Can I paint a damp wall?

concrete_kid

I've just bought a house. When I bought it the dining room wallpaper was peeling off as the wall is damp due to water getting in due to coping stones being removed from outside wall and possibly water getting in through poor exterior brickwork.

I have a builder coming out to sort it out in January. After stripping the wallpaper the wall feels very damp to touch. Can I paint this wall with matt emulsion? It looks a mess now the wallpaper has been stripped. Or do I need to wait for the wall to be dry?

Grenage

Wait for it to dry; don't bother trying to paint it now.

always_sunny

if you like to peel the paint after few weeks or months, sure you can!
Don't paint a wet wall.

phil24_7

You will need to let it dry out completely (so a few months after the problem has been sorted) before sealing the wall with non breathable paint.

FreeBear

If you *must* paint the walls, use a lime wash - If you are going over gypsum plaster, it probably won't stick in the long term, but won't stop the walls drying out like an emulsion would.

Stripping off the wallpaper now will help in allowing the wall to dry out once the cause of the damp has been fixed. Even so, don't expect it to be bone dry for six months or more (depending on the thickness & construction).

Sicard

As above and use a dehumidifier to speed up the drying out process.

ST1991

How much of the wall is wet?

We had a similar problem with a damp wall, that has a band around the middle of the wall bu the top and bottom are dry.

Since we could not afford to have the work done straight away, we used a cheap lining paper over the walls and painted that. It only has to make do for 6 months!

27cool

" Can I paint a damp wall"
You can do anything you like. But whether it's a good idea is quite another thing.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Depends how wet, but if it's starting to dry out, you can use a breathable paint - clay paint, lime wash, possibly a non vinyl matt emulsion, but bear in mind this will be at the expense of durability and the ability to wipe the walls.