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Laurie Brown
01-29-2009, 3:25 PM
I hate the wallpaper in my house. It was put up by the previous owners, I can only imagine it's been on the walls for 30 years, and after 7 years I'm sick of looking at it. Recently, I've been daydreaming about how nice I could make my bathroom look if I took down all that yucky floral wallpaper and painted the walls a nice beige. My dad and my grandma used to do wallpapering, and I remember the nightmare that was taking down old paper. I wasn't looking forward to it.

Here's what the wallpaper in the bath looks like:



http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/wallpaper1.jpg

Pretty much everything in the bath is yellow: the tile, the sink, the toilet, the floor... the wallpaper has some pink and green and white in it... anyway, I went online to find out how to remove this stuff and watched videos and read articles and thought I need to go to the Borg and buy stripping chemicals and a big putty knife, and put down tarps, and open the window because of fumes, etc.

Experimentally, I pulled at one of the loose corners to see how much of it would rip away and how much would be left behind. To my amazement, I was able to fairly easily peel the entire strip off the wall in one piece!

Ok....

The piece next to it wasn't loose. I picked at the corner of it with a fingernail, got the corner loose, and amazingly again, was able to peel that entire strip off the wall on one piece.

Why? Here's what was under the wallpaper:

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/wallpaper2.jpg

Looks like they put up the drywall, did a bare minimum of taping and spackling, and then just put up the wallpaper on top of it. Well, that would explain why it's all peeling off the wall, I guess.

The question now is, I'm assuming I'll be able to peel pretty much all of it off using only my bare hands. In order to get these walls ready for paint, what do I have to do to them, exactly? I've never done any drywall taping or spackling myself, but I imagine that's what I need to do? Then sand, prime, and paint? Here's a closeup of that corner, they didn't even tape the corner except up near the ceiling:

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/wallpaper3.jpg

Looks pretty bad, huh? That's probably the worst of it, I'm hoping. I'll see once I get the rest of the paper down. Ironically, that tannish color the drywall has is pretty much the color I was thinking of painting the walls, so now I can see what they'll look like more or less without even painting. ;)

I posted this here because it's not really woodworking and I had no idea where else to put it.

Lee Schierer
01-29-2009, 3:41 PM
Your wall paper may have been the "dry strippable" variety. It peels off easily. Yes you need to seal that wall. I hate spackling and will not offer advice on how to do it because I don't do it very well. The only trick I will suggest is do your sanding with a bucket of water and a damp sponge instead of sandpaper and you will have far less dust.

You will need a primer coat on the dry wall and probably a semi gloss wall paint over that. You may want to use Kilz primer to prevent and/or kill any mildew that may already be in the dry wall paper since it wasn't sealed.

David G Baker
01-29-2009, 3:51 PM
Go to a paint store that stocks wall paper, the should give you all the advice you need on surface prep after wallpaper removal.
I will do my own Sheetrock taping, sanding and mud application if the surface is behind cabinets or won't be seen, other than that I hire the work to be done by a pro. One of my strengths is knowing my weaknesses.
Wallpapering is another one of my weak areas..

Laurie Brown
01-29-2009, 3:59 PM
Yes, there are small black spots in several places on the drywall that I was thinking might be mold or something, so I'll definitely look into that Kilz.

Dan Mages
01-29-2009, 5:55 PM
You are lucky. I have been stripping wall paper for the past week with a steamer. After the top layer comes off, I had to steam off the paper. Then I had to steam the walls again to remove residual glue and fragments. Next is patching, sanding and priming.

Never a fun job. Wall paper should be made illegal!

