I've stripped some old wallpaper in order to paint the walls and discovered painted lining paper beneath. I'm happy to paint over this paper as it's mainly in good condition (and I don't want to deal with whatever the plaster is like below). However it has numerous holes from old fittings (up to about 20mm) and some tears and scuffing where the surface of the paper is exposing the fluffy innards of the paper.
Other than stripping the paper and plastering the wall, what's the recommended approach for repairing the papered surface well enough for painting?
Best Answer
I had exactly this in one room in our house. I simply treated it like a normal wall, filling the holes and sanding until flush.
For the scratches, you could probably just paint over with a 50/50 paint/water mix to seal the fibres, and then sand and fill as necessary when dry.
I find Quick-Dry PolyFilla perfect for light surface scratches. It dries so fast that you can do two or three fill & sand operations in about half-an-hour.
NB:
Make sure you've sugar-soaped the wall really well, as any residue wallpaper-paste may cause the paint to blister.