Emulsion over Vinyl Wallpaper

[JAS21]

When our house was bought new in 2004/5 it came wallpapered throughout.  Recently Mrs J has pointed out, several times in fact, that it is looking its age.

So I thought we could paint over the vinyl (have you seen the price of wallpaper here)!!… so I googled, and came up with

Shellac  the wall, repair seams etc, oil based primer and then apply emulsion …

And also came up with the above but missing out the shellac stage.

 

Shellac as a wallpaper sealer seems not to be available over here, I even asked at ArzoNobel head offices. They are quite local to us, but they don’t offer it.

 

Consensus  seems to be that few have wallpapered walls. No one paints over wallpaper here as if you can afford it in the first place, you can afford to replace it!

 

So has anyone successfully painted over vinyl wallpaper here, if so how please?  Yes, the other option is to remove all, vinyl and backing, and just paint directly onto the wall … not sure how good our walls are and anyway that is a much bigger job!    

[sirineou]

As a kid I use to earn extra money working with house painters,  and even though It was a long long time ago, I have some experience on the subject.

for my house,  I would remove it and paint the walls, Sooner or later the painted wall paper will start coming unglued at places and removing it after you prime it with selack and paint it with oil based paint will be difficult at best. 

Trust me , I know removing wall paper is a pain in the you know what, better than most, but in the long run you will be glad you did it.

 Difficult to give instructions for removal without seeing the wall paper, but if the vinyl is thick enough to peel by pulling,   peel the vinyl face , leaving the paper backing, the soak the backing with hot water and vinegar. (you can apply the hot water with a heavy roller.

You will notice the backing turning a dark brown as the water/vinegar mixture soaks in , Then the backing  will either peall off or you will scrape it off with a large putty knife. 

After paper is off, remove any remaining glue paste with warm water , heavy steel wool , and rags.

[JAS21]

14 hours ago, sirineou said:

As a kid I use to earn extra money working with house painters,  and even though It was a long long time ago, I have some experience on the subject.

for my house,  I would remove it and paint the walls, Sooner or later the painted wall paper will start coming unglued at places and removing it after you prime it with selack and paint it with oil based paint will be difficult at best. 

Trust me , I know removing wall paper is a pain in the you know what, better than most, but in the long run you will be glad you did it.

 Difficult to give instructions for removal without seeing the wall paper, but if the vinyl is thick enough to peel by pulling,   peel the vinyl face , leaving the paper backing, the soak the backing with hot water and vinegar. (you can apply the hot water with a heavy roller.

You will notice the backing turning a dark brown as the water/vinegar mixture soaks in , Then the backing  will either peall off or you will scrape it off with a large putty knife. 

After paper is off, remove any remaining glue paste with warm water , heavy steel wool , and rags.

Thanks for your suggestions … in the UK I have had success in painting over, but from experience I also know that wallpaper doesn’t come off easily after it has been painted over.

 

As am halfway through priming a room, fortunately one that is not important … just has fridge, freezer, store cupboards and my junk in it,  we have decided to continue and paint. I will no doubt find out if high humidity is extra bad news for painted wallpaper.

 

The rest of the house will wait a year, it’s has been on since about 2004, another year won’t make a lot of difference anyway and priority is to extend the car port area first.

 

When we lived in the UK we removed all the wallpaper from every room, skimmed where necessary and then painted … I remember the mess and how long it took to get the walls flat and that the ‘filler’ dust got everywhere. I could not do with that mess again.

 

I don’t think that I would be happy with Thai walls painted. The ‘vinyl’ peels off easily and as you say the backing paper also comes when wet so guess it will be wallpapered again.  

 

I think if I re-wallpaper …

1 … at my age I may spend more on ‘doctors and tablets’ than it will cost to get a contractor in …

2 … the ‘atmosphere’ may well be similar to as when MrsJ tries to map read … GPS saved my marriage I think …

 

It’s where will we find a contractor who can actually do a good job and who understands that seams should not be overlapped or have gaps and that joins halfway down the drop are a No No ….

Edited January 28, 2018 by JAS21

[Andrew Dwyer]

When I moved into my house there was an option for wallpaper, I chose not to have it as I don’t really like wallpaper, much prefer the “ painted look “ as it seems cooler ( plus i saved 40,000 baht ).
Seems like you are testing painting over the wallpaper on one room ?, maybe you could test removing the wallpaper in another room to see the state of the wall underneath, then make a decision whether to paint the walls or re-paper ?

I do remember ( and not fondly) wallpapering back in the uk and absolutely detested it, in fact since about 1993 I have not done any ( except for one bedroom wall over the bed, and I got someone in to do that ! )

I remember that walls in the uk usually had multiple layers of wallpaper hiding defects in the walls surface, obviously depending on the age of the house of course, and pulling off that top sheet was like a lottery to find what lay underneath !!