Dan

Jim O'Dell
01-29-2009, 7:52 PM
I had the same luck as Dan when I stripped the wall paper off the entry way this past fall. Didn't want to come off at tall. When it did, it took part of the layer of sheetrock paper off with it. :mad: I had to do a lot of mudding to cover the torn sheetrock paper, and the gouges I put in it along the way.
We tried the little rolling scoring thing, and water, we tried spritzing water and soap, we tried it all. My problem is we didn't want a textured surface, so I needed it as smooth as possible. The Venetian Plaster we used did hide some of the problems, but I must have about 120 man hours in doing the walls in that 8 X 8 room, and a lot of them frustrated hours. :D I still have a kitchen to eventually do, and some border areas in the master bedroom and master bath, and some on the walls in the toiled closet. I think I'd rather do tiling and live with the aching knees for 3 weeks! Jim.

David G Baker
01-29-2009, 11:38 PM
Jim,
Cap the wallpaper with 1/4" Sheetrock.

James Jaragosky
01-30-2009, 12:54 AM
Jim,
Cap the wallpaper with 1/4" Sheetrock.
Capping the wall may just create more problems than it solves, like having the wallboard hanging out further than the wall tile and trim. also you will still have to tape.

These types of jobs can get out of hand fast if you let them.
questions like is there green board on the wet walls come to mind.

Use the easy sand joint compound and try to get it as smooth as possible before it drys as stated above, if not you will have dust everywhere when you sand.
Prime & paint, you're done.

If you post on Craig's list you can probably find an out of work taper fairly cheap. I personally do not like to tape or sand, a good taper will not have to sand much at all.

Be careful, a minor bathroom repair can get very expensive real fast.
good luck and please post pictures of the completed project.
Jim.

Belinda Barfield
01-30-2009, 11:43 AM
Laurie, you have inspired me to tackle my bathroom! My situation is wallpaper, covered in at least three coats of paint. It has to come down because I seeing some discoloration of the paint in the area of the border. I'm pretty sure its mold. I stare at the walls every morning and debate how best to start. I'm going to get up tomorrow and just start pulling it down! (hopefully) I can't wait to see your finished project.

Rob Russell
01-30-2009, 12:26 PM
We just finished redoing the bathroom at our beach house. Similar situation. Make sure you scrub the walls down and rinse well to get the wallpaper paste off before you do anything else. We used something from the local hardware store - might have been Spic and Span. We did a coat of Kilz as a primer before paint.

Laurie Brown
01-30-2009, 2:58 PM
I went off to Lowes today to pick up supplies. I got a pair of putty knives, some spackle, a gallon of Kilz primer, and a bunch of color swatches.

Here are some of the colors I'm considering. I'm not sure how true the color reproduction will be off my scanner, but:

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/colors1.jpg

And the second one:

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/colors2.jpg

I'm looking for earthy brown/tan/beige tones to go with the yellow, but I want something darker rather than lighter for a contrast, with the ceiling in white.

I had to overlap the colors to fit the scanner, so on this second picture, the colors across the top are Sumatra Blend, Carmelized Onion (yum!) and Faint Maple. The second row is Praline Cake, Lariat Tan, and Buckskin Pony. ;)

I'm leaning towards Cornhusk, Hot-Crossed Bun, and Magic Lamp. (Why are half these colors named after food? I'm getting hungry!)

Rob Russell
01-30-2009, 3:02 PM
If you have a Home Depot near you, take a look at the Behr paint colors. We've been using Behr for all of our painting (interior and exterior) and it's good paint. It consistently gets high marks from Consumer Reports.

As a comparison, my wife wanted a specific color that was only available from Glidden. The Glidden was thin and watery compared to the Behr and didn't cover as well.

Laurie Brown
01-30-2009, 3:42 PM
Yes, we have one right down the street from Lowes. ;)

I've heard good things about Behr. How does that compare to Valspar? Anyone?

Ben Franz
01-30-2009, 5:23 PM
I've had pretty good luck removing most wallpaper using a scoring tool and then wetting the paper with warm water and DIF paste softener - both available at the borg paint dept. I spray the solution with a garden sprayer and it sometimes takes 2 or 3 applications to a liberally scored surface to be effective. If it's an older paper that was installed with clay paste nothing works well so I recommend a bulldozer.

