Here before hanging wallpaper, I have removed the light fixture over the bathroom vanity . Some of the wall paint was stuck to the base of the light fixture, so was torn away from the wall when the fixture pulled away. In the photo, the cream colored area is the current semi-gloss paint , and the greyish area is the paint that is beneath it. Problem is, wall coatings surfaces should adhere to each other. In other words, the cream colored paint should not have peeled away from the grey paint under it. Usually this happens because proper prep was not done before the new layer of paint was applied. Surface coatings (meaning paint or wallpaper ) won’t stick to glossy surfaces, nor to dusty surfaces. So, if you’re painting over gloss paint, first a deglosser needs to be used, or a bonding primer . A good paint store guy ( Sherwin-Williams ) can advise you. If the original surface has dust , as from sanding or construction , this needs to be wiped off with a damp sponge , and that has to be rinsed clean frequently. Often a primer should follow that. Again, consult a knowledgeable paint guy. All of this is not so desperately important if you’re going to apply paint. Even on an unstable surface , paint simply dries and sits there. It only peels away if tension or pressure is put on it, such as removing the light fixture in the photo above. But wallpaper is different. Because wallpaper shrinks when the paste dries , tension is put on the seams . If the surface below is unstable , this tension can cause the surfaces below to come apart / delaminate . This can result in seams that pull away from the wall. This is not the wallpaper pulling away . This is the layers underneath that have actually come apart from each other. And it usually cannot simply be ‘ glued back down .’ You can do a search here to read previous blog posts about this issue.
I usually insist on prepping the walls for wallpaper. But we had a time crunch here, and the homeowner asked her paint contractor to strip the old wallpaper and smooth the walls. He did a good enough job of skim-floating and sanding the walls smooth. Unfortunately, he neglected to wipe residual dust off the walls. The problem is that nothing sticks to dust. Not paint, not primer, and not wallpaper. Over time, stress, humidity, and other factors can cause the wallpaper to expand and contract, which puts tension on the seams. This tension tugs at the seams , and if the wall surface underneath is unstable ( dusty ), the layers can pull apart ( delaminate ), and you end up with failing seams. So I wiped down every square inch of wall, using a sponge and bucket of water. I rinsed the sponge frequently, to prevent build up of dust on the sponge. Here’s drywall dust wiped off in just a few swipes. In the background, you can see tracks of my damp sponge along the wall. These damp areas will need to dry thoroughly before I can apply my wallpaper primer. A heat gun helps speed that process along. One fear that I have is because, as you see in the photo, the contractor spray painted the woodwork, and in so doing, got a lot of overspray onto the wall. This can be painted over without much problem. But, as mentioned above, putting wallpaper over this can open a can of worms. Even with a good wallpaper primer underneath, the drying / shrinking wallpaper can put stress on the seams. If the wall underneath is dusty, the layers may let loose of one another and result in a popped seam .
The vanity and marble countertop have been removed. This makes it easier for me to work, and also allows the paper to go down behind the countertop, rather than being cut along the top of the backsplash. So no worries about splashed water wicking up under the wallpaper and causing curling.What a beautiful room for a 10 year old girl!Peacocks and posies . This is a non-woven or paste-the-wall material. It was pretty thick and stiff. N-Ws contain minimum 20% polyester. There are many advantages to using them as wallpaper, including easy removal when it’s time to redecorate, because the strong material is supposed to stay in one piece and strip easily off the wall. One of my colleagues says it’s made of fiberglass. In this close-up shot, you can see the fibers and plastic-like sheen. I have a hunch my friend is correct!Manufacturer is Graham & Brown , pattern name is Resplendence , color is Blush ( dusty pink ).
Prior to prepping for wallpaper, I’ve removed a hanging shelf. It had stuck to the paint, and pulling the shelf off the wall also took some of the paint along with it.
This is a bad sign. If paint will release from the wall so easily, it’s an indicator of an unstable surface underneath, that the paint is not able to bond to.
That also bodes poorly for any coatings applied on top of it, such as my smoothing compound, primer, and wallpaper.
The most worrisome of these is wallpaper. Because unlike other substances, wallpaper expands when it gets wet with paste, and then as the paste dries, the paper shrinks a tad and puts stress / torque on the wall. If the underlying surface is unstable, these layers can actually pull apart, resulting in a ” popped ” seam.
This is not a ” loose ” seam and cannot be simply glued back together. It’s layers deep inside the wall coming apart / delaminating from each other, and virtually impossible to really repair.
So what causes this? Do a Search here to read my other posts on this topic. But causes can include incompatible surfaces, such as old oil-based paint covered with newer latex paint, gloss paint covered with new paint without proper prep / de-glossing, chalky or calcimine paint, or coatings applied to a dusty wall.
In all these cases, the top coatings won’t be able to adhere tightly, and can result in what you see here – the top layer(s) of paint pulling off the wall with just a little stress.
Even worse, in my world, is the potential of the surface beneath wallpaper seams coming away from the wall.
