Papering on top of wallpaper?

ally18

Hi,
Can you tell me if its a bad idea to paper on top of existing wallpaper?
The reason I ask is that last time I used a steamer on the walls in my living room, the heat started to bring off the plaster underneath in very large patches which means if I try to use the steamer now on the existing paper, I will end up having to replaster. It definitely won't just be a 'filling the cracks in job'. Unfortunately, I can't afford to do that at the moment. I really want to redecorate the whole room because it looks so awful and dirty.
The paper that is on is a thin plain one which I think would cover easily with the slightly heavier embossed paper.
Is this a good or bad idea for a cheap make over?
Thanks

McKneff

Not sure its a good idea really but if you want a cheap makeover why not just give the old wallpaper a couple of coats of matt emulsion in a nice bright colour, thats even cheaper than new wallpaper.

puddy

you have to get the paper off the old fashioned way

Bexm

I know people say don't paper over wall paper.. but that's what everyone used to do!
We've recently stripped a room in our house and there was 5 layers of the stuff!
Unless someone can give a good reason not to, it's worked before so can't see why it wont work now!

We had the same problem tho with the steamer bringing the plaster off..

You could always try sticking some washing up liquid and warm water in a bowl and use a sponge to wipe on the wall.. then leave it a few mins to soak in! Then scrape! Much more effort but less of a chance of it bringing off the plaster than a steamer!

puddy

i couldnt type properly earlier as on the phone. you will have to get the paper off with water and a sponge. we had the same thing with a steamer in my last property i wouldnt use one again

McKneff

The trick to doing it with water and a brush is patience,

Wet the wall and wait 10 minutes, same again, then wet it again and start scraping.

Dont try to rush it and do one wall at a time.

ally18

Thank you everyone for your replies, I don't know quite what I will do now as I only have one week off work and to scrape the walls as you suggest is going to take me a long time

I'd better get started soon then.

Thanks again.

boogiemaster

If its going to cause you problems then just wallpaper over the old until you can save up some money to get the room re plastered.

Don't cause yourself problems if you don't have to

frequent

If your going to use lining paper to go over the old paper the suggest you cross line rather than vertical, this will make sure the seems dont overlap ( 52.5 wide is standard but dependiing on how old the other paper is might not be an issue.

Have papered over paper loads of times ( am decorator).
it's not a problem and be patient if the under paper blows out alot, it will settle in when dry.

As for stripping old paper, well on a proper job i'd strip to plaster,repair wall, line then put pattern paper on top of that.
Nothing wrong with using old paper as a base, but if you are going to use a lighter colour than on your existing paper then i'd white wash the room 1st to neutalise the previous colour.

loracan1

My dad always used to just wallpaper over old paper but when we tried it, the paper bubbled, looked awful and didnt improve after it'd dried - I'd second Mckneff's suggestion and just paint over if all you want is to freshen it up.

MaggieBaking

We had relatively old plastered walls and we didn't get a problem with big chunks being removed. I'm led to believe that holding the steamer on too long will cause the plaster to blow.

Instead, we left a wallpaper steamer on in the lounge till the tank ran dry (just in the middle of the room) with the doors and windows closed. (We had horrible thick paper so we scoured it all first.) That gets everything very pliable to being attacked with a wallpaper stripper. We also put the steamer back on for anything that was a little tricky to remove, holding it on for 1-2 seconds at the most.

This even worked on the horrid woodchip wallpaper that was on the ceiling, although it did require more diligent scraping and we got the ceiling replastered.)