Preparing walls for painting after wallpaper removal

littleteapot

When I bought my current house, all the walls were covered with wallpaper. I removed the wallpaper in all but one room where the wallpaper had been painted over and was stuck so strongly I failed to get much off as the steamer wouldn't penetrate the painted wallpaper and I didn't know much about wall prep and decorating at the time! Thankfully I started in a corner which is mostly hidden by a wardrobe so it doesn't really notice much.

However, 10 years later the wallpaper has started peeling away and so it's all got to go and be prepped and repainted. The house is a 1930's build.

I've now got a wallpaper perforator (spiked roller) and a wide long handled scraper with replaceable blades so will hopefully have more success this time.

However in the small area where I did manage to get the old paper off and paint years ago, the paint has flaked off presumably as it didn't adhere properly to the plaster, or I failed to remove all the old wallpaper paste.

This time I want to get it right, and from reading some other posts I have seen a substance called Zinsser mentioned to prime the walls before painting. Is this the best option or is there a better way to prep the walls before painting?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

moneysaver1978

Yes to Zinsser - it hides and "fixes" the wall before painting for a good smooth coverage.

But before you even use Zinsser, I would use sugar soap on the walls after you removed wall paper, leave to dry fully to make sure any residue are fully removed. And you can then prep the wall with Zinsser but it might not be necessary if the wall is in a good nick.

Postik

When I've removed wallpaper I've normally used a steamer which re-wets the paste.  Once I've removed the paper, whilst the wall is still damp, I'll scrape off as much of the paste as possible with a wide scraper.

Then use a large car sponge, sugar soap and hot water.

When the wall is damp I tend to find you can "feel" with your hand if it's tacky and if there's any paste residue left on the wall.

ThisIsWeird

Yes, get all the paste off. Do not 'rely' on a sealer - that's MickeyMouse.

There was a thread on just this topic a short while ago - prob worth a read.

littleteapot

ThisIsWeird said:

Yes, get all the paste off. Do not 'rely' on a sealer - that's MickeyMouse.

There was a thread on just this topic a short while ago - prob worth a read.

Yes probably good advice which I wasn't aware of 10 years ago. I remember reading a thread on this topic a month or so ago but failed to find it before I got thread-blind!

35har1old

littleteapot said:

ThisIsWeird said:

Yes, get all the paste off. Do not 'rely' on a sealer - that's MickeyMouse.

There was a thread on just this topic a short while ago - prob worth a read.

Yes probably good advice which I wasn't aware of 10 years ago. I remember reading a thread on this topic a month or so ago but failed to find it before I got thread-blind!

Had the same problem never used a steamer.
Started at the top lightly marked paper with Stanley knife applied water wirh sponge used standard width scraper will admit it took some time but by the time it was removed the paste was also  virtually removed but the painter ro be on the safe side sanded the wall.
There can be issues of overprinting a silk finish emulsion and sanding the wall is also required

ThisIsWeird

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6465680/removing-wallpaper-paste-before-painting/p1

Nothing particularly unexpected in there. Essentially, remove 'all' the paste using a good thick cloth - old tea-towels, that sort of thing, repeatedly rinsed out with added sugar soap or even washing up liquid. For stubborn paste, going over it lightly using your steamer first - that really helps.

Once bone dry, give the walls a light sanding with 180 grit on a large comfy flat hand sanding block - anything like https://www.screwfix.com/p/flexovit-hand-sander-185mm-x-93mm/9350g

gwynlas

It is likely that thhere will be significant amounts of plaster coming off with the wall paper if it is almost 100 years old. For a better finish to could remove wall paper and have the plaster skimmed in which case you would need to allow plaster to dry and treat as new,

littleteapot

Thought I'd provide an update on this thread after spending more than a week working on it!

managed to get all the paper off. Ceiling paper came off easy, wall paper came off with a lot of effort using a perforating roller, steam and a large scraper.

After removing as much of the residue as possible with soapy water I then proceeded to gouge out the cracks and loose plater (mostly in the ceiling) with a triangular scraper, then coat the newly enlarged cracks with 2:1 diluted PVA to bind the edges of the remaining plaster together and give the filler a good surface to bond to.

I filled all the cracks with Polycell plaster repair, then sanded, then filled the remaining imperfections with polycell one-fill before another quick sand to smooth.

Once properly dried, I then primed the entire ceiling and walls with Zinsser cover stain. This is an oil/solvent based primer which although seals and coats the remaining residue well, isn't great to work with because of the fumes! But in my experience the products that are very bad for your health are the ones which work best .

Finally coated with two coats of emulsion. The finish isn't perfect especially on the curved section of ceiling which was hard to fill/sand to perfection but it looks infinitely better than it did before. The real test will be how long it lasts but as we hope to move in the next year or so I may not be around long enough to see that.

The paint looks patchy in the 'after' photo as I took it before the 2nd coat had fully dried, but it looks very even now.

ThisIsWeird

Transformation!

Phew - a lot of work