This project was in Central West End for a customer whose walls were badly damaged underneath the wallpaper.
Wallpaper removal always presents the opportunity to turn into an adventure. If there is existing wallpaper in a home when a new homeowner movies in, there is a mystery behind that paper and the only way to get the answers to that mystery is to get behind it. People use wallpaper for many different reasons:
- for the appearance/pattern
- to hide wall imperfections
- to add stability to the wall surface
- to save maintenance time down the road
In any case, the reason it was used and the condition of the walls underneath cannot be solved until it the wallpaper is removed. The general process of removing wallpaper is not a difficult process; if the wallpaper was installed properly, it will come off pretty easy.
However, there is a number of common ways wallpaper is improperly installed, such as:
- gluing directly to drywall (no priming)
- using solvent based adhesives (not water-soluble)
- installing over previous wallpaper (another layer of mystery)
- installing to old plaster walls (many questions to the condition of the plaster)
All these examples have solutions though. So as we get into these types of projects, the element of unknown, this mystery, always plays the biggest role in how smoothly the project will go. As we start to solve these mysteries, the options become much clearer on what can ultimately be done with the walls themselves. No matter how many times we go through this process, the mystery always remains… but this is part of what we do. We can offer solutions to any mystery we discover and leave your walls (or ceilings) the way you envisioned them.
In this condo, wallpaper was used to add stability to the old plaster surface (lots of cracking and crumbling plaster). The plaster was deteriorating under the wallpaper, so the customer asked us to step in and restore the walls to tip-top condition.
This project included several steps: removing wallpaper, removing loose substrate, sealing the surface in preparation for wall repair (evident water damage), repairing cracks and missing sections of wall, caulking, priming and finish painting. The project took about 3 days for one of our experienced painters to complete.
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If you have walls in need of repair, or if you have wallpaper you want to remove, call Kennedy Painting at 314-952-0156.
