Paint over wallpaper?

[James.wu]

Hi guys,

Is it a good idea to paint over wallpaper?

Thanks!

[Dood]

Maybe

Hi guys,

Is it a good idea to paint over wallpaper?

Thanks!

Hi I would not say it's a good idea but if you do this and I am not a professional painter, this is my experience.

use wallpaper glue ( I used a product called stick back) to glue back the torn wallpaper

seal the top and bottom of the wallpaper

pigmented sealer on the wallpaper first (oil based)

then slap on your two top coats

i have had no problems with this ( been four years and walls still look good)

[sidinz]

It's pretty common to paint over wallpaper. However, I recommend a flat paint. I'm doing it at the moment and I'm finding out, through using a top coat with a slight sheen, that the surface under the wallpaper is a lot rougher than it appeared.

While the wallpaper was forgiving, hiding the poor surface underneath, the slight sheen to the paint is not!

But all the walls in my home are paint over wallpaper and they're fine. Sometimes paint over a textured wallpaper can look really nice.

[James.wu]

Cheers guys, thanks for the feedbacks

[donthatetheplayer]

If the wallpaper is in good condition, i.e. very well glued to the wall, it comes up good. If it's coming away from the wall in places and you can easily see the vertical paper joins it will look terrible when painted.

Generally I say don't paint over wallpaper. But... we've done it at one property and it looks fine. It will never provide a high end finish though.

[Aston]

The problem I have with painting over wallpaper is that if it is unsuccessful and/or you're just not happy with the result, you are very unlikely to ever get the wallpaper off again. If you are doing it in a rental property, maybe it is not so much of an issue but still the problem exists.

[James.wu]

Thanks for contributing, yes it will be an rental property, thanks again!

[PTILoveYou]

As long as the wall paper is in decent to good condition no problem painting over in a rental.

i always use low sheen

[Wayne]

I have found that water based paints lift the wall paper - use an oil based sealer 1st.

[Atheum]

I own a painting company and used to get asked this regularly. I say 'used to' because I don't do many IPs or do-up and flicks for people anymore due to the short cuts some folk try and take.

The answer is yes you can paint over wall paper. You can paint over just about anything. It will be 'fine' and 'will do'.
You can also use a paint brush to paint a car.

Is it doing the job properly? no.
It is a short term tidy up solution. But causes long term problems.

It makes mantenance harder, everytime the paper gets a tear or a wall needs patching you have to apply plaster which is a smooth finish after painting. You end up with smooth patches against the texture of wallpaper. Ugly.

It makes stripping the paper a lot harder when you actually want to do it properly.

You often get bubbles and paper peeling away.

Time and money saving in the long run is to strip, plaster and paint. Yes even in a rental. Mantenance is far easier and it looks far better. I'm not saying I won't paint over wallpaper if the customers insists. I tend to cringe while I'm doing it tho.
But I'll always try and put my point across as to why they shouldn't. And whenever they choose to do the job properly I have a happy customer because it looks far better.

[Wayne]

You make good points Atheum.
The maintenance, repair aspect shouldn't be underestimated.
Do it once, do it right!

[Atheum]

Yes, unfortunately this is seldom the case when PIs are doing Renos. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people do it right, but I have seen some real slap jobs to cut costs and sell.

Painting is usually the last on the Reno list after other trades have finished and money is getting tight.

As painting to the naked eye is just aesthetic, a lot of young folks just go wow! It's white and clean!

Here's a tip
When ever I go to an open home that has just had a paint job, the first thing I do is look at the architraves. If they have had waterbased enamel applied ( it has a plastic like finish) I will lightly sctrach it with my fingernail, 9 times out of 10 the paint will scrape off with no effort. This means the painter/diyer didn't apply correct or any undercoat over the old oil based enamel to insure the waterbased paint adheres. I guarantee the same would have been done in the bathroom and laundry.
This means as soon as soon you knock any of the architraves or skirting, the paint will come of. After vacuuming the carpet a few times the skirtings will look like they have Leprosey.

The only solution to this is striping all the water based enamel off and starting again.
I had to do this when I bought my home that had a fresh paint job, basically started again.

Same issue, cutting corners costs more in the long run.

And don't get me started on ceilings where the cobwebs and bugs have been painted over!