Question:

I am planning on painting my bathroom, however it is covered in hideous wallpaper.  What steps do I need to take in order remove it without damaging the wall behind it?

Answer:

This is always one of the major obstacles to interior painting contractors. And there is quite a bit to know before you begin.  

First you must realize that there are 2 different types of wall paper: paper faced, and vinyl faced.  These are exactly as they sound.  The vinyl faced wall paper has a plastic feel to it, and is impermeable to water and other solvents. Luckily this type of wall paper has been out of style since the 70s and is found in fewer and fewer home. 

Additionally there are couple of tactics that you should take to remove wall paper.  The first thing you should try is to just peel up a corner of a sheet and try to slowly remove the top layer of paper.  If you are lucky this top layer will come off in one sheet leaving a layer of thin backing paper adhered to the wall with paste.  This usually happens with expensive wallpapers.  The cheap papers will usually tear off in little strips or not at all.  

If the paper comes off in one big piece like described above, you are in luck.  All you have to do is remove the top layers, then spray the remaining backing with a wallpaper paste dissolver like DIF (found at any home store or paint store).  Once the backing is completely soaked, it will easily come off with a large scraper or knife. 

If, however, your paper face rips in little pieces you are in for a bit of a job.  Determine if the paper is vinyl or paper faced.  If it is vinyl faced you will have to score the entire wall will a wall paper score tool.  This will poke tiny wholes into the wall paper face and allow the remover to soak into the backing.  If it is paper faced, proceed with the next step. 

Using a garden sprayer or spray bottle, soak a good sized section of the wall with wallpaper remover.  As soon as you apply the remover, put a sheet of painters plastic film onto the wall.  The liquid will adhere the plastic to the wall.  The purpose of the plastic to hold the remover on the wall and to keep it from evaporating.  The worst thing that could happen at this point is for your remover to evaporate.  This would cause the glue to reset and stick harder than before.  

Let the remover soak into the wallpaper for at least 30 minutes.  Continuously check to see if the paper is loosened.  Add more remover to the wall if it starts to dry out.  

Caution:  If you let the remover soak for too long, it may seep into the drywall and loosen the drywall paper from the rock.  This will result in serious wall damage and will make a lot more work for you in repairs. You need to let the remover soak just long enough to loosen the paste.  

Once the paste is loosened, just scrape the paper off with a mud knife.  Be careful not to gouge the walls though, as this will create more work for you.

Now that you have the wallpaper off, you are not quite ready to paint.  If you paint now, the remaining glue will cause major problems with the paints adherence. The paint will likely fish-eye, and flake off the wall.  You must wash down the walls with a solution of wallpaper glue remover and water.  Then when this is finished. You must prime the walls with an oil based wall primer. Killz will work perfectly.  After all this you can fill any gouges or chips and then you can paint as normal.  

If this sounds like more than you bargained for, let us know.  Our skilled painters have the experience to do this job right the first time and will probably save you money and time.

Question:

I have a whole mess of trim to do and I am wondering what is the best way to avoid brushmarks without taking 2 years to finish. I am using an allmost white BM semi

Answer:

All paints have different properties when it comes to leveling. Some paints self level and leave a smooth finish no matter how hard you try to screw it up. Others will never level properly no matter how hard you try.  One technique that will help with the leveling of paints is to add an extender or conditioner to the paint. Floetrol (Latex) and Penetrol (Oill) can be added to paints to help with their leveling properties.  An additional bonus is that these products will also help with coverage. 

You will also want to use a proper brush for this job. It is essential that you use a natural bristle or china bristle brush made specifically for fine finishes. You should also invest in a high quality brush such as Purdy.  If  you use a cheap brush you will have lot of problems.  

I recommend using Sherwin Williams Pro-Classic Oil based Semi-gloss for painting trim.  This paint is a little thicker than standard paints, but if you add a bit of penetrol it will flow nicely. This combination will almost ensure that your trim is as smooth as glass.

Question: 

I'm thinking about painting the ceiling drywall with white semi-gloss. Will there be any issues with it? Will it look aesthetically pleasing or tacky? If not, will satin be fine then?

Answer:

While there is technically nothing wrong with painting a ceiling with a semi-glass sheen, you won't be happy with the way it looks.  Historically flat paint is used to paint ceilings because of its hiding properties.  Flat paint will hide any imperfections in the ceiling due to drywall finish problems and unevenness.  If you paint the ceiling with anything shinier than a flat or matte paint all the flaws will show themselves right away. 

Question:

I just finished painting a wall (shouldn't have done it-it was too dark) and now I see that there are roller fibers all over the wall. How can I cover them? Will another coat do the job or do I need to do something else first? This is dark red paint and it's been hard to work with already and now this. Any ideas?

Answer:

I'm sorry to hear about your trouble.  Fibers in the paint are almost always due to cheap roller covers.  Good quality products will always give you better results.  Cheap roller cover will always leave hairs or fibers in the finished wall.  If you must use sub par roller covers you can wrap painters tape around the cover and then remove. This will get rid of some of the loose fibers.  You may have to do this several times.  I suggest using Sherwin Williiams brand Soft Woven roller covers.  They never leave lint behind.  

Another factor that exacerbated this problem is the color of paint.  Dark colors, reds especially are notorious for showing imperfections.  If you were working with a lighter color you may not have even seen the hairs. 

So, onto the solution. Unfortunately there is no easy fix.  Just doing another coat won't fix the problem.  In fact, if you do another coat this the same roller cover it will probably make it worse.  So you are going to have let the walls set up for at least 48 hours, a week is better.  If you skip this part the paint is likely to peel when you sand it.  Then sand the entire surface with a 150 - 180 grit sand paper.  This will remove the hairs.  Then you will have to repaint the walls with a good quality roller cover to finish up the paint job.  

Thanks

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