Your experiences with lining paper?

Mander

I want to repaint my living room, a task that I have been procrastinating on since, oh, 2008. The previous owner of the house left all kinds of partially filled holes and gouges in the walls. Everything has been painted over in a slightly glossy white, which does a great job of highlighting every flaw.

Unfortunately my budget is way too small to pay to have the room re-skimmed, which would be the ideal solution. I'm handy enough that I can patch the holes, but I don't know that I can get the whole wall perfectly smooth, so I am thinking about putting up lining paper before I paint.

I've never used it before, though. Is it worth the bother?

purple45

Hi,
Lining paper I have used is very very thin, doesn't hide much plus once painted its the kind of surface that absorbs marks rather than repels them so looks grubby very quickly. If it were my predicament I'd buy a decent quality textured wallpaper and then paint that.
Good luck!

I_have_spoken

I have it on a house I bought, obviously put up to 'hide' the damage to the plasterboard. It doesn't.

jcb208

Walls still need to be prepped very well when using linning paper as lumps and bumps will show through.Its great for walls with hairline cracking.I would just fill and rub down imperfection,may take a few fills.Theres no reason why you cant achieve a great finish this way even though it is time consuming.A good filler for this is Easi-fil

Ectophile

I've used lining paper on moderately scruffy walls, and it looks a lot better than just painting over bare plaster.

Use a reasonably thick paper - it's available in several thicknesses. Make sure the surface you're papering onto is properly prepared first. If it's glossy, sand it down. If it's absorbent, size it first with wallpaper paste.

Once it's up, it's really easy to paint - I only needed one coat.

adandem

I used it in my last property, it was the heavyweight one. It worked well fo us, matt paint will also be better than satin.

Ivana_Tinkle

I've never had particularly good results from lining paper. When we patched up seriously cracked walls and couldn't afford to have them skimmed, we ended up sanding the whole walls with a belt sander. It made a hell of a lot of dust (you need to tape up doors etc, as you would if sanding a floor) but left a perfectly smooth finish.

JohnB47

I've used heavyweight lining paper and it does well to hide small imperfections. However, it is well worth taking time to prep the wall first. Don't think you can just paper over things to save time, 'cos the marks will show through, particularly where the light is cast across at an angle, from a lamp or through a window.

I sometimes wonder whether a good machine sanding would be better in the long run, but that would creat a lot if dust. My problem is mainly old paintwork that has been allowed to go flaky, then painted over. I could strangle previous owners of our house - so disrespectful.

cattie

I've used heavy weight lining paper quite often. I find it a great product for when walls are not in a good enough condition to paint over. In fact I have just finished papering my spare bedroom with some.

As JohnB mentions, you do need to prep the walls beforehand, get rid of any bumps & such like, but if you buy a good quality & take your time in hanging it well then you should be pleased with the results. The thicker the paper, the better the result should be.

Not all stores stock the more heavy weight lining paper I found, so I bought mine online & by buying quad rolls, it worked out very good price wise.

nickj_2

go for a 1000 + grade of lining paper , remember to let it soak well before hanging

FR_262

Fill the holes as best you can. Then buy some polystyrene insulating 'wallpaper'. you can get it from B&Q and you need special glue. It's great. glue the wall first. You need a really sharp Stanley knife to trim it with. It's 2mm thick and sort of absorbs smallish lumps and bumps. It also helps prevent condensation. You can then paper over it.