David G Baker
01-30-2009, 5:29 PM
Another vote for Behr paints. I have been using it for years and have never been disastisfied. If you can wait there are good sales on Behr products once in a while.

Dennis Peacock
01-30-2009, 7:44 PM
Well...have I ever mentioned how much I dislike hanging wallpaper? This thread reminded me of a very bad experience I had with bathroom wallpaper on at least one occasion. :o

Don Bullock
01-30-2009, 11:02 PM
...
I'm looking for earthy brown/tan/beige tones to go with the yellow, but I want something darker rather than lighter for a contrast, with the ceiling in white.


That's a funny coincidence. I just finished painting one bathroom after stripping the wallpaper. It's now a Valspar beige (Cinnamon Burlee), buttery yellow (Churchill Hotel Hazy Yellow) and white. The second bathroom is almost finished. Fortunately the paper in there came off much easier than the first one. That bath will just be the buttery yellow and white.

BTW -- I still have a large family room, two bedrooms, laundry room and a hallway to strip and paint as well as a dining room with a vaulted ceiling that needs to be painted (the only part of the whole house that wasn't papered). Yep, thew former owners loved wallpaper. We're getting our home ready to either sell or lease since we have already bought another one.

Don Bullock
01-30-2009, 11:03 PM
Well...have I ever mentioned how much I dislike hanging wallpaper? This thread reminded me of a very bad experience I had with bathroom wallpaper on at least one occasion. :o

My session of hanging wallpaper in the bathroom was very shocking when I was doing the wall around the light switch.:eek:

Art Mulder
01-31-2009, 10:24 PM
As a comparison, my wife wanted a specific color that was only available from Glidden. The Glidden was thin and watery compared to the Behr and didn't cover as well.

I find this puzzling Rob. Many times I've given the paint counter a colour sample from another brand, and they just look it up in the computer and mix it in whatever brand I want. (ie: I give them a colour sample from CIL, they look up the code, and squirt it into a Behr.)

...art

Cliff Rohrabacher
02-02-2009, 8:51 AM
I loathe wall paper. It is hideous loathsome stuff.
I hate putting it up and I hate taking it off.

This after several houses worth of it.

Did I mention that I don't like wall paper~?

I learned early on to lay down a coat of paint on the sheet-rock to facilitate removal later on. Too many builders throw up the wall board and paper directly to that. Getting the paper off means the wall board is coming down too.

When papering over paper (the horror, oh the horror) ya gotta lay a sealer coat of Oil paint. Not latex, oil. If you put latex on, it'll soften the glue in the paper beneath and you'll have random failure of the glue. If ya paper over paper without applying oil paint the result will be more random failure of the sub layer of paper.

I despise wall paper.

Laurie Brown
02-02-2009, 9:27 AM
I hate wallpaper too, especially because it's almost always ugly! After I finish this bathroom, I have another bathroom, the diningroom, the kitchen, and a downstairs bath that are all wallpapered and all look hideous! The diningroom is the worst. The paper is whitish yellow with yellow patterns on it, which are raised and fuzzy! With the lower half of the room dark brown wood paneling. Ick!

Chris Struttman
02-02-2009, 6:48 PM
I know I'm coming to the party a little late here, but the best stuff I've found for removing wallpaper is called WP Chomp. It works much better than the more popular brand.

Jim O'Dell
02-02-2009, 7:44 PM
I guess we are all members of the "I hate wallpaper" club.
David, I told my wife that next time, I was going to cap it with the 1/4" sheetrock. She thought that was a good idea. (She helped me with the removal. Was much more patient than I was, but still got tired of it.) I have one wall in the kitchen that will be a mess. It butts up to the paneling in our family room...has a wood trim piece that separates it. I may be using the 1/4" sheetrock when I pull the paneling down as I really don't want to have to rebuild the trim around 6 windows and a door on that wall, but I may just pull it and redo the trim, and put an updated door in. The soffits in the kitchen, and the pantry are all going to be torn out, so that will get rid of the paper that's on them.