You may be pleasantly surprised that your wallpaper comes off easily without leaving too much residue and is suitable for painting with a small amount of priming ?

[JAS21]

29 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

When I moved into my house there was an option for wallpaper, I chose not to have it as I don’t really like wallpaper, much prefer the “ painted look “ as it seems cooler ( plus i saved 40,000 baht ).
Seems like you are testing painting over the wallpaper on one room ?, maybe you could test removing the wallpaper in another room to see the state of the wall underneath, then make a decision whether to paint the walls or re-paper ?

I do remember ( and not fondly) wallpapering back in the uk and absolutely detested it, in fact since about 1993 I have not done any ( except for one bedroom wall over the bed, and I got someone in to do that ! )

I remember that walls in the uk usually had multiple layers of wallpaper hiding defects in the walls surface, obviously depending on the age of the house of course, and pulling off that top sheet was like a lottery to find what lay underneath !!

You may be pleasantly surprised that your wallpaper comes off easily without leaving too much residue and is suitable for painting with a small amount of priming ?

Finished priming ..m☺

 

As said the wallpaper comes off eadily ...

 

A good idea to see ehat the walls are like ... however the lowerbwall at the stsirs I can see is lumpy ... all the paper on the other walls look ok.

 

Thing to do, when I can't fight it off anylonger, is to strip walls and then decide ...

 

Even with two fans blowing fullspeed , windows wide open and a mask the primer fumes are still noticeable ... so won't use it anymore ...

 

Actually when we visited Arzonoble head office the receptionist gave us a phone number of their 'painters' who normally do new villages and suggested they might do a one-off.

Edited January 28, 2018 by JAS21

[sometimewoodworker]

On 1/24/2018 at 3:41 PM, JAS21 said:

Shellac as a wallpaper sealer seems not to be available over here, I even asked at ArzoNobel head offices. They are quite local to us, but they don’t offer it.

Shellac is very widely available here, they just didn't understand you. Every where has it Global House, DoHome, Thai Watsadu, wood street etc. 

FWIW thailand is one off the major producers of shellac.

[kannot]

On 1/27/2018 at 8:00 PM, sirineou said:

As a kid I use to earn extra money working with house painters,  and even though It was a long long time ago, I have some experience on the subject.

for my house,  I would remove it and paint the walls, Sooner or later the painted wall paper will start coming unglued at places and removing it after you prime it with selack and paint it with oil based paint will be difficult at best. 

Trust me , I know removing wall paper is a pain in the you know what, better than most, but in the long run you will be glad you did it.

 Difficult to give instructions for removal without seeing the wall paper, but if the vinyl is thick enough to peel by pulling,   peel the vinyl face , leaving the paper backing, the soak the backing with hot water and vinegar. (you can apply the hot water with a heavy roller.

You will notice the backing turning a dark brown as the water/vinegar mixture soaks in , Then the backing  will either peall off or you will scrape it off with a large putty knife. 

After paper is off, remove any remaining glue paste with warm water , heavy steel wool , and rags.

forget the vinegar just use washing up liquid and a pump up sprayer, time is what you need, if needs  be soak it for an hour and keep it wet all the time..............experience 30_ years decorating in the UK, alternatively buy a  steam stripper, for really tough paper id just leave it steaming away in the whole room for an hour, as mentioned peel off the vinyl layer  first

[kannot]

On 1/27/2018 at 8:00 PM, sirineou said:

As a kid I use to earn extra money working with house painters,  and even though It was a long long time ago, I have some experience on the subject.

for my house,  I would remove it and paint the walls, Sooner or later the painted wall paper will start coming unglued at places and removing it after you prime it with selack and paint it with oil based paint will be difficult at best. 

Trust me , I know removing wall paper is a pain in the you know what, better than most, but in the long run you will be glad you did it.

 Difficult to give instructions for removal without seeing the wall paper, but if the vinyl is thick enough to peel by pulling,   peel the vinyl face , leaving the paper backing, the soak the backing with hot water and vinegar. (you can apply the hot water with a heavy roller.

You will notice the backing turning a dark brown as the water/vinegar mixture soaks in , Then the backing  will either peall off or you will scrape it off with a large putty knife. 

After paper is off, remove any remaining glue paste with warm water , heavy steel wool , and rags.

DONT use steel  wall as  there  will be remnants on the wall after, use green scourers, steel  wool will leave rust stains in any water based paint later

[Andrew Dwyer]

DONT use steel  wall as  there  will be remnants on the wall after, use green scourers, steel  wool will leave rust stains in any water based paint later

+ 1 to not using steel wool !! can be great for removing remnants but also goes everywhere and, as stated above, can cause problems afterwards.

Almost ruined a jacuzzi I had in a previous house/life !!