We're having a heck of a time getting wallpaper to stick to the wood paneling on the walls of our GV. We've washed them with dawn dish soap before applying but it's not enough. They are in rough shape so I'm ok trying something tougher like acetone. Any one worked around this issue before?
Right now we're thinking about abandoning the wallpaper, sanding the walls, and then painting.
Hi Elliot,
You may have to sand the paneling lightly first, but normally you either size the wall or better yet paint it before you hang wallpaper.
Jim
On Mon, Jun 26, 2023 at 2:03 PM Elliott via ForeForums noreply@foreforums.com> wrote:
I'm thinking the vinyl on inside walls is not wallpaper but contact paper, I can believe it'll be hard to apply wallpaper though a good coat of latex primer might help. Sanding and painting will probably give you the best job. Careful with acetone, super flammable. Saw a buddy blown out of a bilge after cleaning and then lighting a cig...fortunately minor injuries, sure looked funny though with his stunned expression, hair and beard smoking.
I am in the middle of fixing a problem caused by the original wallpaper on our coach. We recently noticed some bumps in the wallpaper under one of the windows on our slide. After removing some of the wallpaper, I found that water from a small window leak was trapped behind the wallpaper, causing mold and a build up of a semi-hard paste that caused the bumps. The vinyl wallpaper didn't allow the moisture to evaporate (after weeks with hot temperatures and without rain the wood was still wet), leading to the mold and whatever else that caused the bumps. Without wallpaper I doubt the damage would have been as bad and the leak would likely have been obvious sooner. I am removing the wallpaper underneath the windows. Just something to think about as you consider whether to install wallpaper.
I wallpapered the upper parts in the coach over the old stuff which was faded. I used a really high-end wallpaper but since I'm not a very good wallpaper I wasn't completely happy with the job but for the most part it's stuck just fine. I did not do that on the Walnut paneling though. If I had I would have used something like sandpaper first to rough it up a little maybe? If I ever did decide to do something like that I would just use the gel stain that I used on some of the cabinets. Worked really great in my opinion.
I did use a little bit of the hot glue gun to secure some of the edges of the wallpaper.
I'm pretty sure that you will need to remove the wax and most of the oils from the wall. Then maybe an oil based porch floor paint will stick. And wall paper over that.
Using TSP is what I do to walls etc. Make it a strong solution.
John