Foo - Home Improvement Hell

People who put wall paper on walls should be shot. I'm going into day 3 and nowhere near finished. I wouldn't be this tired if I had completed my second consecutive century. :mad: :mad: (and that is an accurate statement.)

Edit> See I told you i was tired. Yeah the project involves tearing out old wallpaper on dry wall that wasn't properly sized. IOW, the wall paper was stuck to the wall board. That involves a lot of blood sweat and tears. We are going to repaint after we are done. This is the last room in our house that has wallpaper.

I've done several before but this room is the worst. It was absolutely STUCK to the wall board.

Yes wall paper sucks
As a kid I used to watch them on home time do it and they made it seem so simple. In one of the homes my dad rennovated he put wall paper. I remember he was not the happiest camper .

Tell me about it, I spent 2 days scraping paper of my dad's wall. Paper that had been pasted on. I had to soak it then scrape. Hours on end..

Try paint instead. Works miracles.http://www.thehighroad.org/images/smilies/fce32f95.gif

I've only ever done one thing with wall paper, and that is to take it down, which also sucks. I will not have that crap on my walls!

Tell me about it, I spent 2 days scraping paper of my dad's wall. Paper that had been pasted on. I had to soak it then scrape. Hours on end..
You should have rented a steamer...it's a sucky job but a steamer makes it go much faster. The vinyl stuff is the worst!

Tell me about it, I spent 2 days scraping paper of my dad's wall. Paper that had been pasted on. I had to soak it then scrape. Hours on end..
Have you gotten to the putting it on part? :p

I've only ever done one thing with wall paper, and that is to take it down, which also sucks. I will not have that crap on my walls!

See I told you i was tired. Yeah the project involves tearing out old wallpaper on dry wall that wasn't properly sized. IOW, the wall paper was stuck to the wall board. That involves a lot of blood sweat and tears. We are going to repaint after we are done. This is the last room in our house that has wallpaper, thank god.

I've done several before but this room is the worst. It was absolutely STUCK to the wall board.

That crap is as bad as people who just have to paint beautiful wood.

Have you gotten to the putting it on part? :p
No, we skipped that part and painted. ;)

See I told you i was tired. Yeah the project involves tearing out old wallpaper on dry wall that wasn't properly sized. IOW, the wall paper was stuck to the wall board. That involves a lot of blood sweat and tears. We are going to repaint after we are done. This is the last room in our house that has wallpaper, thank god.

I've done several before but this room is the worst. It was absolutely STUCK to the wall board.
can you even salvage the wall board, sounds like the outer paper layer of the dry wall is probably coming off with the wall paper?

can you even salvage the wall board, sounds like the outer paper layer of the dry wall is probably coming off with the wall paper?

We put a skim coat of sheet rock compound on all of the walls today. Now the big job of sanding it down looms. We have about 20 hours X 4 people just to get to that point. Granted, we are all amateurs.

Zinsser DIF concentrate, mixed with hot water in a garden sprayer, and a Paper Tiger will make short work of just about any wallpaper. I really hate to think of all the wallpaper I've stripped as a painter. No way in heck I'd ever put it in my house.

Zinsser DIF concentrate, mixed with hot water in a garden sprayer, and a Paper Tiger will make short work of just about any wallpaper. I really hate to think of all the wallpaper I've stripped as a painter. No way in heck I'd ever put it in my house.

This wallpaper was put onto bare unprimed wallboard, 30 years ago. It was STUCK. When you glue two pieces of paper together and let it sit for 30 years, you are pretty much hosed. We tried all of the tricks. Like i said, i've done several other rooms, but this one was awful.

We ended up just using a steamer, peeling it off and tearing a lof of facing paper off. The skim coat will hopefully repair that.

Same thing happened in my mom's house. 16' wall in the front entry, heavy fabric, flocked wall paper - no paint on the sheetrock, no size. Damn near every inch of the face paper came off with the wallpaper. It was a major beyotch to skim that mess out to make it look right. Clerestory windows on the opposite wall didn't make things any easier. The light would show everything.

that sanding job is going to be DUSTY. y'all are gonna need some good exhaust fans for ventilation and good respirators w/ extra cartridges.

The title of this thread said it all - the rest is details. Taking down wallpaper sucks. Putting it up sucks. Painting sucks. Having someone else come in to paint sucks.

There is no such thing as a simple home improvement. Well, there is, but it involves three very large piles of cash. The first one is to pay the people who are doing the work. The second is to pay the Walkin' Boss you hire to ride herd on the folks you pay with plie #1. And the third is to move to some place in a different time zone for the duration of the project so that you do not have to be there to see, hear, or in any way deal with the Walkin' Boss kicking @$$ and taking names.

that sanding job is going to be DUSTY. y'all are gonna need some good exhaust fans for ventilation and good respirators w/ extra cartridges.

We're from Kansas. We're used to eating dust. :D Yeah, there will be a LOT of dust involved. Fortunately it is in a bedroom and not a common area like before. That will make it somewhat easier to control. Sanding party starts tomorrow if anyone is interested.

I agree with bikingshearer.

Is there any kind of home improvement project that isn't hell?

I agree with bikingshearer.

Is there any kind of home improvement project that isn't hell?

No. There isn't. And i am going to bookmark this thread to remind myself for next year. Damn it anyway. Life is too short to be slave to a house.

We wound up putting up oak paneling.....it was just cheaper and easier than dealing with removing the old wallpaper!

We wound up putting up oak paneling.....it was just cheaper and easier than dealing with removing the old wallpaper!

Unfortunately cheap and/or easy don't work around here. But I think it's time to start working on that. :D

Probably too late, but, I've done exactly what you are doing, including the part about untreated drywall under the wallpaper. It would have been waaay more effective to pull out the old drywall and put up new. And, less sanding...the surface area I had to fix/you are fixing is much less than the surface area of tape at the seams.

Probably too late, but, I've done exactly what you are doing, including the part about untreated drywall under the wallpaper. It would have been waaay more effective to pull out the old drywall and put up new. And, less sanding...the surface area I had to fix/you are fixing is much less than the surface area of tape at the seams.
+1

Portis, why didn't you just hang a plain cover paper over the old wallpaper then paint it?

I must be a glutton for punishment, I love home improvements & decorating! Paint, wallpaper designing a new kitchen or bathroom then making it all come together... Nirvana! :D

People who put wall paper on walls should be shot. I'm going into day 3 and nowhere near finished. I wouldn't be this tired if I had completed my second consecutive century. :mad: :mad: (and that is an accurate statement.)

Edit> See I told you i was tired. Yeah the project involves tearing out old wallpaper on dry wall that wasn't properly sized. IOW, the wall paper was stuck to the wall board. That involves a lot of blood sweat and tears. We are going to repaint after we are done. This is the last room in our house that has wallpaper.

I've done several before but this room is the worst. It was absolutely STUCK to the wall board.

easier to tear the walls down and re sheetrock lol
good luck

In the last room, we tore down one of the walls and put up new. I wouldn't say that it is definitely easier. You have to redo all the trim work, in addition to the mudding.