How can I repair and paint mobile home walls?

Kristina Cox
by Kristina Cox

I have a mobile home that is around 20 years old. The walls have holes from prior tenants and unlike drywall has a type of paper not wallpaper on them. Someone tried to repair the holes but it looks very bad. See pictures. How do I fix and paint them?

As you can see there is also these slats running down what I believe are seams.

  8 answers
  • Tinyshoes Tinyshoes on Jul 28, 2019

    Kristina....Can the walls be sanded, primed then painted?

  • Kristina Cox Kristina Cox on Jul 28, 2019

    That I do not know. It looks like someone tried and it didnā€™t turn out well

  • Toni @ Girl, Just DIY! Toni @ Girl, Just DIY! on Jul 28, 2019

    If your landlord will let you paint the wall I'd patch and sand down any patched areas and then cover with quality primer first followed by a good quality latex paint like sherwin williams. Here are some painting tips you can follow for painting a room - https://www.girljustdiy.com/paint-a-room-one-room-challenge-week-2/

  • Fiddledd224 Fiddledd224 on Jul 29, 2019

    Take these photos to the paint dept. at your home improvement store and ask for their advice on paints, materials and application tools...they've seen it all!

  • Laura Cooper Laura Cooper on Jul 29, 2019

    Hi Kristina. I've painted many of these walls. First of all, what you have is paneling. Yes, it has a paper finish so we call it paper board. Those strips are panel joints. It is possible to remove the strips and fill the gap with drywall compound and sand smooth, or paint over the strips knowing that you have a "profile" to your wall. It depends on how much work you want to do.


    Regarding the patches. They were done improperly and sloppy. Drywall compound should never be gobbed up. It must be sanded smooth and even with the wall. If there are low spots, put a skim coat over it, let dry and sand smooth. Your fingers shouldn't be able to feel a difference across the wall when you are finished sanding


    Paint. Primer is a must. You will need to Kilz or a similar product. Don't be fooled by getting paint+primer. That's not adequate to prevent your paint from scratching off the shiny paperboard. Kilz provides an adhesion. At this point, after primer, have fun with the paint. If you have more questions, let me know.

  • Dee Dee on Jul 29, 2019

    Looks like a bad patch job. You can sand down what they did, and buy a good stain blocking primer. An oil based would be optimum but you can use Kilz or Zinser BIN on the entire wall. Then paint with a durable acrylic latex paint, Sherwin Williams, Behr Marquee or Benjamin Moore.

  • William William on Jul 29, 2019

    Sand down the patch job and smooth it out. My daughter had very similar pattern in her modular home. Little flowers on a diagonal. The slats cover the seams in the panels. What I did was remove the slats. Some I had to cut out. Filled the joints with no shrink drywall patching compound. Just put enough to fill the gap. Let it dry overnight. Following day I went over the patch with a damp sponge to smooth them out. Then primed the walls with Kilz primer and painted.

  • Kristina Cox Kristina Cox on Jul 30, 2019

    Thank you everyone