How do I even up my wall ready for painting?

When I steamed the wallpaper off the wall, the paint coat over the plaster had flaked off in places, do I have to sand the wall or will it need skimmingHow do I even up my wall ready for painting?
You should probably do both. Skim and sand. Without knowing at all if any wallpaper adhesive residue remained; and without knowing the depth/thickness of the paint you removed; to repaint should be done over a clean, smooth surface unless you intend texuring. You can sand/feather the edges of the PEEL but it might show after the fact.





Steven WolfHow do I even up my wall ready for painting?
easiest option is to sand lightly first to get rid of loose flakes then put up heavy duty backing paper then paint on that. B%26amp;Q sell a roll for a couple of quid
Try sanding with an electric sander or failing that skim it.


Before painting the walls, make sure you wash the walls to get the 'glue' off from where the wallpaper has been. (Made this mistake myself and the wall was a mess after painting and had to start again :( (You can buy a bottle of 'Sugar Soap' for the job at B%26amp;Q.)
For your exact problem, I used to float over it with joint compound etc...etc...





But for the last several jobs, this is exactly what I've done and it has worked beautifully and has never peeled or been a problem:





Use ';Spray-tec'; which is a wall texture in a can found at either Home depot or Lowes. You can get it in either Orange Peel or Knockdown textures.





Just spray it on and feather your spray area over onto the undamaged wall parts. It drys within minutes and can be painted over within just a short time.
jeletin papers can be cooler
It depends on how badly the paint has flaked. If you were going to paper over it it wouldn't matter so much but as you are going to paint I would give the wall a good wash first then a light skim over the affected areas. Once you have skimmed the desired areas you will undoubtdly get a small lip in the skimmed areas, this is unavoidable so it will need a light sanding with a fine grade sand paper. You can use either an electric sander or just sandpaper wrapped around a wooden block. Don't use the sandpaper in your hand because your hand is uneven and will leave indentions. Also if you use an electric sander don't go too heavy with it because you will only have to skim it again. Once you have sanded you could give the wall a coat of unibond, this will help the paint to stay on the wall giving it a good surface to adhere to.
where the paint came off fill with fine filler and then sand down
Use a good wide paint scraper to get all the loose bits off, then PVA the wall (PVA is a glue that you water down and paint on). Leave the PVA to dry.


Then skim coat with plaster-board finishing plaster. That's excellent stuff. Put on with the scaper, scrape off again and you'll find it's really easy to sand and it fills all the holes / indents.


(If you'e got really big holes, use another filler 1st just for those - that's cheaper).


Job done!

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