Drywall repair/Orange Peel Paint/Wood Slats

18 years ago

Ok, I have a headache that I have been putting off for about 5 years and feel now is the time to try to tackle it. I have one wall in my living room that houses the fireplace (brick) and at some point someone thought it would be nice to do that whole wood wall design thing that seems to have been popular in the 1970's. So they used some sort of cheap wood slats and glued them to the wall. Not only do I hate the wood wall thing but they did it cheaply so that certain slats have bubbled out from the wall, they don't match up that well and even have paint on some of them from when someone tried to repaint the room. Today I got sick of it while moving a bookcase covering part of the wall and ripped one off. Underneath is the wall that matches the other 2 walls, just plain white paint with an "orange peel" design. Where the glue was are long brown squiggles of left over glue that is textured. Ok, hope this part makes sense because I don't know what terms to use but you know how drywall has a kind of white paper covering? Parts of that have ripped off leaving that gray color paper behind. My question is as follows:

1. Should I rip all the slats off without worrying about the drywall?

2. Can I scrape off the glue? If I do it also removes parts of the paint since it is textured as well.

3. Once I have everything sanded down and smooth can someone come in and repaint the wall right over the gray patches in the drywall? Do they have to patch it first?

4. If I can just paint it how would it look being smooth since the rest of the walls are orange peel (which I hate anyway) or would it be better to have it done to look like the others?

5. Maybe it's best just to put up some sort of covering? Do they make wall coverings that glue to the wall or nail that aren't tacky?

Thanks for any help anyone can give me! I'm lost here!

Shauna

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Comments (8)

baymee
18 years ago
I think I would either rip off the existing drywall or scrape it and re-drywall.
ericwi
18 years ago
There is a possibility that you could remove the wooden wall covering, scrape off the glue, repair any holes in the drywall, and finally install lining paper over the entire wall, to achieve a more uniform surface. With all that accomplished, you could either paint, or put up wallpaper of your choice. Based on your description, I suspect that it might be easier and faster to rip down the drywall, and install new drywall.
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Granted, smooth walls are very hard to do well, and every little nick or wave in the drywall shows. But when done well, and painted well, it's pretty amazing. And it makes the room look bigger because you lose a visual sense of where the wall actually is, especially if you use a flat finish. I just got so tired of 11 years of that knock-down collecting so much dust and dirt. Another alternative is that with each successive painting of your textured walls, the pattern disappears as the paint builds up. When we bought our house, I immediately painted the bedrooms and noticed a huge difference, especially since I used 2 coats. I didn't do the common areas, and you could see the ridges and plateaus much more easily. To each his/her own.
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There might be a problem with adhesion by skim coating over a painted wall surface. For grip, you can get fiberglass mesh in 36" wide rolls. It is similar to the mesh tape for drywall seams only the mesh is a little heavier. You apply it to the wall like wallpaper using spray adhesive. Once that is up and adhered, you can skimcoat as Ventupete suggests. The mesh gives something for the skim coat to grab.
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Thank you everyone. I'll make a general reply to everyone. The damaged areas have all been drywalled, taped, textured and primed, but I'm still struggling with paint colors in that area so we've been painting bedrooms instead. (whole house reno.). Basically, all the drywall was done and over. Some of the damaged areas were on walls with a flat texture (i.e. no texture) and some on walls with a sprayed orange peel. I wouldn't feel comfortable patching either kinds of texture myself. If you patch an orange peel area, how do you get the texture back on the flat patch you just did? Our painting company is called Breezy DH, Inc. We're DIYing where we can, and wall and ceiling paint is certainly doable. No painters fixing holes. :( We did decide to have our trim and doors professionally caulked, sanded, and sprayed as it would take DH many months to do that painstaking, detailed work with his schedule. I am the GC so it does fall to me to take care of this. I finally heard back from the flooring company. My rep will be stopping by in the morning to take a look at the walls. He did give me some slight bs about damage below the trim, but agreed that there shouldn't be damage above. Accidents happen, but I know they were moving very fast and didn't seem that careful when I watched them several times during the first two days. I will not have the floor installers do the repairs. Didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. :)
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I had orange peel in my last home (Southern California) and flat in my new home (Pennsylvania). I don't know that repairs are any easier or more difficult. Flat is just a matter of smoothing the repair. Orange peel is a matter of matching the orange peel texture - too heavy or too light and it doesn't match. I saw a lot of holes repaired in homes with orange peel where they didn't bother to spray texture where the repair was made and it was quite noticeable - even with small repairs. With flat the biggest problem is if you need to use tape - it is tough to cover and keep everything smooth. Painting edges is way easier with smooth - no worry about bleeding under the tape - Orange Peel you have to tape, paint with the color you have covered with tape to fill any little holes under the tape and then paint over it with the other color to get a really clean line. I don't think either one looked inherently better than the other.
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shaunalee
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks, I think I might as well tear it all down and re drywall it. It seems the easiest option. *Sigh* Guess I'll have to put up with the slats awhile longer! lol. Thanks!
Shauna
maryland_irisman
18 years ago
Shauna,

Why not pull the slats off and drywall over the messed up wall (without having to tear it down.) As far as leaving it smooth as opposed to orange peel...that's a preference call. If it were mine, I'd leave it smooth since I think you said there was a bookcase sitting there?
irishbrewer
18 years ago
If you're planning on going the rip it down route, you may want to consider just leaving the marred up drywall in place and adding a layer of 3/8" drywall. This will save some of the mess and disposal issues.
ventupete
18 years ago
Another option would be to rip of the wood and have someone come in and skim coat all of the walls to make them smooth. It might take two coats (especially on the damaged wall), but can be done.
tom999
18 years ago
You can use 1/4" drywall to recover it. At trim you can many times just butt it to the trim. Nothing in life is easy.......in an older home is it.
drywall_diy_guy
18 years ago
Covering over the drywall may be your best option. To do this, locate and mark all underlying studs with a stud finder before starting and use longer drywall screws to go through the extra thickness. You could then hire a taper to tape and finish the drywall. They probably would not charge much for just the wall. Or you could try the taping yourself - if you do, go to the site below - it is written for beginners. Keep in mind that you will have to tape the joints and also the corners where the wall meets the other walls and ceiling.

Here is a link that might be useful: Drywall Taping

Drywall repair/Orange Peel Paint/Wood Slats

Comments (8)

baymee

ericwi

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Drywall repair/Orange Peel Paint/Wood Slats

Comments (8)

baymee

ericwi

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shaunaleeOriginal Author

maryland_irisman

irishbrewer

ventupete

tom999

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shaunalee
Original Author