Tried that old 'paint over wallpaper' trick and ended up with a nightmare

So I bought a 1920s bungalow in Cincinnati last year and thought I'd save time by painting right over the ugly floral wallpaper in the hallway. Big mistake. The paint basically reactivated the glue underneath and the whole thing started bubbling up within a week. I had to strip it all off anyway, which took like three weekends of steaming and scraping. Learned that you can't cheat old houses, they'll always find a way to get back at you. Has anyone else fallen for that shortcut and regretted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_chen219d ago

I still have nightmares about the glue smell in that hallway.

carr.abby19d ago

Right, @kai_chen2, that glue smell is the worst part - it's like old houses have their own way of punishing shortcuts, same as when you try to skip steps in literally anything else and it comes back to bite you.

ray_sullivan19d ago

I had the same thing happen in my 1910 colonial in Cleveland last year. The paint basically turned that wallpaper glue into a sticky mess that took me four days with a steamer and a scraper to get off. If you ever try that again, use a heavy duty primer like Zinsser Gardz first to seal down the glue, then paint over that. It's the only way that actually works without causing a bigger headache later.