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Paint Home Repair

Jacked up wallpaper removal - help with ruined wall

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

I recently bought a beautiful, 1920s home with wallpaper galore. I had a well-meaning friend help me out one weekend and he decided (not to my knowledge) to remove the wallpaper in what will be my son’s bedroom. As it was smooth, my plan was to just mud over the seams, sand, and paint over the paper. Anyway, when my friend removed the wallpaper, he didn’t know what he was doing (and I was not there) and took off the top layer of drywall and made a complete mess of the wall. He said he would fix it, and I let him try. He used plaster repair around the edges of the mess and now, in my opinion, I am left with even more of a nightmare. Needless to say, he has been kicked off the project and I need someone to point me in right direction as to what’s the best and most economical way to get this paint ready?!

Featured Answer

kudzu9

4 years ago

And you're going to have to sand down those totally inept patches. Sorry this happened, but someone who botches a job like this, and then makes it worse with the "repair," should not be allowed to do any more DIY -- of any kind -- in your house.

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Comments (8)

cat_ky
4 years ago
I would try and remove all the wallpaper, and then see what shape wall is underneath it, and either patch it and sand it, or have it skim coated. You will be much happier with the results, than trying to paint over wallpaper, which will always show the seams.
User
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
If that’s drywall, and not an underliner paper, just wet it down, remove the rest DIY, and dispose of properly, and have new hung and finished. It’s cheaper than skim coating. Anything you touch will have lead, and will need to be properly handled as such.

If thats actually plaster, it gets a lot more complicated.

You first need to determine what type of walls you actually have.
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Yes, expect to have a huge mess. I had a bathroom with that problem. Since the surface was vinyl, I had to remove it. The mess was terrible. I got the vinyl and the paper backing along with a lot of the drywall paper off the walls. I coated the bare gypsum with Gardz. When it dried, I kept filling the deepest dents with thin layers of joint compound, then eventually did a skim coat of the walls. More Gardz, good primer then two coats of paint. It looked good and held up well. But it was a lot of work. Having removed layer after layer of painted wallpaper, it's not something I recommend. A lot depends on how picky you are. Painted wallpaper never looks great, but you may decide that it's "good enough" when compared to the work to remove it and patch the walls. If you go that route, you have to remove any lose paper, sand lumpy seams, etc. then seal it with Gardz, then prime and paint. It may still bubble or loosen, but that's your best shot if you want to paint over it.
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ci_lantro
4 years ago
No mystery wall. That is drywall. Someone hung wallpaper over unprimed drywall which is a big no-no because it makes future wallpaper removal very difficult.

I would remove the rest of the wallpaper and coat the walls with Gardz (Zinnser product) and then proceed with repair.

Gardz is a great product that will lock down the paper fuzz and even stabilize any exposed gypsum (if you have places where the paper is totally torn away.)
gizmo7922
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you, everyone. I appreciate it.
paintguy22
4 years ago
Sometimes even when you know what you are doing, you can end up with some serious wall repairs to do if the paper was not hung over a good wallcovering primer.
rwiegand
4 years ago
Wallpaper on unprimed drywall is typically a mess to strip and repair. I've done it (too often), but these days I find it far easier with a much better outcome to just pull the drywall down and replace with blueboard and plaster or new drywall. (and please prime it before new wallpaper!)
Izzy Mn
4 years ago
If that wall paper was put up without primer can be pretty much impossible to remove. The builders of my mom's home did that. She wanted to put up new wallpaper but could not get the old stuff off. She primed over it and put new stuff over.

You could try renting a wallpaper steamer and try, but still might be impossible.

You have to do a skim coat of drywall mud and sand smooth to fix the spots that are all ripped up. There are lots of good videos on YouTube on how to fix the mess it's tricky to do well. Ask me how I know. (I spent hours fixing some spots I ripped up the paper of sheetrock trying to get it right) Be sure to prime.

Were you planning on wallpaper or paint on those walls?

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