End to end
What we did:
- Strip back the wallpaper (or attempt t0)
- Remove a fake wall and see the horrors behind
- Lower the ceilin
- Plasterboard
- Replaster
- Paint
How it started
Something the survey had not picked up, or had assumed, was that the chimneys that had been removed had been adequately supported. This turned out to be the case in the study, but very much not the case in the second (or green) bedroom where upon removing the fake wall, we discovered that the chimney was being supported by its own bricks only and there was in fact no girders taking the weight. Not ideal.
A builder viewing even commented.. you didn’t do that did you? Like no! Obviously not, got the feeling it was some decades ago and had been covered up and hidden since. The creepy part was that you could hear rodents running between the fake and real brick wall and you could sometimes hear things crashing down the chimney breast and landing on the floor of the bedroom during the night when you were asleep in the other room.
What we did
We had started to strip back the wallpaper with the help of some friends visiting for the weekend…
When someone, I forget who, noticed that the sound against the wall with next door was hollow. Upon investigating it became clear that there was a fake wall in front of the single brick dividing wall, which had been vaguely attached to give the room some semblence of having a straight wall..
Upon removing this we were confronted with a terrible bodge job of not supporting a chimney using bricks, cement and a wooden batton. A bunch of other wooden battons had been placed further down the wall to join the fake boarding to.
Then came the fight with the cover over the supposedly supported chimney stack until it was fully revealed:
If anyone is wondering, no this isn’t ok. The chimney above was still there and sticking out the top of the house so there was a fair amount of weight this cement and brickwork were supporting. It’s a good job the other chimney was in situ to take some of the load or I dread to think what would have happened by now.
This room was on the first floor so the ceiling (as turns out) had to come down so that the ceiling height in the loft could be extended so then we had a new ceiling.
Once the electrics were added, and the MVHR pipe, the ceiling and walls were plasterboarded where required and plastered over. You can just about see through the plaster to where the original plaster was causing the new plaster to dry at a different rate.
We had already decided to go with traditional rich Victorian colours in the original house and had decided this room would be green walls with a white ceiling. To offset the deep colour, we had decided to use light furnishings including the curtains, bedding and natural wood of the bedframe and door.
Conclusion
We wasted too much time trying to remove the many decades of poor wall coverings when it didn’t really matter as it all came off anyway. The fact one wall was slightly wonky at one end didn’t matter, that was sorted out by the plaster.