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If you’re here to determine whether or not you can or should paint over wallpaper, you’re in the right place. Presto Painting Services Tampa Bay is an expert painting company with decades of experience in the commercial and residential painting industry. This page is specifically designed to help do-it-yourself painters and professional painting companies decide whether or not they should paint over wallpaper. We hope this page answers any and all questions you have regarding painting over wallpaper. If you feel like we overlooked something in this article, please reach out to us and let us know so we can update this page with answers to your questions.
If you’re in Tampa Bay and are looking for the best local painting company, call Presto Painting Services Tampa Bay for your free estimate.
How Do We Make the Determination of Whether or Not We Should Paint Over Existing Wallpaper?
To paint or not to paint, that is the question! Presto Painting Services Tampa Bay is committed to providing the best quality of interior painting results possible. Therefore, when we are asked to provide an estimate or professional assessment of whether or not wallpaper should be painted over, there are a lot of factors we have to take into consideration. This page of our website has been created to help provide you with a better understanding of some of those factors we consider and to help you make decisions that will provide you with the best overall outcome.
Time & Labor Spent to Remove Wallpaper Before Painting
- Hiring a Professional Painting Company – Anyone who has ever removed wallpaper will tell you it is an incredibly labor-intensive process. One of the most important things we have to take into consideration as a painting company is the amount of time it takes to complete a project. Wallpaper removal can be extremely time-consuming so removing it will always add to the overall cost of a project. Wallpaper removal for an interior painting project can easily double the cost of an interior painting project. Even painting companies will hire professional contractors in order to save time. A lot of professional painting companies will hire drywall contractors just for wallpaper removal. Hiring a drywall company to remove the wallpaper will ensure that the wall surface is perfectly smooth and prepped for a painting company. It’s fairly common for a wall surface to be damaged during the wallpaper removal process. Additionally, hiring a drywall company just for wallpaper removal increases efficiency because it allows painting contractors to strictly focus on painting projects.
- Do It Yourselfer – We appreciate the do-it-yourself spirit. Almost all of us look for ways to save money on home improvement projects. It is fairly common for people to choose to remove the wallpaper on their own as a cost saving measure during a painting project. This is usually a decision they regret once they have started the process. Removing wallpaper can be one of the most frustrating and labor-intensive experiences you will ever have to do. Keep in mind that if you are choosing to remove your own wallpaper so you can paint the room, all of the surfaces will need to be repaired if they are damaged during the wallpaper removal process.
The Primary Factors that Increase the Cost of Painting Due to Wallpaper
Unfortunately, the cost of a painting project can easily double if wallpaper removal is required. There are various factors that impact the cost of wallpaper removal. Below are a few of the primary reasons you can see the cost of your painting project increase when wallpaper removal is required.
- Time and Labor – As mentioned previously, it takes a significant amount of time and labor to remove stubborn wallpaper from drywall. It easily doubles the amount of time it takes to complete a painting project. Therefore, it will come as no surprise that the cost of a painting project can almost double if there is wallpaper involved.
- Number of Wallpaper Layers – If you’ve ever tried removing wallpaper yourself and discovered there was more than one layer, you probably still have nightmares about it. 25 to 50% of homes that have wallpaper have more than one layer of wallpaper. There are some homes that literally have four layers of wallpaper. In addition to the extra layers of wallpaper, each layer of wallpaper also has its own adhesive that needs to be removed. Walls with multiple layers of wallpaper can make it extremely challenging to create a smooth surface. There is a higher potential to damage the underlying drywall when you are attempting to remove multiple layers of wallpaper. Some people have been known to replace their drywall to avoid the time consuming and frustrating process of removing multiple layers of wallpaper.
