Home refurb help!

Hey folks. Looking for input on fixing up an older home my daughter and her husband bought. I can do enough to be fairly dangerous(paint and floors) but could use some input from those that know more.

1.) Old wallpaper, and I mean old. I think it has been up since the mid 70’s. Bedrooms have boarders which we have been able to remove but the kitchen is loaded floor to ceiling. I have seen these wallpaper steamers but not seeing good reviews on the home models. Should we be looking at renting some sort of industrial model, if they are even out there? I think in my son in-laws haste to get the kitchen wall paper off he may went too far on small area and then gave up. It may have gotten a little gouged and the drywall appears green. Not sure if he went to deep.

2.) Living room has one wall of painted paneling. I was thinking of some sort of accent wall but everything I see for these “barn woods” is kind of spendy. Any good options that are maybe more cost friendly?. I have done a knotty pine accent wall in my basement but that look really doesn’t I don’t think in an upstairs living room. Really want to cover this paneling.

We have pulled old carpet and plan to do laminate throughout most of the home plus new paint will go a long way. Bathroom is actually pretty good but needs updates at some point. Same with kitchen. Really want to knock these bedrooms out and the living room/dining room so they can get into the house(and out of mine HA HA)

Any suggestions or input would be welcomed!

Thanks

Go walk around Menards. They have tons of options as far as ship lap and different wood for a
Accent wall. You can remove the paneling and see what kind of mess is underneath it.

I’ve removed some old wallpaper by just using a spray bottle with water, spray, leave sit, spray again until it actually soaks through to the adhesive, patience is key. Then just use a wide putty knife to scrape off. There is also a kind of ball that perforates the wallpaper so the water gets through quicker that works okay.

Chomp helps if water isn’t enough.

I got some paper remover from Sherman Williams and it worked great. Exterior wash are harder to remove. Use the tool to perforate the wall. I used a Hudson sprayer to apply so cover carpet.

Exterior walls

fishtoeat wrote:

I’ve removed some old wallpaper by just using a spray bottle with water, spray, leave sit, spray again until it actually soaks through to the adhesive, patience is key. Then just use a wide putty knife to scrape off. There is also a kind of ball that perforates the wallpaper so the water gets through quicker that works okay.

x2 and I’d leave this one to the kids, I hate removing wallpaper. Remove the paneling and see whats underneath, if you don’t like what’s underneath there’s ton of options at HD/Menards/Lowe and most of the flooring can be used on an accent wall as well. As for the rest of the house flooring, we are getting new Laminate (LVT) floors in our house right now, and from my research that is the best option if kids/dogs are involved as they can take a beating.

1)Just use fabric softener, water, soap. then you just get a wallpaper hole punching thing and then soak it. Should come right off.

2) 1/4 drywall. Or you can buy 1x4s and distressed them custom paint/stain or white wash would like nice.

Look up on youtube, plenty of good vids from professional painters about removing wallpaper. Personally, I rent a steamer from local rental place. I only do this because I heard it’s the fastest, doing the puncture/soak methods with solutions probably works just as well, the only thing you get with the steamer is speed I think. No need to stand around with your paint roller in your hand waiting for the wallpaper to soak for 12 hours so you can start scraping.

Grouse

Removing old wallpaper in our home almost caused a divorce. Singlehandedly the worst thing we’ve ever done as a home improvement project.

We did a combo of spray and soak and a steamer. It’s a grind through it kinda job. Plan on having to skim coat the walls afterwards.

Zinser DIF for wallpaper removal will make life easier

Depends on the quality of wallpaper. If it was quality stuff, chemicals should work, if it was cheap stuff like my whole house was, u can buy a steamer for 50$ and a plastic putty knife

It gets more fun when you start the wallpaper removal process and you find the last person was too lazy to remove the previous layer and laid it on top of that one. Then the steamer puts off enough steam to start peeling the textured ceiling off. Good times.

Never dealt with removing wall paper, but it doesn’t sound like fun.

What about putting 1/4″ drywall over the entire kitchen instead? You’d probably need box extensions for the electrical.

Moisture from the skim coat will normally bubble the wallpaper. Some comes off easy, some sucks.

If you scratch off the paper covering on the drywall you need to prime it prior to skim coating or it will blister.