The first-time parents of this soon-to-be-here baby girl have done a super job of coordinating colors in the nursery. This wallpaper from Serena & Lily, the crib and changing table from Pottery Barn, a rug, and other accessories all share the same “toned-down” shade of pink.
The swirling leafy design of the wallpaper is a sort of background pattern (as opposed to making a huge statement on its own). It will suit any age child, from infant to school-girl to teen.
The home is in the Spring Branch neighborhood of Houston.
Top photo: A small circle of paint had been pulled away from the wall. When I picked at it, I was able to easily detach more paint.
Second photo: When I removed the light switch plate, some paint had stuck to it, and pulling the switch plate off the wall took some of the paint underneath along with it.
The exposed wall underneath the paint was gritty and dusty. I could not tell if it was a layer of old paint, drywall, dust, residue from ancient wallpaper paste, or other. I had the feeling that if I had tried, I could have peeled all the paint off the dusty subsurface.
This is not good.
This is an old house, and many layers of paint and other treatments have been added to the walls over the decades (100 years!). Many of these substances are not compatible with each other, and especially not if the walls were not prepped properly before applying another coat of paint.
Latex paint won’t stick to oil based paint. New paint won’t stick to a glossy paint. Nothing sticks to a dusty surface.
All these various materials will adhere to one another – for a while. But when a stressor is added to the formula, there is the potential for the layers to delaminate (come apart). That’s what happened in the two areas above, when a bit of a tug was all it took to peel several layers of paint away from the wall.
The issue here is that wallpaper comes with its own stressors. Wallpaper gets wet when it’s pasted, expands a bit, and then when the paste dries, the paper shrinks a tad and puts tension on the walls. Over time, with changes in temperature and humidity, foundations shifting, and just plain old passage of time, this tension could cause the paint to give way from the walls – this usually manifests at along a seam.
I use a wallpaper-specific primer, and among its attributes is the ability to withstand this type of tension.
Let’s hope that over the years, the many layers of paint, the new coat of primer, and the wallpaper all work together to stay nice and tight to the wall.
Note: If I had known about the wall condition earlier, and if the homeowners’ budget had allowed, a liner would have been a good option in this case. A liner is a special type of paper that is applied to the primed wall the day before the paper goes up. It serves several purposes, but one is to distribute tension across the wall. Because the seams of the liner do not line up with the seams of the wallpaper, drying and shrinking wallpaper puts tension on the liner, and not onto the unstable wall itself, thus pretty well eliminating the chance that the wallpaper seams could cause the wall to delaminate.
The downside is that using a liner adds an extra day (or more) of labor, plus the cost of material.
Painter’s tape is definitely useful. But you’ve got to be careful when you remove it. We already know that it can / will pull the inked layer off of wallpaper. (Do a search here.)
But, as this photo shows, it can also pull paint off the wall.
Possibly, if the painter had pulled gently, the tape would not have pulled the paint off the wall.
But it’s also possible that the wall surface beneath the paint was unstable (dusty, or some other factor), and that caused the paint to give way and come apart from the wall.
Folks, please do NOT let your contractor or painter “prep the walls for wallpaper.” They simply don’t know how to remove wallpaper properly, and they don’t know what is required to prepare the surface for the new paper. Do a Search here (upper right corner) for more examples.
In this case, “I know that he removed the old paper, because I saw piles of it on the floor,” said the homeowner. But this photo proves that he didn’t. Nor did he bother to remove the towel bar, because when it was removed later, you can see the old wallpaper still under it.
I put the original wallpaper up back in the ’90’s, so I know that, with my good primer underneath, with a bucket of warm water and a little time, that paper would have come off easily and left the wall in perfect condition for new paper.
Instead of properly removing the old paper, this contractor skim-floated over it. That’s the thick white stuff you see in the photo. After sanding the wall smooth (which he did OK in most of the room, but, as usual, did a less than stellar job in corners and around moldings and door trim), he should have removed dust from the walls with a damp sponge – but virtually no contractor bothers with this step.
Removing dust is crucial, because if dust is left on the wall, it may hold up OK under paint, but when wallpaper is applied on top of it, when the paste dries, the paper shrinks a tad and puts torque / tension on the wall. When the walls are dusty, there is the potential for the surfaces to delaminate (come apart), leaving you with seams that gap and curl back. These cannot be glued back down, because the surface underneath is unstable and provides nothing for the paste to adhere to.
So next the contractor primed the walls. There was no mention of what primer he used. But I can tell you that primers formulated for paint are not advisable under wallpaper. PVA-based primers are commonly used under paint; they are designed to keep the paint from flashing. But they are soft and don’t provide a stable surface for wallpaper.
Primers formulated for wallpaper are designed to 1.) adhere to the underlying surface, 2.) provide a “crystalized” surface that the wallpaper paste can bite into and grab ahold of, 3.) provide a surface with “slip,” which will ease installation of the new wallpaper, 4.) allow for easier removal of the wallpaper later, with minimal damage to the wall, and 5.) withstand the torque / tension created by the drying wallpaper.
Ask a contractor or painter if he knows any of the information in the paragraph above. You will receive a blank stare.
All more reasons to NOT let the contractor prep the walls for paint.
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