stripping wallpaper from lime walls

[tycarregydwr]

Our house is full of such *interesting* wallpaper. The stuff that is on the inside of exterior walls has all come off very easily (or rather, as far as I've tried... in a few places the plaster has blown and is being held up by generations of paper, so the ugly stuff has to stay put until we can sort that out). But as I discovered today when I foolishly decided to start a 'little' job at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon, on the interior partition walls it's stuck pretty darn well. The top layer might be vinyl, is certainly thick, I'd say late 1970s vintage - this peels off. But underneath are at least 4 layers of older stuff, by the graphics possibly going back to the 1940s or thereabouts, and these are really thin paper and difficult to shift. In trying to scrap, I accidentally gouged the paint and plaster underneath.
I have never used a steam stripper before, on any wall. Are they suitable for lime plastered walls? Is there another method? Or will I have to resort to fingernails and cursing?

 

[Feltwell]

I've used a steam stripper on lime plastered walls many times with no problems, although I have heard others say it's not a good thing. So long as you keep moving it and don't leave it on one area for too long then I find no problems. Makes stripping the paper a lot, lot easier!

 

[LadyArowana]

Lightly scoring the paper may help the steam to penetrate and make it easier to remove. In my experience you only need to just break the surface of the paper.

 

[mivec]

I have been using a steam stripper on internal lime plastered wattle and daub panels without any problems.
In fact it's proved to be the best way of removing the emulsion painted lining paper from the lime plaster.

It turns the paint to an elastic film that peels off and the lining paper just falls away.

Other than getting wet the lime plaster is unaffected, I've started lime washing the panels straight away to take advantage of the dampness.

 

[tycarregydwr]

Great, thank you! Guess we'll be doing that this weekend then.

 

[Feltwell]

Try it without scoring the paper first. It depends on the paper, but it will often come off easily without.