Remove gotelé or cover it?

What does each approach actually involve?

Stripping means softening the texture, typically with water, and lifting it off with scrapers, then filling and sanding the wall that is revealed. It is wet, messy work, but when the texture cooperates it leaves the original plaster with nothing added on top.

Covering, usually called skimming, means removing anything loose, sealing the surface, then filling the texture and building a new flat finishing layer over it before sanding. Nothing is torn off the wall, so the plaster behind stays intact, and the new surface is uniform. Our wall skimming page explains the process in more detail.

Which gives the better finish?

Done well, both give a smooth, paintable wall. The difference lies in what happens on the way. Stripping can reveal old repairs, uneven plaster and damage that then need extensive filling; in some cases the result is a wall that still needs a skim. Skimming gives a consistent surface from the outset and allows waves and patches to be corrected at the same time.

So if your walls are uneven or heavily repaired, covering often gives the better finish even when stripping would be possible. If the walls are good underneath and the texture lifts cleanly, stripping keeps things simple.

Which is messier?

Stripping produces wet scrapings that must be collected as the work goes on, and water is used close to floors, sockets and frames, so protection has to be thorough. Skimming produces less wet waste but more fine dust during sanding, controlled by extraction and sealed rooms.

In an occupied home, both are manageable with good organisation. Our guide on removing gotelé in a lived-in home explains how each room is sealed and cleared.

What are the risks of each?

The main risk with stripping is forcing it on a texture that does not want to come off. Hard, plastic-based gotelé torn from the wall can take the surface of the plaster with it, leaving more damage than there was before. The main risk with skimming is covering a texture that is loose or flaking, which can later crack or detach under the new layer.

Both risks are avoided the same way: test the wall first and remove anything loose before skimming. That is why we never confirm the method from photos alone.

Does covering make the room smaller?

Not in any way you would notice. A skim is a thin layer. What does need care are the edges: door frames, skirting, window reveals and sockets, where the extra thickness must be blended neatly. Faceplates are removed and refitted, and frames or skirting are adjusted where needed.

If the skirting is being replaced anyway, or the doors lacquered, the edge details can be resolved together. Our door lacquering service is often combined at this point.

So which should I choose?

You do not need to decide in advance. Tell us how you want the walls to look, and we test the texture in each type of room to see how it behaves. The quote then states the method for each room and why. Many homes end up with a mix: stripping where the texture lifts easily, skimming where it does not or where the wall needs levelling.

See our gotelé removal service for how the work is organised, and send us photos and the approximate floor area for a first estimate.

What about the ceilings?

The same choice applies overhead, with one difference: working on a ceiling is slower and more tiring, and stripping a wet texture above your head is particularly messy. Ceilings with gotelé are therefore often skimmed rather than stripped, unless the texture comes away very easily. Where the ceiling is also cracked, uneven or needs to hide new cables, building a suspended ceiling below it can be a better option than either.

Ceilings are usually done before walls in each room, so that any drips or dust from the ceiling land on surfaces that have not yet been finished. Our suspended ceilings page explains when a new ceiling makes more sense than treating the old one.