jmood

I'm intending to paint walls that have previously been very shoddily painted. A lot of irregularities, like dried drips, patches of blobs, blobby streaks, etc. The skirting boards (old, high, elaborate, layers of stuck on wires) are an unspeakable mess.

I did sand some walls several years ago in London after removing wall paper and before painting with oil based egg-shell (i.e. shows every minor defect) and it came out beautifully - but nearly killed me. And now I'm older (!!!) and prone to getting tired much quicker I don't know if I dare sand by hand again.

I googled best type of sander for walls and saw a forum say "pole sander" and not orbital sander. Same forum also said power sanders have no business on walls.

It was a very old thread so I couldn't ask follow up questions. The pole sander seems even harder than hand sanding because how would I apply pressure to the tip of a pole if I'm already not strong and tall? I think I couldn't. And why have power sanders no business on walls?

Any suggestions on brands/makes that collect all the dust the best? Any suggestions in general please? Thanks.

thinbrit

This:
https://www.amazon.com/PORTER-CABLE-.../dp/B00002267Z

Which can be rented from Home Depot for around $45 a day :
Drywall Sander Rental - The Home Depot

jmood

Thanks.

Why is it that your references and also the other things I've found online keep referring to drywall sanding? I will be sanding an actual wall. Does that make any difference?

Rete

Rather doubt that it makes much of a difference. Drywall sanding is more common place than sanding a wall because it has painting imperfections. Think of the sander as being used for smoothing over filled in nail holes, if that makes sense to you. Imagine it would require a very light touch.

I'm curious what did you use to remove the wallpaper. I recently moved into an older home that has been wallpapered to death. Some rooms up to three layers on top of each other. Any advice is cheerfully accepted.

petitefrancaise

score with a knife - criss cross and use a steamer. If you're lucky then they won't have used gloss on one of the older layers of paper. Old houses!!! Never again!

jmood

I used a steamer with a simple scraper. The steamer was very affordable and simple. Mine was very old wallpaper too, from the 60s or early 70s and was in almost perfect condition, but just aesthetically needed changing. So it was stuck on quite well. But with patience and the hot steam, then the manual scarping it comes off. With multiple layers, perhaps each layer will need individually doing. It is physically tiring but I found it strangely satisfying.

After you get rid of the wallpaper I sanded not just for the imperfections but also to get rid of the glue as much as I could. Just scraping off the wallpaper doesn't remove the glue that was used. On top of it you need to put some kind of special sealant - I forgot what it was called now. It might have been a German brand. I was told by the specialist paint store from from whom I bought the paint, that if I wanted to a good end result I should definitely use the sealant first after removing wall paper. Not primer, sealant. After that I didn't need a primer.

All this was on top of plastered brick walls in good old Blighty. Not drywall. Don't know if it makes a difference, I presume it shouldn't as you said yourself.

jmood

In my case, I didn't need to score at all.

Pulaski

In my experience the problem with trying to sand paint-runs, is that latex (emulsion) paint is rubbery, so comes away in lumps.

You might be able to skim drywall mud over the damage, then sand that, or use a(n old fashioned) razor blade in a holder (or paint scraper - for getting paint off windows) to shave off the paint runs.
What do you mean by "an actual wall"? "Drywall" is the American name for plasterboard, so drywall is an "actual wall".

Duncan Roberts

Having removed a lot of wallpaper in 3 different houses using a variety of methods, the best has been the most simple. A rag and water. with a scraper We tried steamers, scoring with a knife, scoring with a wallpaper scorer, DIF, various other wallpaper removing products and always end up using water and a rag with a scraper, which is really a putty knife! You just need to get a little of the vinyl off and apply the water and then it will come off more and more. It's not very quick but it works.

Or I'm told you can hire people with industrial steamers who will do a room in less than an hour for not a whole lot of money!

Pulaski

I agree with the rag and water approach - and I recommend the use of washing up liquid (dish soap) as a wetting agent.

The only time I used a steamer, it brought big chunks of the plaster off the wall too.

Duncan Roberts

I use an older version of this. https://amzn.com/B00OJWLVM6 It's crap at collecting dust, it might as well not even have a dust collector, but I pretty much only use it on walls that I'm going to paint to sand down patch jobs, glue, paint wierdness and stuff like that. Off the top of my head I can't tell you the grit on the sandpaper, even though I did a bathroom today, but it's moderately fine.

jmood

I'm not 100% sure but I think my walls are brick, with plaster overlay. The building is what's called "pre-war" in New York City, so except for a few walls I can tell were put in later by the sound of them when I knock on them, I think the wall I'm intending to paint at the moment is an original wall, not plasterboard.

Though I may be speaking rubbish IF it's the case that perhaps what you call plasterboard is what is used here in the US instead of old fashioned "plastering" on top of a brick wall. I saw a real plasterer at work in my London apartment once. It was quite amazing. They really have a "skill".

jmood

Why do you think a rag and water works better than a steamer? Just curious. It was my first time using the steamer technique and worked fine for me with no problems.

With the wet rag, wouldn't you need a LOT of water even with detergent and hence drips all over the wall/floor? I can't imagine I could have done the job I did with that technique.

Re. equipment - there seems to be a LOT of range between the sander Thinbrit linked and Duncan linked. I even saw some that look like Duncan's one but are linked to a compressor of some kind for power. How do I decide? Still confused.

Pulaski

What is the house made from? Most, though admittedly not "all" houses in the US were timber framed even before plasterboard was invented. So what you might have is a lath-and-plaster wall, which was a technique also used in Britain, not least for ceilings before the invention of plasterboard. It is perfectly possible for an old house which was built with lath-and-plaster walls to have had new walls inserted, or even old walls "resurfaced" with plasterboard - and even that could mean either the lath-and-plaster was removed (which is hellishly messy) and replaced with ½" plasterboard, or ¼" plasterboard installed over the lath and plaster. OR you could even have ¼" plasterboard installed over wooden paneling or beadboard. The permutations are almost endless!

And I even wonder what you found by knocking on the wall? Because a lath-and-plaster wall is also hollow-sounding. You can tell because a plasterboard wall is softer and a small nail or drawing pin can be pushed into plasterboard much more easily than into a lath-and-plaster wall.

I hired a plasterer to plaster my kitchen in London - all four walls, plus the ceiling - two walls were masonry, two walls and the ceiling were plasterboard, and yes, it was fascinating to watch, and the results were extraordinary.

jmood

Oooo. No idea. I think, the walls that sound solid when I knock on them are brick. The ones that don't sound hollow - I don't know. I dare not know.
But, so far, no nails felt like they were easy/soft to drive in.

Yes, it was fascinating to watch the pasterer and yes the results were amazing. Amazing. Loved it