Larry Butterfingers
New Member
Hello, Plasterers Forum!
The wife and I have moved into a run-down apartment here in Slovenia. She agreed that we'd renovate it. Basically that means she gets to buy all new furniture while I have to renovate the place.
I'm a novice when it comes to this. I've got a few functioning brain cells left (only a few) and the internet. But I've been slowly learning the past few days.
Here's what the situation looks like to me at present. The outer wall of this apartment - don't know the technical designation - looks like it's plaster on concrete. There are small cracks in places. What you see is a powdery white surface layer and behind it a hard gray. If you knock on the wall, it's hard, not hollow. It's all been badly painted white.
The interior walls like the wall separating the bedroom from the living room appear to me to be 100% plaster. If you knock on it, it sounds hollow. There's a hole clean through in one lower corner of this wall and its all white powder with tiny slivers of what look like woodchips. This wall's been badly painted, even graffiti-ed by previous student occupants. I took an orbital sander to it in just one place, got through the paint, and the smooth plaster layer behind it appears to be an off-white, maybe slightly pink (?).
The bottom of the walls in the bedroom are chipped and mangled for up to 5 cm running around the room. When you pull up the old wall-to-wall carpet you discover - to my amazement - that the floor doesn't even meet the wall with a gap of up to 2cm in some places. The floor, I think, is concrete. There's a yellowish tinge to it when you pull up the carpet. My guess is that's from 20- or 30-year-old carpet glue.
So here's my predicament. I thought I might limewash the walls - but then heard the walls are probably gypsum plaster and have read you can't do that with gypsum. Then thought about milk paint, but hear it's permanent. That makes me nervous. Thought I'd clean and acid wash the concrete floor, too. But I did the water test last night and not a bit of it absorbs - all just beads up in a puddle. Don't know if that's the glue or the concrete's been sealed or what.
What would somebody with some experience do with this kind of room? Plaster over the walls? Sand them and just paint them? How would it work if the outer walls (two in the bedroom here) are plaster over concrete and the other two are just plaster?
Wish I had more of a clue. Any helpful information would be appreciated.
The wife and I have moved into a run-down apartment here in Slovenia. She agreed that we'd renovate it. Basically that means she gets to buy all new furniture while I have to renovate the place.
I'm a novice when it comes to this. I've got a few functioning brain cells left (only a few) and the internet. But I've been slowly learning the past few days.
Here's what the situation looks like to me at present. The outer wall of this apartment - don't know the technical designation - looks like it's plaster on concrete. There are small cracks in places. What you see is a powdery white surface layer and behind it a hard gray. If you knock on the wall, it's hard, not hollow. It's all been badly painted white.
The interior walls like the wall separating the bedroom from the living room appear to me to be 100% plaster. If you knock on it, it sounds hollow. There's a hole clean through in one lower corner of this wall and its all white powder with tiny slivers of what look like woodchips. This wall's been badly painted, even graffiti-ed by previous student occupants. I took an orbital sander to it in just one place, got through the paint, and the smooth plaster layer behind it appears to be an off-white, maybe slightly pink (?).
The bottom of the walls in the bedroom are chipped and mangled for up to 5 cm running around the room. When you pull up the old wall-to-wall carpet you discover - to my amazement - that the floor doesn't even meet the wall with a gap of up to 2cm in some places. The floor, I think, is concrete. There's a yellowish tinge to it when you pull up the carpet. My guess is that's from 20- or 30-year-old carpet glue.
So here's my predicament. I thought I might limewash the walls - but then heard the walls are probably gypsum plaster and have read you can't do that with gypsum. Then thought about milk paint, but hear it's permanent. That makes me nervous. Thought I'd clean and acid wash the concrete floor, too. But I did the water test last night and not a bit of it absorbs - all just beads up in a puddle. Don't know if that's the glue or the concrete's been sealed or what.
What would somebody with some experience do with this kind of room? Plaster over the walls? Sand them and just paint them? How would it work if the outer walls (two in the bedroom here) are plaster over concrete and the other two are just plaster?
Wish I had more of a clue. Any helpful information would be appreciated.
