apply.

Lath and plaster was used for walls and ceilings, up until the sixties. This method uses thin lathes attached to the studs and then plastered over. Walls and ceilings plastered in this way, do not have such a good surface to decorate, and are best papered.

Wallpapering a ceiling is a quite difficult job, only do this if there are no alternatives.
If your lathe and plaster ceilings were badly cracked, it would be cost efficient to replace with modern plasterboard. This comes in large sheets and is reasonably cheap. If you decide to replace the ceilings, it is a simple matter to remove the old lathe and plaster, but this is a really filthy job, and a job for the local builder.
He will come along take down ceilings, and remove all the debris, clean up and replace using plasterboard, this should be fixed to the beams using special screws, sometimes nails are used but this method does not make as good a job as screws.
Afterwards the builder will apply a skim of plaster to finish the ceiling, ready for easy decoration.

When renovating an old house first inspect all rooms, if any walls make a dull thud when rapped with the knuckles, then remove old wallpaper to expose the wall and examine the plasterwork. In all probability a huge chunk of plaster will fall off the wall.

Inspect all ceilings, if there is any doubt, get the builder or plasterer to refinish all the walls and replace the ceilings in one fell swoop.
If any electrical work is required get the electrician in before the plasterer, he will find it much easier to replace or add to the wiring when ceilings are down and walls are easily repaired.
If having an extension get the same builders to carry out or organise the plasterwork.