Best wall finishes?

[alnmike]

Our cottage is about 120 yrs old, and was originally one room, with thick stone walls. At some point in the past it was divided into 2 rooms with the thinnest partition wall I've ever seen, but that's another story!

Currently the walls have wallpaper on, and the external walls also have an underpaper of sort of polystyrene (I think it is called certina?)  The house suffers a little from damp and condensation. I want to re-decorate, but have no idea of the best treatment! Stip all and paint stone walls, and paper the partition? Strip and re-paper all? If you suggest paper which is the most hardwearing?

Many thanks!

[zeb]

Hey, this sounds like our place!!

We extended into the attached barn to make a separate posh sitting/music room so in the cottage took down the partition wall to make one large kitchen/living room.

As we were living here permanently (house aired constantly) and had heating installed, the damp disappeared quickly so we stripped everything back, repointed what little decent stonework there was, boarded/insulated and "rough" plastered (and paint finished) the rest. We had to board as the walls weren't straight and it made it easier to install kitchen units and tile.

[thunderhorse]

Ours is basically three small double-room cottages knocked into one, and had been a Brit holiday home for five years: desperately cold and damp, with paper peeling off the walls, and numerous flaky areas and damp corners.

To hide the damp, in the past the stone walls had been papered, crepied, and then vinyl silk applied. This in effect tended to seal the walls. Not a good idea, as stone walls need to breathe. In due course, as we decorated, plaster and crepi came off in sheets, and as usual, a three week job went into three months (nothing new there, then!)

We stripped walls and floors and let everything air off for several months. Although the walls are (not too rough) plastered, we left them like that in keeping with the age of the property, patching as we went, and simply applied matt emulsion.

After eighteen months, there are only two minor damp spots which have slightly darkened the wall - but no mildew or anything.

The point I'm making is that whatever you decide to do, make sure that the walls can breathe.