- Type and Quantity of Adhesive – The adhesive that is used largely determines how difficult it will be to remove the wallpaper. There are a wide range of adhesives that have been used over the decades for wallpaper application. Everything from a combination of flour and water, clay-based adhesives, clear polymer-based adhesives, asbestos based adhesives, methylcellulose & other adhesives and have been used to adhere wallpaper to walls. Every type of adhesive will deteriorate at a different rate and have a different amount of adhesion. The stronger the adhesive is the longer it is going to take to remove the wallpaper. Additionally, after the wallpaper is removed all adhesive has to be removed from the drywall in order to create a smooth surface for paint. It’s always difficult to tell how long it is going to take to remove wallpaper until the process is underway and you’re able to ascertain how strong the adhesive is.
- Quality of the Wallpaper Application – There are a lot of telltale signs of poor wallpaper application. In some cases, the poorly installed wallpaper is not necessarily a bad thing if you are trying to remove it from the walls. However, if you’re going to attempt to paint over the wallpaper, the quality of the wallpaper application will absolutely determine whether or not painting over the wallpaper is possible. If you are going to try to paint over the wallpaper, the quality of the wallpaper application will also dictate how much labor it is going to take to create a smooth surface to paint over.
- Condition of Drywall Once Wallpaper is Removed – During a wallpaper removal project, drywall gets damaged frequently. Most contractors or do-it-yourselfers will use metal scrapers to help remove the wallpaper from the drywall. It’s very easy to scuff or scrape the surface of the drywall. If that’s the case, the drywall has to be repaired before painting can begin. Additionally, wallpaper can hide all sorts of underlying issues with the drywall or even the wall itself. Wallpaper can hide walls for 20, 30, or even 40 years or more. This means there can be significant underlying damage to a wall that goes unnoticed for decades. Water damage, mold, termite damage, and other serious issues may be cloaked by old wallpaper. You never know what you’re going to find under wallpaper until the wallpaper removal project is already started.
Wallpaper Removal Warning!
It is worth noting that asbestos based adhesives were used on textured wallpapers from the 1930s to the 1980s. Asbestos is a type of naturally occurring fibrous mineral that is found in a wide range of products. It was used in building products such as drywall joint compound, textured paints, flooring tiles, insulation, adhesives, & more. Asbestos can cause serious long term health issues that can lead to death. If you have a textured wallpaper and suspect it was applied during or before the 1980s, please consult with an expert to have your wallpaper adhesive tested before attempting to remove it. Asbestos is extremely dangerous and the most dangerous when it is disturbed. During a wallpaper removal project where an asbestos adhesive was used the asbestos fibers will be disturbed and become airborne. That is when people are most at risk of hazardous asbestos exposure. The EPA is a great resource to learn more about the risks associated with asbestos exposure.
Overall Quality of the Wallpaper
The quality of the wallpaper must be taken into consideration. How easily does it absorb moisture? What is the texture of the wallpaper surface? Is it smooth or does it have a rough surface? Are the corners or edges of the wallpaper peeling? The overall quality of the wallpaper must be a deciding factor when determining whether or not the wallpaper should or should not be painted over. If you are not sure whether or not your wallpaper should be painted over, you can always reach out to the experts at Presto Painting Services Tampa Bay.
Type of Paint that is Going to be Used to Paint Over Wallpaper
All paints are either water based or oil based. When you’re painting over wallpaper there’s an extremely high probability that the paint is going to be absorbed into the wallpaper. An oil-based primer can be used to seal in that wallpaper. In addition to the primer, you will need paint on top of the layer of primer. When painting over wallpaper it will typically take two to three layers of paint. If something is wrong with the paint surface after multiple layers of paint, all of the layers of paint and the wallpaper will need to be removed. You don’t want to think about how messy and challenging it is to remove multiple layers of paint and wallpaper.
Types of Wallpaper Imperfections that Impact the Quality of Paint on Wallpaper
- Seams – If you have wallpaper, odds are you have seen vertical lines on your wall that appear every 20 to 27 inches. Those lines are where one sheet of wallpaper meets another one and are commonly referred to as seams. Wallpaper is packaged on a roll that resembles holiday wrapping paper. Typically, wallpaper rolls used in homes are 20-27 inches wide and wallpaper rolls used in commercial properties are up to 54 inches wide. When wallpaper is being applied to walls, it is unrolled and a strong adhesive is applied to the backside of the wallpaper in order to keep the wallpaper stuck to the wall. When wallpaper is applied to a wall, the installers will do their best to reduce the visibility of the seams as much as possible. The wallpaper patterns will help the vertical seams blend in a little bit more. However, when wallpaper is painted over, all of the seams and other imperfections will stand out a lot more. Semi-gloss and High-Gloss paints will make wallpaper seams stand out even more.
