I just bought a house that was built in 1975 and attempted to remove the wallpaper in the kitchen using Dif. I have only taken down a ceiling to floor strip 2' wide, but parts of the drywall paper pelled off with the wallpaper. has anyone else made the mistake and if so, what did you do to correct it? zc
I also removed wallpaper from drywall and had the drywall paper facing come off. What I did, which worked well, was: 1. After all paper was removed, I sealed all walls with a product called Gardz that seals the walls and makes them smoothe. It also prevents any moisture from getting into the drywall, which can cause large bubbles later, or so I've heard. 2. Then I used joint compound to patch the drywall where needed. 3. I sanded well and lightly wiped walls to get off excess dust. 4. I used a good primer and then painted.
It worked fine. Took a while, but the result is great. You can't tell that there was any damage to the drywall.
This happened with my kitchen and bathroom (builder failed to prime walls before wallpaper installed) sooo, I did a "faux finish" paint job (Kilz'd it first). Noone knows and I get many,many compliments! Did this about 4 years ago and it still looks as good as it did when first completed. Make sure seams are "tight". I am going to repaint both of these rooms soon (tired of colors) and plan on doing the same!
i would advise against the painting over it idea unless you have a professional prepare the surface for you. i speak from experience here. i too have a house from the mid-'70's. i tried to remove wallpaper with damaging results. then i tried to put spackling compound over the seams, sand it, and prime over it. it was not until the paint dried that the poor spackle job was noticeable. the seams of the wall paper were even more obvious. if i had it to do all over again, i'd have a professional prepare the surface and then paint it myself to save some money. in the end it will be worth the money spent on a profesional given the amount of time and money you'll spend doing it twice and being dissatisfied. another option is to install cheap paneling and paint over it to look like bead board, or put up a textured wall paper you can faux paint.
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