Painting on the wallpaper

Duras

Hello,

The master bedroom needs to be repainted as some dampness appeared due to condensation. The walls are now covered in some wallpaper. The painter recommended that he would paint on the wallpaper instead of removing it and painting the wall.

I find painting the wallpaper really strange and pointless, but I just wanna know what people think. Did anyone tried this at home?

GreeBo

Duras wrote:

Hello,

The master bedroom needs to be repainted as some dampness appeared due to condensation. The walls are now covered in some wallpaper. The painter recommended that he would paint on the wallpaper instead of removing it and painting the wall.

I find painting the wallpaper really strange and pointless, but I just wanna know what people think. Did anyone tried this at home?

Depends on the type of wallpaper really, a vinly type finish might not hold the paint too well
If you take off the paper you might need to put up backing paper depending on the finish on your wall

Alun

I've done it in two back bedrooms that aren't used much and it looks OK. The paper was very plain with no embossed patterns or anything and it looks fine to the untrained eye. If you didn't know it was wallpaper painted over, you wouldn't notice at first sight.

Muckmagnet

i painted over the wallpaper in my hall ,and it turned out grand , its less work than taking the wallpaper off and then painting...

Gandhi

I just stripped a room of wallpaper a few weeks back and it is a huge pain. One of the walls I ended up just ripping off the plasterboard and replacing it. It was honestly less work than stripping off the wallpaper.

I was pretty set on stripping it off, as my wife's office has painted-over wallpaper and now the wallpaper is peeling underneath the new paint, and the place looks like a crackhouse. So for us, painting on the wallpaper was not an option. Sounds like some people have had good luck with it, though.

mad m

Unless you get the dampness on wall sorted a lick of paint wont sort it in long run.It will surely come back after a couple of weeks.Where exactly is the dampness showing?

Do you need a vent in room? Is there a crack in wall under paper? Is there a corresponding crack on the outside of house to where dampness is showing.As I said unless you get dampness sorted,this job of painting over wallpaper is purely a cosmetic job.

Duras

Guys, thanks for the answers.

mad m wrote:

Unless you get the dampness on wall sorted a lick of paint wont sort it in long run.It will surely come back after a couple of weeks.Where exactly is the dampness showing?

Do you need a vent in room? Is there a crack in wall under paper? Is there a corresponding crack on the outside of house to where dampness is showing.As I said unless you get dampness sorted,this job of painting over wallpaper is purely a cosmetic job.

The wall with the window turned grey in some places and also there is a bit of grey of a wall next to it. There is no vent in the room so maybe this is the problem... However if the wallpaper got grey do you believe that there is dampness under it as well?

mad m

Well where it turned grey is it very near the windows? Are the windows single/double glazed?

Not necessarily dampness under wallpaper,only way to know if you strip it and see,you will see the black stuff or mould.Maybe its coming from your window and spreading on top of wallpaper.

Duras

The darkest part of the wall is just above the window, but it is visible on all the wall width now. The windows are single glazed so maybe the problem is that the isolation is not good...

mad m

Well mould like this will spread and its probably creaping either under or over surface of wallpaper,you can get a fungicidal wash to combat this but this will only last a time.I seen a programme one time on tv, were the mould got so bad and into the plaster in a bathroom that they had to completely strip it back down to blocks and redo.Now this is worse case scenario.

Sometimes single glazed aluminium windows can create alot of condensation hence the mould after a time.I've seen alot of mould around windows in past,some can be treated with a good clean down of surrounding area with a fungicidal wash and some paints actually have an anti fungicide in them.

I've done my aunts kitchen over and over and have always washed area down where mould has built up but I keep telling her to get a vent in.It just keeps coming back,and there is no telling her.

From experience I'd say the mould is under your wallpaper,I'd say at a guess also if the painter hits the wallpaper with paint it will lift the wallpaper a bit until the paint dries, then it either stays floating just away from wall or dries back into wall.

rooferPete

Hi Duras,

If you had just fitted double glazing without ventilation I would install a vent first, but as you have aluminium windows that suggests the room should have had condensation for a long time.

You may have a leak that is running down the felt, slaters felt was not meant to keep out water and breaks down over the years if there is a leak, it also breaks down where it originally went into the gutters.

Take a look outside and check if there is any sign of damp at the sofitt / wall above the window, that may help find the problem.

.

Crimsonred

I have a question regarding wallpaper removal v painting over it, the scenario is as follows, I decided to remove the old wallpaper from a bedroom which had been drylined and on removing a small section or paper from the drylined part I saw that the plasterboard underneath hadn't been skimmed and that the old wallpaper had been applied directly over it, I had no problem removing the paper from the internal walls with a wallpaper steamer but am concerned that if I tackle the drylined part I will end up ruining the plasterboard and have to call in the professionals, so my question is, should I go ahead and try remove the wallpaper or should I paint over it?

Painting over wallpaper just sounds wrong to me but in the circumstances maybe it's the best option?

It's the box room in the house btw.