Asked on Jan 24, 2016
Help with badly painted walls!
by
Angela
+39
The previous owners of our home removed the wallpaper in the bathroom and then painted. They did not remove the wallpaper glue. The walls are now horrible. The paint is chipping and cracking. What do I do? I want to repaint. I've tried wallpaper paste remover with no luck. I thought of sanding and re-texturing or possibly using Guardz. Thanks in advance for your help!
20 answers
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You have probably tried soaking it with warm water and washing liquid in a spray bottle leave It to soak .It is hard work with all the rinsing but it does work eventually work. I wonder if anyone has tried using a steamer?
Sandy Slade
on Jan 25, 2016
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Wow- that's a new one-so awful for them to do that and leave such a mess! Have you tried using a heat gun? That's the only thing I can think of that would soften it enough to scrape it off. I don't think patching over it (unless you did a full skim coat) would help because it appears to be so lumpy that you would never get a smooth surface. You could try some textured/paintable wallpaper- they make a lot of different styles and designs. It would mask the lumpy walls and you could still paint them a plain color. Other than that, I am stumped. Curious what other folks offer for advice!
Country Design Home
on Jan 25, 2016
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If the stuck on glue looks similar to the texture in the rest of the room then Guardz is a good option. If the stuck on glue is obviously different consider replacing that section of sheet rock (drywall) and texturing to match the rest of the room. Sanding would be time consuming and messy and you would still have to match the existing texture.
Lltvchawkins
on Jan 25, 2016
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Lltvchawkins is right. If you want smooth wall, "sandingwould be time consuming and messy". If you can afford it, replace the sheetrock.
Liliana Wells
on Jan 25, 2016
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Having once had textured walls that I wanted to paper I primed them with Kilz latex then got a box of dry wall mud and floated it smooth, reprimed then papered. This should to work walls back to a smooth finish.
Susan Hoffman
on Jan 25, 2016
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I would try using a steamer on the walls,it may be easier then sanding.
Janet Pizaro
on Jan 25, 2016
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Take a palm sander and hit the areas that are bad, with the palm sander it will not take much time.
Julie Arteaga
on Jan 25, 2016
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Before you do anything, I would get a test kit to make sure the paint does not have lead in it.
Kathy
on Jan 25, 2016
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We must have had the same previous owner...I would do as Susan recommends unless you have a hubby like mine and can DIY new drywall.
Lisa House
on Jan 25, 2016
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hot soapy water and elbow grease
Davie Adam
on Jan 25, 2016
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KILZ primer paint. My husband removed old wall paper and used the primer paint on the walls before painting. It is thicker than regular wall paint and will fill in gaps. Can you try it in a spot before doing the whole wall? You could also rent a wallpaper steamer and scrape the walls first, before priming. However you are able to clean it off, priming it is always a good idea. The one thing we found when we removed wallpaper was that in a couple of rooms, the walls were never primed and the wallboard was installed backwards... Priming was necessary...
Lynn Palmatier
on Jan 25, 2016
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I have totally sanded with power sander, but be careful to not push into drywall. Will create dust so open window if you have one. After doing one wall check out progress. Once it is more flat, then dust really well and KILZ.
Teresa C
on Jan 25, 2016
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Hot soapy water to remove the old glue. Then grab you some Homax Wall Texture. I use the water based because I can be a bit messy. Wait 30 mins then paint.
Lori Mccutchen-Harris
on Jan 25, 2016
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the simplest way would to be like someone else said, put up new drywall, then you get the opportunity to add any new plumbing too while the wall is exposed, or extra strengthening for hanging things.
Brenda Meek
on Jan 25, 2016
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To save on some elbow grease, you can always paint over it using a paint with sand additive. It's a nice finish and hides a lot. OR you could install bead board for a whole new look. Best of luck.
Diana Deiley
on Jan 25, 2016
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Personally I like the crackle look. From what I see , it looks like it just wasnt painted correctly. I'd just repaint. When u have textured walls u have to paint all ways to cover. If I'm not seeing it correctly then I would prolly just replace the sheet rock (less work) like mentioned above and when there's this job I've always added more electrical plugs. Houses never have enough.
Renata
on Jan 25, 2016
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I like Diana Deiley's advice because I had the same problem in my Bathroom. My walls were a mess from previous wallpaper. I had Chair rail to divide the walls and I used two different matching colors and added the sand for texture. It turned out beautiful!
Pat
on Jan 26, 2016
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There is a wall paper that has texture and/or patterns that can be painted. It is called anaglyphta (sp) . It is embossed and will cover most imperfections on old walls.
Pat Keadle Gougler
on Jan 26, 2016
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Angela - I had a similar problem, only in the dining room. Much larger service area. UGH. I tried hot water, soapy hot water, even purchased special solution from HD guaranteed to remove wallpaper. Nothing worked. I ended up renting a wallpaper steamer. And this worked. However, like previous post you need to be careful not to remove the sheet rock (drywall) paper. I wasn't careful enough. Which means I ended up skim coated the room. Then painting with primer, texturing, with spray texture, then using primer to seal the texture and finally painting. It looks okay and I'm proud of the work I accomplished, but it was a mess, took me forever to complete. So if you have the money I'd replace the sheet rock.
Taf
on Jan 26, 2016
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I had to do this once myself. If the old wallpaper glue has been painted over, chemicals and steam won't penetrate very well. I used a random orbital electric sander with a fairly aggressive grit sandpaper and it worked very quickly. Then finish with a smoother sandpaper. It isn't that hard with an electric sander, and certainly not as much work as re-sheetrocking a whole room! If you get the inevitable bad spots, patch with drywall compound or Spackle applying a light skim coat. I did a whole bathroom in one day, and totally done (repainted etc.) in one weekend.
Cheryl HD
on Jan 26, 2016
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