Removing Wallpaper from 100-year-old Plaster Walls
So the first thing you need to do when deciding to renovate a 115-year-old home is decide WHAT can go and WHAT can stay? You need to ASSESS EVERYTHING and PRIORITIZE, so that you can start to create a REALISTIC RENOVATION BUDGET.
The first thing that hit me when I walked into the commercial building that would become our mixed-use home/studio was the plethora of MAUVE. MAUVE was EVERYWHERE! Mauve commercial carpeting, mauve fixtures and mauve vinyl wallcovering on almost EVERY WALL OF OUR 3000 SF new-old house!
Since we are no longer living in the 80’s this was the first thing that I knew had to go - but when you are dealing with wallpaper on 100-year old plaster walls you really don’t have a lot of options.
OPTION #1 – REMOVE IT?
Yes, we tried. You can see how well that went. And to think of doing this removal to EVERY wall in our house sent shivers up my spine. Not matter how hard we tried, no matter how careful we were, even the professionals could not get the wallpaper off without causing significant damage to the plaster below.
Most likely the original wallpaper installation was done without careful preparation and priming of the plaster surface, but generally plaster and wallpaper are just not a good mix!
So based on these results of our unsuccessful removal attempts we would need to skim coat the walls – basically re-plastering every surface.
OPTION #2 - COVER IT UP!
So what’s a girl to do when faced with this much MAUVE – she goes into action and cries! But seriously it was our contractor who gave us the solution – albeit not a cheap one. He suggested we re-sheetrock the entire house!
WHAAAAAAAAAT you say? Yes, sad but true – all that nasty mauve vinyl wallpaper still lurks beneath a ¼” layer of sheetrock. This was another major hit to the budget – but when we looked at the cost of an expensive plaster repair – we actually came out ahead of the game in the long run by going with the sheetrock.
It also made sense because all the holes in the existing plaster ceilings which were hidden underneath drop ceiling tiles had necessitated we tear down the original plaster ceilings (see Look Up! Blog) But in the end we were happy with our decision. Pristine sheetrock walls and ceilings are a nice way to start a full-house painting project. At least our painter would be happy! (And this made the paint job less expensive, too!)