Keep at it Laurie. Remember, we want to see some finished pictures at the end! Jim.

David G Baker
02-03-2009, 12:07 AM
I have found that wallpaper has its place especially if it is the heavy duty vinyl but I am a lifetime member of the hate wallpaper club and will go to my grave a member.
The next sheetrock job I do will have decorative wooden trim around the ceiling so I don't have to mud the ceiling/wall joints. I may even switch to 5' wainscoting to cover any horizontal seams. I have found some secrets, use the longest sheets you can find and safely handle and cover openings, then cut them out with a Roto Zip.

Dick Strauss
02-05-2009, 12:02 AM
Laurie,
You are one lucky lady! I've learned my lessons...the next time I have more than a little bit of drywall taping, etc, I'm going to hire someone. If you decide to do it yourself, they have new drywall mud that's supposed to be really effective at keeping the dust to a minimum. I think you get a better surface by dry sanding versus wet though it is a big mess

Jim,
I feel your pain...We moved into a new home a few years ago and didn't like the wallpaper. Unbeknownst to me, the original installers had papered directly to the drywall. I ended up skim coating all of the walls in the kitchen, dining room, and breakfast nook after removing the wallpaper (along with plenty of the drywall paper) so that i had a smooth surface to paint.

When it came time to fix the bathroom, I decided to apply several layers of primer right over the wallpaper followed by a coat or two of paint. It looked great and was much easier.

Laurie Brown
02-06-2009, 2:15 PM
Update! Woe #2 discovered today after taking down some more wallpaper.... Just over the vanity mirror, hidden under the wallpaper, was this lovely thing:

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/hole.jpg

Looks like maybe a different light fixture used to be there or something? What do I do with THAT?? I don't want to try to plaster a ton of spackle over the top of it, and I may at some future time need to get into that for some reason, so how can I work around it and make it look not quite so horrible when I'm done?

So, here's some update pics while I'm at it. This is that awful corner where there was a gaping hole. Looks a lot better now:

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/corner.jpg

And here is some of the rest of the bathroom now that the paper is down and the first round of spackling is done:

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/bathroom1.jpg

I used a neato pink spackle I found at the Borg that turns white when its dry, so that's what some of the pink spots are. ;)

Now, if I can figure out what to do about that stupid hole in the wall with the metal plate over it, MAYBE I can get to priming this weekend.

Rod Sheridan
02-06-2009, 2:30 PM
Hi Laurie, you can't indeed cover over the box with spackle, it's an electrical code violation.

I suggest that you either remove it while you're in the drywall repair mode, or put a nice decorative cover over it.

Regards, Rod.

Laurie Brown
02-10-2009, 6:57 PM
Another update! Today I primed the bathroom. Took 5 hours to cut around all the tile, windows, doors, mirror, etc, and 1 hour to roll the walls. Ugh. I won't be walking for 3 days. Ouch. Forgot how much pain was involved in ladder work and climbing on sinks and toilets. ;)

Here's some pics:

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/bathroom2.jpg

Here's that corner that had the hole in it:

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/bathroom3.jpg

That circular hole thingy can be seen above the mirror in this one. I've decided I'll paint around it and find some kind of cover to put over it when I'm done.

http://www.aerth.org/Downloads/bathroom4.jpg

Now I just have to buy some paint and wait for another bout of warm weather to paint it. ;)

Art Mulder
02-11-2009, 2:04 PM
Hey, what about putting a painting or some other artwork up there to cover that plate? It'd be a bit more interesting than just a round trim cover.

Don Bullock
02-11-2009, 3:21 PM
Laurie, your bathroom is looking great. It's too bad that your mirror isn't tall enough to cover up the old junction box. What a bummer.

BTW -- I just have a little more painting to do on the cabinet doors before I reinstall them with new hinges and knobs. As soon as I do I'll be done with both bathrooms. Then it's on the the family room where I have some difficult wallpaper to strip before I paint. After that will be stripping wallpaper and painting as well. Seems endless.:(