Hi!
We live in a lightweight concrete house (blåbetong, ytong 1963). Now we have started renovating the living room and are a bit stuck with what to do with the walls. We want to paint and wallpaper but the old wallpaper there is fabric wallpaper with a paper backing. Under the wallpaper, there is plastered lightweight concrete. The house has settled in some places so the plaster has cracked. We would prefer to avoid tearing down the old wallpaper so the problem is how to fix the wall in the best, fastest, and least messy way. We live in the house with a two-year-old.
Initially, I thought about drywalling everything but have considered something like easycover or similar.
Skimming is probably ruled out as it creates too much dust.
Regards, Marcus
We live in a lightweight concrete house (blåbetong, ytong 1963). Now we have started renovating the living room and are a bit stuck with what to do with the walls. We want to paint and wallpaper but the old wallpaper there is fabric wallpaper with a paper backing. Under the wallpaper, there is plastered lightweight concrete. The house has settled in some places so the plaster has cracked. We would prefer to avoid tearing down the old wallpaper so the problem is how to fix the wall in the best, fastest, and least messy way. We live in the house with a two-year-old.
Initially, I thought about drywalling everything but have considered something like easycover or similar.
Skimming is probably ruled out as it creates too much dust.
Regards, Marcus
Hello
I assume that this is not something you are doing in a basement. In that case, my advice is to tear down the wallpaper and clean the walls down to the plaster, then repair the surface and fill any gaps. We did the same operation last winter. We thought our fabric wallpapers would be a nightmare to remove. But what happened was that the layer behind them also came off. A tip is to paint the walls with some cheap wall paint before wallpapering to avoid getting "nubs" from the blue concrete and plaster. There are some who even claim that the paint makes the wall release less radon. I believe what I want about that, but at least it shouldn't make things worse.
Fredrik
I assume that this is not something you are doing in a basement. In that case, my advice is to tear down the wallpaper and clean the walls down to the plaster, then repair the surface and fill any gaps. We did the same operation last winter. We thought our fabric wallpapers would be a nightmare to remove. But what happened was that the layer behind them also came off. A tip is to paint the walls with some cheap wall paint before wallpapering to avoid getting "nubs" from the blue concrete and plaster. There are some who even claim that the paint makes the wall release less radon. I believe what I want about that, but at least it shouldn't make things worse.
Fredrik
Easy cover covers imperfections incredibly well, it even absorbs some movements in certain cases, so you avoid getting cracks in your new wallpaper.
I have used a few different types and the one with a fiberglass carrier is the best if you have uneven surfaces, be sure to apply plenty of glue.
Have you checked for radon in the house? As Fredrik says, maybe it should be radonsealed, there is special paint for that.
I have used a few different types and the one with a fiberglass carrier is the best if you have uneven surfaces, be sure to apply plenty of glue.
Have you checked for radon in the house? As Fredrik says, maybe it should be radonsealed, there is special paint for that.
Hi, thanks for the answers.
If easycover works, we'll probably go with that. Maybe not as nice a result as a smooth plastered/gypsum wall, but as I said, we're living in the mess and want to be done at some point...
Regarding radon, we had an annual average of 310 last year. We have a new measurement ongoing now. Have installed air vents and a fireplace. Don't believe in barrier paint for radon.
/Marcus
If easycover works, we'll probably go with that. Maybe not as nice a result as a smooth plastered/gypsum wall, but as I said, we're living in the mess and want to be done at some point...
Regarding radon, we had an annual average of 310 last year. We have a new measurement ongoing now. Have installed air vents and a fireplace. Don't believe in barrier paint for radon.
/Marcus
If I now want plastered walls instead, how do I attach the boards in the best way? Preferably without tearing down the wallpaper.
Mounting adhesive and screws + plugs
Gypsum mortar/tile adhesive + screws + plugs
Naturally, remove the wallpaper where it is loose.
Mounting adhesive and screws + plugs
Gypsum mortar/tile adhesive + screws + plugs
Naturally, remove the wallpaper where it is loose.
What makes you not believe in it? Radon is airborne, it should work quite well and you can avoid over-ventilating to get rid of the radon, which should positively affect heating costs.kacke_ said:
Even with gypsum, you'll end up doing a lot of spackling and sanding.
I don't believe in the blocking paint because it won't be completely sealed anyway and if it is, how good is it without really good ventilation. Example FTX vent. I'm not great at wide spackling, but I can spackle gypsum joints without much sanding. It just creates a small mound on the floor at each joint... however many small mounds, but they don't feel like they throw dust around everywhere.
I don't believe in blocking paint either. Somehow it creeps out anyway. What do you do with doors and windows? Should you then remove these and block the hole. No, it's probably just ventilation in one way or another that works.
Fredrik
Fredrik
We live in a house that is built the same way as yours. I'm also planning to do something about the walls in a few rooms, but I don't intend to settle for just drywall or the like. Since you can't screw anything into lightweight concrete, I will install OSB first and then drywall over it. To attach the OSB to the lightweight concrete, I will angle nail and glue thin battens so I can screw the boards into them. Maybe this could work for you too?
Against aerated concrete walls made of blåbetong, I have glued plaster with PL400 and in a few places, used long wood screws where the wall wasn't straight. It's holding very well, so why angle nail and glue studs first? It should be possible to glue OSB as well, right? By the way, it works great to screw things into aerated concrete, we have all sorts of heavy things on the walls, but sheets become a bit tricky, so it's easier to glue there.
Jan-Å, did you glue drywall on top of the wallpaper or did you remove the wallpaper first? I was thinking about what Fredrik Å wrote about the load-bearing capacity. It will probably end with us using both drywall and easycover. On different walls, of course. 
Half of the wall was previously part of a bathroom, so there the wall was 2/3 painted plaster and 1/3 newly plastered where I had chipped away tiles. The other half of the wall was already a hallway, so there were several layers of wallpaper. I scraped off the loose parts as you do before re-wallpapering, then I glued the boards.kacke_ said:
It's OT but still... Of course, you should have ventilation, preferably FTX, but with radon in the house, I have acquaintances who have to ventilate the entire house volume once an hour, and it costs a lot even with an efficient FTX. They often switch to defrost mode in severe minus temperatures, and then the efficiency is poor. The efficiency that manufacturers claim of 80-85% I don't find entirely realistic, as the air needs to go to and from the HEX as well. I have good insulation on my pipes in the attic and lose about 3-4 degrees on the exhaust air at 10-12 below zero. It doesn't result in an 85% efficiency from that, and together with defrosting of the exhaust air, the efficiency over time becomes even worse.kacke_ said:
If you can, in a simple way (e.g., with paint or something else), remove a large part of the radon, then why not? Then that you can't paint away everything is another thing, but if you block all easily paintable blue concrete walls, it should make a big difference I imagine?