Wallpaper - to paint, or not?

[NoDepositRealEstate]

Hi,

Is the common approach to wallpaper to paint over it, or to repaper these days?

[cassiem0221]

Either/Or.. You can either peel the paper and repaper or you can actually peel the paper off and then sand the walls and then paint. I prefer paint to paper but many prefer the opposite.

[Denzypops]

When you paint over wallpaper, the moisture in the emulsion paint will cause the paper to 'lift' and create unsightly bubbles.
The correct technique is to paint first with a dilute coat of PVA adhesive (Unibond for instance) and when dry overpaint with any paint you desire.
Hope this helps

[co-buyers]

if you have the time, and money then strip and re-paper and then paint...

just our personal view

[Fluffy_Dazz]

Surely, if the wallpaper were ever to rip (for example) then it would expose the wall behind..

Is it not worth stripping it off, poly fillering and sanding the rough bits and giving it a nice coat...?

[Nasika]

Originally Posted by NoDepositRealEstate

Hi,

Is the common approach to wallpaper to paint over it, or to repaper these days?

Depends on your design of the house, but I think it is better to repaper walls.

[RiverResidence]

Whether to repaper or to paint is really a personal choice. But when painting a previously papered wall then cutting corners by just painting on top of it is a risky thing. Although it might save work in the short term, you will not be able to just keep painting like this-eventually the paper will have to come off and that will be messy.

The paper may not give you the best surface to paint on either-the texture may not be good-if nothing else you can have the joins between the paper show through.

All told you will get a better result starting from scratch.

[ajwt2]

strip and repaint every time. Course it depends how long you are planning on staying in the house...

[NoDepositRealEstate]

Sorry for the delayed response.
We decided to paint the paper in the end as it was a renovation project that we over spent on already.
The problem with stripping before painting was that the wall was the old style sarking behind the paper, so we would have either had to repaper, or line it first (not cheap as it was high studded as well).
Thanks to those who gave input.

[ronh]

Main problem is that hideous stuff called wallpaper. Once someone has applied paper to a wall you can NEVER get it truly smooth again to take a good paint finish without hiring a plasterer to come in a reskim the walls.
In my view wallpaper should come with a wealth warning.!
I LOVE the beauty of a lovely plain well painted wall and have never seen wallpaper that is anything other than hideous. Sadly when moving into a used home you can be certain that at some time in the past some ill guided previous owner has applied paper. You can never get a truly smooth wall ever again - even the tiniest nick will show through and applying filler and smoothing it down results in a slightly different surface which also shows.
PLEASE guys don't use the disgusting stuff - stick to paint!