We live in a mobile home, and my kids want to have their bedroom painted. All of the walls have the wall paper covered sheet rock. Do you think it would be okay to paint over them, or what should we do? We really can't afford to take the walls down and replace it to give it a better base.
mamab, i didn't know the answer to your question so i made a quick search about it. i learned that some of the things you must consider before painting over your wallpaper are the following: whether the paper is sticking well to the wall or not, the texture of the wallpaper, and the color of the wallpaper. here is a link to an article i found about the pros and cons of painting over wallpaper vs. wallpaper stripping. http://www.naturalhandyman.com/qa/qapaintwallpaper.shtm here are also links to articles which give helpful tips and step-by-step procedure about it: http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/la_walls_floors/article/0,2041,DIY_13992_2268749,00.html http://www.alsnetbiz.com/homeimprovement/faq17.html http://real-estate-agents.com/tips/painting/painting-over-wallpaper.shtml
mamab, Do you know if the wallpaper is on drywall or if it was primed? If it's on drywall it will probably work, but if it was primed first ... then it's most likely not going to. The weight of the glue and new paper combined would be to heavy. I bought some wallpaper remover that worked nicely.
I am always very cautious about painting on wallpaper as years ago I did exactly this and found that the wallpaper bubbled up when it became wet from the paint. Most of the bubbles shrank back but there were some that stayed once the paint had dried If I do this now I always watch for the wallpaper bubbling up and prick it with a needle and flaten it out with the paint brush.
