Wallpaper on Drywall - The Right Way
Summary: Wallpaper adhesive can bond to drywall paper. Drywall that is not primed and sized properly will absorb these adhesives and tear. Drywall repair may be necessary.
DEAR TIM: I was thinking of wallpapering several rooms in my house and installing a few borders in others. But after talking with some friends who have removed wallpaper from their houses I think I might not do it. As they removed the paper they ruined their walls. The paper facing on the drywall was ripped off! Is there a way to prevent this? What can my friends do to restore their drywall? Darcey R., Brookville, IN
DEAR DARCEY: Ouch! I absolutely know how frustrated your friends must be. Tell them not to panic as there is an easy repair method that will restore the walls to like new condition. The sad thing is that all of the damage to the drywall face paper could have been prevented. Whoever installed the paper skipped a vital step. They failed to size the walls before they hung the paper.
The word sizing tends to be used by older professional wallpaper hangers. New paper hangers just entering the field talk about priming and sealing walls instead of sizing them. Many years ago paper hangers applied diluted wheat paste adhesives on plaster walls to size them before they hung paper. This adhesive soaked into the fresh plaster and acted as a crude sealer. Without the diluted adhesive coating the adhesive on the back of the paper sucked into the bare plaster too quickly. This made it difficult to adjust and smooth the paper. In some instances the wallpaper adhesive soaked so deeply into the plaster little glue remained behind to hold the paper to the wall.
Modern wallpaper adhesives are very different than the old wheat paste glues. Some are so strong that they can actually penetrate through many porous wall paints and actually grab onto the wall surface beneath the paint. This is where many rookie paper hangers and homeowners get into trouble. They look at a painted wall and think that the wall has been primed and sealed. Indeed the wall may have a paint primer on it but this is not the right type of primer.
To prevent the high strength paper adhesives from bonding to the drywall paper you must apply specialized primer/sealers made for wallpaper. These water based low odor products form a tough barrier that paper adhesives can not penetrate. The primer/sealers are perfect for painted drywall, bare drywall, paneling, and even existing walls that already have wallpaper on them. The products look just like paint and apply the same way. What's more, some brands are tintable. You can colorize the primer to match the background color of the wallpaper. This feature comes in very handy if a paper seam spreads apart in the future.
Click here to watch Tim's video on wallpaper installation.
The new primer/sealers also help you when you hang paper. They help to slow the drying time of the adhesives so that you have plenty of time to adjust and trim the paper as you work each sheet. This characteristic is very important if you are double cutting paper as you install inlaid borders within a paper pattern. Not all wallpaper sealer/primers are created equal. If you want the best performance you will have to pay slightly more per gallon for it.
The damaged drywall at your friends house can be salvaged with a similar product. Advise your friends to purchase a similar water based sealer formulated specifically to seal unpainted or damaged drywall surface. Before they apply this special sealer they need to sand off any loose or ragged paper edges. The special sealer is blue when wet but dries clear. Your friends will appreciate this once they begin to apply the necessary skim coating that will transform the ugly mess into smooth walls once again.
If you do not seal the damaged drywall, the water from the joint compound used to skim coat the walls creates horrible blisters and bubbles. If you think your friends are upset now just wait till you see their faces when the walls resemble a life sized mural of blister packing material!
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Comments:
Lisa 08 Mar 2008, 17:07
Im trying to remove wallpaper from my livingroom and the wallpaper was
removed but there is some type of coating that is on the wall...like a
brown paperbag layer...the house was built in 1950 and the wallpaper is
over 15 years at least...what could this brown paperbag looking stuff is?
is that part of the sheet rock...its hard to remove do you have an idea
what it could be...should it be left alone...its very difficult to remove
as is...Thank you, Lisa
AsktheBuilder 08 Mar 2008, 17:19
Lisa,
Stop! That could be the base layers of the drywall. Read all of my wallpaper columns to see how to determine that.
Gary 18 Mar 2008, 18:45
I am trying to wallpaper on top of 3/16" Corkboard tiles that I have glued
to the wall.
I have glued the cork to the wall with some fairly strong adhesive and plan on never removing it and know that if I want to it will probably destroy the wall. This is not the problem though. I need to know how to best make the wallpaper stick to the cork. I tried using the standard wallpaper adhesive that they recommended at the wallpaper store. I put it on a small scrap and a small piece of cork. After it dried overnight I attempted to pull it off the cork and it came off fairly easily. The wall is going to be a big cork board for hanging pictures on the wall, etc. If it comes off too easy, it will be a mess. How would you recommend applying the wallpaper so that it doesn't come off of the cork? I want it to be absolutely permanent. Do I first prime the cork? Do I just need a better adhesive? Thanks for your help! Gary
AsktheBuilder 21 Mar 2008, 07:35
Gary,
Do another test. Prime the cork with the product you see in this column. Then use a clear paste activator on the paper. If that fails, switch to a cleare adhesive used with non-woven papers.
Michelle 01 Apr 2008, 00:35
Gary, I am wanting to remove wallpaper that has been up for about 35 years
and paint the walls. My husband says that the walls have to be sized
before we can paint them and that we need to find someone to do it. The
above post makes it sound like maybe that should have been done before the
paper was put up originally. Also, the paper that I want to take down is a
velvet brocade texture and also a foil paper in my bathroom both have been
up the same amount of time. Some people say that it is very difficult to
take these types of paper down and that I should hire a professional to do
it. Is that necessary? Please help seperate fact from fiction! Thanks
AsktheBuilder 04 Apr 2008, 04:47
Michelle,
Gary was let go for impersonating an expert. I am going to have to fill in...... You want facts? Read *all* of my Wallpaper columns. Just get started yourself. If you run into problems, it is too hard or you are not having fun, then you can bring in someone.
lisa 02 Jun 2008, 21:45
we want to buy wallpaper adhesive,if you have pls feel free to sent email
to me!my email: blue.wing@yahoo.com
Cheryl 07 Jun 2008, 16:56
When removing wallpaper from our drywall we scraped off the top layer of
drywall in places leaving a shopping bag brown paper underneath. We want
to paint our walls now and want to know how to prepare these distressed
areas. Please advise.
martha 18 Jun 2008, 08:55
How long should I wait before sizing new drywall?
Cheryl 17 Jul 2008, 09:42
I recently am experiencing difficulties getting the paste off the walls.
It seems that the drywall was not sized before hanging paper. I've removed
most of the wallpaper by steam. However the paste is still stuck to the
walls.
I want to paint the walls. How should I approach the residual paste? View all comments |