- Bubbles – Paint is a liquid that is composed of water. Any time paint is put onto wallpaper, the wallpaper is going to absorb the paint since paper is absorbent. As the paint is absorbed into the wallpaper, bubbles and other imperfections that were not there before may start to appear. Any small nick or hole in wallpaper allows paint and the moisture from the paint to seep behind the wallpaper and create air bubbles and even pockets of paint.
- Adhesive Inconsistencies – When wallpaper adhesive is applied to the back of wallpaper, naturally there are some areas of the wallpaper that have more adhesive than others. The inconsistencies in the adhesive coverage on the back of the wallpaper are practically invisible to the naked eye when the wallpaper is applied. However, once paint is added those same small defects can become glaringly obvious.
- Peeling – Those of you who have older wallpaper already know that wallpaper will start peeling away from the wall. It goes without saying that when wallpaper is peeling away from the drywall in your home of business, you can’t just paint over it and expect great results. In order to paint over peeling wallpaper, the wallpaper would first have to be stuck back to the drywall. Keep in mind that the process of gluing wallpaper back to the wall could create additional wallpaper surface imperfections depending upon how smoothly the process of reapplying the wallpaper goes.
- Holes – Small thumbtack sized holes are not much of a concern because paint will easily cover those holes. However, larger holes will have to be patched before they can be painted over. Patching holes on a wall with wallpaper is much more challenging than patching holes on a typical wall. That is because the patching compound that goes onto the wall has to be blended with the texture of the wallpaper. It’s easy to cause scuffs, and knicks, to wallpaper when attempting to blend patching compound with the wallpaper texture. Matching the spackle (patching compound) and wallpaper texture is possible, but it can create some real challenges. Any minor imperfections caused by the patching holes will stand out a lot more once the area is painted.
- Unknowns – Creating high quality painting results is about eliminating variables that can cause inconsistent results. Whether you’re painting the wallpaper or removing it, wallpaper adds a lot of variables to the painting process. In our expert opinion the best thing you can do is to remove the wallpaper and work with an expert painting company to ensure you have a smooth surface to start your painting project. Smooth consistent surfaces are a fundamental first step to creating outstanding painting results.
Wallpaper Making a Comeback
Obviously, this page of our website is designed to help people answer questions regarding painting over wallpaper. However, we don’t want you to think that our painting company has a vendetta against wallpaper. Presto Painting Services Tampa Bay does not provide wallpaper application services and strictly focuses on painting related services. That being said, wallpaper is making a comeback. The way wallpaper is being used and the style of wallpaper that is being used has changed dramatically from the 1900’s. A lot of the wallpaper we are removing from homes and or businesses is from the 1970s-1990’s. During that time period it was common to see wallpaper from floor to ceiling on all four walls in a room. Depending upon the era you may have seen the interior of an entire house covered in wallpaper. Now interior designers are using wallpaper to create appealing accent walls. They are using wallpaper to make bold statements that really make a property standout from others.
To Paint or Not To Paint
In summary, just because you can paint over wallpaper does not mean you should. Wallpaper can be painted over, but it is also very risky. Even the best painters in the world cannot create ideal outcomes in some instances with wallpaper. Again, our job as painters is to eliminate variables that can negatively impact the outcome of a painting project. Wallpaper adds too many unknown variables to the equation. That is why we do not recommend painting over wallpaper if you can avoid it. It is better to be safe than sorry. If you have questions regarding painting over wallpaper and you are in the Tampa Bay area, reach out to Presto Painting Services. We will be happy to answer any questions you have regarding painting over wallpaper. Additionally, we will provide you with a free estimate on wallpaper removal and painting. We hope to hear from you soon.
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