Removing Wallpaper Before Painting a Period Home

Plenty of the grand homes through Toorak, Armadale and Hawksburn have been wallpapered at some point, often more than once, and often over decorative plaster that deserves better. When those rooms come up for repainting, the first question is always whether the paper has to come off. Usually it does.

Why painting over wallpaper disappoints

It can be done, and occasionally it is the right call, but understand what you are accepting.

Wallpaper seams telegraph through paint. They are visible as fine lines in any raking light, and in a period room with tall windows the light is exactly what shows them up.

Paint introduces moisture, and moisture is what wallpaper adhesive responds to. Rolling a wet coat onto old paper very often loosens it, and you get bubbling and lifting that was not there before you started. Once that happens you are removing the paper anyway, now with a coat of paint on top making it harder.

Textured and embossed papers keep their texture forever under paint. Vinyl papers are worse, because paint struggles to bond to the vinyl face at all.

And it defers the problem. The next owner, or you in ten years, still has to take it off, with an extra layer to get through.

The narrow case for painting over it: the paper is a thin, well-adhered, smooth lining paper with no lifting anywhere, and removal would risk damaging fragile plaster underneath. Even then it wants sealing with an appropriate primer first.

How removal actually goes

The method depends on what the paper is.

Older papers on plaster are usually porous and come off with water. The surface is scored lightly to let moisture through, then soaked with warm water and a wallpaper stripping additive, given time to work, and scraped off with a broad knife. Patience does most of the work here. The common mistake is scraping too early, which tears the paper and gouges the plaster.

Vinyl and washable papers will not absorb water at all through their face. Many are designed to peel in two layers: the vinyl top layer strips off dry, leaving a paper backing that then wets out and comes away conventionally.

Steamers are useful on stubborn or multi-layered areas, and they are also the fastest way to damage plaster if held in one place too long. On lath-and-plaster walls in particular, excessive steam softens the plaster and can push it off the laths.

Multiple layers are common in older houses and each layer generally has to come off in turn.

Then the adhesive

This is the step people underestimate. Removing the paper leaves the old paste behind, and dried paste is water-soluble. Paint applied over it will not bond properly, and worse, the moisture in the paint reactivates it, causing bubbling weeks later.

The wall has to be washed down thoroughly to remove all residual adhesive, then rinsed, then allowed to dry. Run a hand over it when dry; any tackiness or slight gloss means there is paste still there.

What is usually behind it

Wallpaper is often there because something needed hiding, so expect to find work.

Cracked or patched plaster is the norm in homes of this age, and it needs proper filling and sanding rather than a quick skim. Where there is extensive damage, or where the surface is a patchwork of old repairs, a skim coat across the whole wall gives a far better result than spot filling, and on a large formal room it is usually worth it.

Older lath-and-plaster walls may have drummy or loose sections that only reveal themselves once the paper is off. These need re-fixing or replacing.

You may also find layers of old paint underneath. In a home built before the 1970s, treat that as potentially lead-containing and prepare accordingly, with the same safe-preparation practices that apply to any older Melbourne home.

Decorative plaster, cornices, ceiling roses and picture rails often have paper cut around them or lapped onto them. Working these carefully is slow, and it is precisely where the value sits in a period room.

Sealing before you paint

Once the wall is stripped, cleaned, repaired and dry, it needs sealing. Bare and patched plaster is absorbent and uneven, and a suitable sealer or primer evens it out so the topcoat does not flash or look patchy across the wall. Where any adhesive residue is suspected, a stain-blocking or oil-based primer gives more security than a standard water-based undercoat.

Allow the time

The honest expectation is that stripping wallpaper and making good takes longer than the painting that follows, often considerably. Rushing it produces exactly the seams, bubbles and patchy sheen the whole exercise was meant to remove.

If you are planning interior work in a period home across Toorak, South Yarra, Armadale, Hawksburn or Kooyong, particularly where heritage and period-home repaints or decorative finishes are involved, get in touch and we will assess what is behind the paper first.