Wallpaper replacement Question

[encantotom]

Hi,

We are just starting to replace the wallpaper in our Newell. we are contemplating before we do it, to consider if we could texture the walls and paint and faux the walls. my wife is excited about the idea and on the surface it sounds cool. i am concerned about the movement of the walls popping the texture off. i have done some web searches and cant find much about it. most people never strip the wallpaper off at all.

anyone have any ideas or experience in doing something other than wallpaper on the interior?

thanks

tom

[Richard and Rhonda]

Tom,

I asked a Scouting buddy of mine who does faux finish for a living about this.

He said there are a couple of keys to making this work. First, use at least two coats of oil based primer on the walls to form the substrate. Oh boy, get out the fans if you use oil base in the confines of a coach.

Second, add the latex additive used to doctor paint for airless spraying, to your color base coats.

This is exactly the same advice he gave me a couple of years ago about painting over wallpaper instead of ripping it down. I did what he said, and using this technique, I did a faux over vinyl wallpaper. Two years, later and not one crack, seam, or surface irregularity.

I am assuming that you are not talking about using either sheetrock compound or Venetian plaster to put a heavy treatment on the wall. I would think that kind of texture would not deal with flexing. I do think any latex based finish will tolerate a little flexing.

[encantotom]

thanks....

the faux advice is great. the reason that we are considering it is twofold. one, is after stripping the wallpaper off (which i did already), the adhesive left some divets. i sanded as much as i could and filled hole forever, but when i kilz'd it, you can see the irregularities on the wall. my wife tried putting up a couple of strips of wallpaper and you could see the irregularities. so she thought we could just texture the walls and then do some fun painting inside. the real question is what you posed at the end. is there a way i can texture the walls that wont come off with flexing.....

whether or not it was the right thing to take the wallpaper off now is s moot point because i did. i think it was because there was some bubbling at joints that couldnt have been fixed and that was why we wanted to redo it.

any suggestions for putting a slight texture on the wall that will stand up to flexing? the plywood below the wallpaper had been filled in where sheets of plywood went and over where the rivets were recessed to hold the panels up from the factory. i filled screw holes etc.

it is not bad, we just want it to be perfect.

thanks

tom

[Richard and Rhonda]

I don't know of anything that would produce noticeable texture, that would stand up to flexing, temp changes, and humidity changes that a coach sees.

Have you tried filling a divot and leaving the filler "proud"? i.e. sticking slightly above the surface. After it dries completely, sand it down flush.

I notice on drywall that the filler always shrinks, so if I use a putty knife to fill it in, and scrape flush, then it will be slightly recessed when it dries.