As they started to strip the nursery wallpaper a large section of plaster fell off the wall:

Craig said: “We were about to move Toby into the third bedroom, but thank God we didn’t because a huge piece came off and landed right where his cot would have been.

It seems likely that the plaster in the room was in a very bad state and it was only the nursery wallpaper that was holding it up!

This can be a huge problem in older houses. Plaster can get crumbly and become unsafe over time. The nursery is often placed in the smallest bedroom and in older properties that tends to have two outside walls. This means the room can be colder and more prone to damp. People used to be quite happy to add layer upon layer of wallpaper to their walls. I’ve stripped rooms with as many as 15 layers of wallpaper dating back to the 1960s or even earlier! The worst thing is when paint has been added on top of many layers of paper. In that case the sheer weight of papers and paint can be enough to loosen the plaster. There’s no sure way of telling the state of the plaster underneath all that paper. You have to be prepared that it will all have to come off.

If you are decorating your nursery take extra special care and check the state of the plaster. This is one of the reasons that it’s important to strip off all the old nursery wallpaper before you start.

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