Cover over wallpaper???

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Rockrz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
155
Reaction score
20
We rented a new house and in the kitchen it has some funky looking wallpaper and you guessed it, the little lady wants to change the look.

Over all, the wallpaper is stuck to the wall nicely (secure, no bubbles) except for a few places around edges where it's coming off.

Someone that does remodeling, make ready, and is a general construction guy was telling me there is a way to peal off the places that isn't sticking... then spray some sort of "texture" over the entire area... and once that dried you can paint it and it comes out looking like normal drywall that has been spray painted

Of course this sounds much much better than trying to remove all the wallpaper as that is very time consuming and expensive and no the landlord is not paying for any of it (remember, this is being done just so the little lady can be happy with her kitchen which she likes except for the look of the wallpaper)

So, does anyone have any wisdom / experience they can share on an effective way of doing what this guy was telling me about?
 
Make sure the landlord is ok with you removing it first. My daughter's new apartment has foil wallpaper and she was going to remove that ugly stuff but the landlord had a kaniption fit.
 
I already asked him and he's OK with it as long as I take responsibility to pay for it and make it look decent...

I was just watching some how to videos on Youtube on this and came across a product called "Zinsser Wallpaper Cover Up" put out by the manufacturer.

It looks like Home Depot carries this brand so hopefully they'll have the Zinsser Wallpaper Cover Up. It's supposed to be a one app deal and once it dries for about an hour it can be painted over.
 
Looks like I could also use... Zinsser B-I-N Advanced Interior Shellac Primer

It's supposed to be low odor
 
I'd be worried that anything applied over the wallpaper will cause it to peel. Moisture of any kind is one reason it begins to peel.
 
This Zinsser B-I-N Advanced Interior Shellac Primer stuff is a heavy blocker that dries quickly and is being used by lots of folks to cover up wall paper. It's synthetic material so it's designed to not provide moisture.

It dries so quick, you can paint over it after 45 minutes. They have videos on Youtube showing people doing this and as long as the wallpaper is stuck good in the first place (ours is in most places) it'll look pretty much like painted drywall once done if the paint is rolled on over the primer.

I figure to be on the safe side, we'll do 2 coats of the primer




.
 
Last edited:
The proper way to do it is remove the paper repair the walls sand or smooth the walls, prime and paint. The apartment dweller way with the landlord’s permission is to glue or tape the lose seams and paint it. I have done both and have painted old wall paper with and without a shellac primer. Most of the old places I rented had been painted a dozen times before me. Some landlords would rather you just paint over it. They want to make you happy so you stay longer but don’t really want you starting a removal job and getting half done and finding it’s not coming off so easy and giving up. It depends a lot on what kind of rental it is as well. I always rented old houses that anything I did helped.
 
Painting over wall paper is just wrong, you are making more work for the next guy that wants it done properly.

Sorry, but the next guy is not my concern. I'm simply wanting to keep the wife happy as she doesn't like the wall paper and I've already seen how you can successfully paint over wallpaper with minimal time and expense.

Obviously it would be better to rip it off and make whatever repairs are needed to make it ready to paint, but that's times consuming and costly... so, since I do not own the place, I'm just going to paint over it.

Don't worry, it's work out all right. The next guy will just have to do whatever he needs to do if he wants to change it from what it is.



They want to make you happy so you stay longer but don’t really want you starting a removal job and getting half done and finding it’s not coming off so easy and giving up.

Exactly... I want to be done moving and get on with my life.
 
Sorry... it's not my house, the wife wants the wall paper gone (looks like it's from the 70s or 80s) and the landlord is not going to pay for it.

Not sure about you, but I'm not made of money and I run my own business so I'm short on time for stuff like this so yeah, I'm gonna paint over it.

The next guy will just have to put on his big boy britches and deal with it if he wants to change what I've done.

I'm not the one with the bad attitude here, sorry. :nono:
 
Sorry... it's not my house, the wife wants the wall paper gone (looks like it's from the 70s or 80s) and the landlord is not going to pay for it.

Not sure about you, but I'm not made of money and I run my own business so I'm short on time for stuff like this so yeah, I'm gonna paint over it.

The next guy will just have to put on his big boy britches and deal with it if he wants to change what I've done.
I'm not the one with the bad attitude here, sorry. :nono:

Sounds like an attitude to me:hide:
 
No, actually it's a personal problem for you... not me.

The fact is, in life things are not always done to your pleasing and... gasp... it's not the responsibility of others to please you. Not if you want to pay to have this job done "right" we can talk... otherwise, no dice.

Like it or not, there are lots of people that have no problem with painting over wall paper. I understand that some disagree, but that's not my problem or concern since what I do in our kitchen really isn't anyone's business one way or the other.

The landlord said he had no problem with it as long as it looks decent so that's the only view point that counts in this situation, his and of course the wife's.

Maybe I need to follow some of your threads and criticize some of your views. I know there's something wrong with something you do cause you're obviously not perfect.

Anyhow, sorry I don't meet your high standards... not!
b0282.gif
 
No, actually it's a personal problem for you... not me.

The fact is, in life things are not always done to your pleasing and... gasp... it's not the responsibility of others to please you. Not if you want to pay to have this job done "right" we can talk... otherwise, no dice.

Like it or not, there are lots of people that have no problem with painting over wall paper. I understand that some disagree, but that's not my problem or concern since what I do in our kitchen really isn't anyone's business one way or the other.

The landlord said he had no problem with it as long as it looks decent so that's the only view point that counts in this situation, his and of course the wife's.

Maybe I need to follow some of your threads and criticize some of your views. I know there's something wrong with something you do cause you're obviously not perfect.

Anyhow, sorry I don't meet your high standards... not!

You must be related to the previous owner of my house! :rofl:
 
Well, I'm just renting... so it's not an apples to apples comparison.

Not sure what the big deal is and why people even care... it's not something anybody here is going to have to deal with.

Besides, in jn research on what to do about all paper, many use quarter inch dry wall and cover it all up, tape / float and then paint.

That's pretty easy so if anybody happens to get this house once we leave... this is what you can do at your expense.

I'm not spending a lot of time and money on this and it's going to come out looking nice so it's not a big deal.

I'm sure many here have done work that "the next guy" had a problem with...
 
I agreed with you and painting some wall paper if the landlord didn’t care and you didn’t care what the finished job looked like as long as the Mrs. Was happy.

I even more so agree with chrisn who is a professional and takes time out of his day to offer advice for free to people here “asking” for advice. No one has to follow anyone’s advise but I find your comments snarky as well. A simple thank you for your opinion is all that is required. The biggest reason I can think of beyond the obvious for being courteous is because when you come back with another question no one will offer any advice.

Time to move on to another topic.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top