Each homeowner sooner or later raises the question of the need for cosmetic repairs. The case is expensive and time-consuming, and everyone wants to minimize financial injections. The effect is easily achieved by simplifying the technology: the laminate is laid on top of old floors, and the walls are not cleaned to a concrete slab, but the wallpaper is glued on top of the old finish.
In this regard, many people are interested in: “Is it possible to glue wallpaper on painted walls?” It’s worth immediately explaining that the possibility of using this technology depends on several factors. But the most important of them is the type of coating on the wall.
How to determine the type of paint on the wall
By the type of binder component, paints can be oil, water based, silicone-based, acrylic, epoxy, lime (natural and their analogues - silicate, mineral) and polyurethane. But most often in the housing stock you can find walls painted with oil and acrylic paints, water-based emulsion or ordinary whitewash. So, before determining whether it is possible to glue wallpaper on painted walls or not, you need to find out what the surface was painted with.
Oil paint smells terribly when stained, lays in a thick dense layer, and it must be diluted with drying oil or solvent. Now it can be recognized by its durable glossy and smooth surface that does not allow water to pass through. If you remove it with a spatula, it comes off in layers.
Whitewashing is easiest to determine - if you run your hand along the wall, then a trace will remain on it.
Acrylic paint is an improved water-based emulsion with similar properties: they both penetrate into the material, and when trying to remove them with trowels, peel off in small pieces. Enamels behave in the same way. Their surface is also almost the same - matte, porous, slightly rough. But if you wet them with water, then they will behave differently: the emulsion is saturated with water and swells, and the acrylic (water-dispersed) paint will not change under the influence of moisture.
On what basis can wallpaper be glued
After determining the type of paint, you can find out if the wallpaper is glued to painted walls. To do this, use the table.
| Type of paintwork | How the wallpaper will behave |
| Oil paints | Very bad option. The coating often peels off, has poor adhesion due to a smooth surface. It must either be completely removed or serious preparatory work should be done. |
| Water emulsion | It swells from water, therefore, from wallpaper glue it swells. The effect will be especially noticeable during prolonged drying (thick cloths, microclimate, etc.). |
Acrylic | Valid option. The surface of the coating is rough, which provides good adhesion, and acrylic water-dispersion paints do not swell from glue. |
| Whitewashing: calcareous and chalky | Some argue that on a chalky basis the wallpaper will not hold, while they will adhere perfectly to the lime wall. But in fact, neither one nor the other option should not even be considered. |
Possible risks
Before you stick the wallpaper on a painted wall, you must understand all the possible risks. Paints have the property of peeling off, and with them freshly-glued wallpapers peel off the wall. And poor adhesion will not allow the canvases, especially heavy ones, to firmly fix on the wall even with reliable glue. Thus, saving on surface preparation time, much more can be lost.
If there is no way to do everything right, then you need to conduct a small test: stick masking tape and tear it off sharply. If there are traces of old paint on it, then it needs to be cleaned off. If it falls off in pieces, together with plaster, then peel off to the base. In the event that the adhesive tape remains clean, you can think about how to paste the wallpaper on the painted walls. Theoretically, this event is possible, but the wall surface will still have to be prepared.
Wall preparation
How to paste wallpaper on painted walls? To do this, at least minimal surface preparation is necessary.
For oil paint:
- Sand the wall so that it becomes rougher and can provide better grip.
- Thoroughly rinse the surface from dust and dry them, otherwise in places of accumulation of contaminants, the web will peel off.
- Apply a special adhesive primer with a brush or paint roller.
- Dry the wall and apply a second coat of primer.
- Dry - and you can begin to wallpapering.
For those who are not ready for such work, experts advise at least to scratch the surface of the wall with any available tool, otherwise the wallpaper simply will not hold on the smooth oil paint.
Lime and chalk whitewash almost leaves no choice. You can’t glue the wallpaper on it, they will fall off either immediately or during the first year. Those who do not listen to reasonable advice can be recommended to at least partially clean the surface layer and try to cover the whitewash with a deep penetration primer. But it’s not a fact that it will somehow help.
Acrylic paint:
- Wash the wall from dirt and dust, dry.
- Apply two coats of primer.
- In addition, coat the walls with diluted wallpaper glue.
- When the surface dries, you can begin to finish.
Often, consultants are asked: “How to glue non-woven wallpaper on painted walls if they are applied with water-based paint?” And this baffles all experts, since they sincerely do not understand why they need to buy rather expensive wallpapers, and do not do it all necessary to keep them on the wall for a long time. At first glance, a water emulsion has a suitable surface - matte, rough. But it will surely swell when it is smeared with glue.
Will the deformation be strong? To answer, you can test: on a small section of the wall paste a piece of wallpaper (newspaper, paper) with ordinary PVA. After drying, they tear off and see if the paint layer has peeled off along with the wallpaper. But it is better if the walls are covered with a water emulsion, clean it with any available method:
- wet the surface and with a spatula to remove the paint from the wall;
- rinse with a special solvent;
- clean with coarse paper or a grinding machine.
If, after all the checks, the emulsion does not peel off and adheres firmly to the slab, then it must be primed twice before gluing.
Glue selection rules
When deciding how to glue wallpaper on painted walls, do not forget about glue. Fortunately, today there are no problems with his choice and purchase - you can come to any store and ask the consultant what kind of pack from the shelf you need to take for a specific type of finish.
But when working with a painted surface, two simple rules are usually used:
- Glue is bought only for heavy wallpaper, vinyl or non-woven, regardless of the finishing material.
- PVA is added to the wallpaper glue in a 2: 1 ratio, so the canvas will hold better.
Primer
Ready-made mixtures with any desired characteristics can be purchased at the store: Tikkurilla, Tserezit, Knauf, Universalna, Dyulaks and many other options. But you can prepare the primer yourself according to the following recipe:
- Dilute with water to the consistency of kefir alabaster. You can also use gypsum.
- Add to the resulting PVA mixture in an amount of 1/3 of the volume.
- Also, as a primer using a mixture of "Bustilate" and PVA in the proportions of 1: 1.
Materials and Tools
What needs to be prepared before sticking wallpaper on painted walls? To do this, you need to purchase the following materials and tools:
- emery paper coarse and fine-grained or grinding machine;
- three rollers - for primer, glue and rubber, for ironing wallpaper;
- two spatulas - wide and narrow;
- wide paint brush;
- sharp scissors or a clerical knife;
- a primer, best adhesive or deep penetration;
- wallpaper;
- long ruler;
- roulette wheel;
- wallpaper glue;
- clean, dry, light cloth.
How to glue wallpaper on painted walls: instructions
The following steps are required:
- Find out what type of paint is applied to the wall.
- Check according to the table whether it is possible to stick wallpaper on this type of coating.
- If necessary, carry out tests that determine how well the paint adheres to a concrete slab or plaster (with tape and newspaper).
- Thoroughly prepare the surface according to the instructions above.
- Start wallpapering using standard technology: cut strips, glue, apply vertically to the wall and smooth to smooth out all the bumps and bubbles.
Useful advice: experienced craftsmen often glue a strip of white paper between two strips, so that if they are a little apart, you can not see the paint.
General tips
So, we have answered in detail the question of whether wallpaper is glued to painted walls. And if everything is done correctly, they will serve for a long time, until they lose their appearance. But you need to understand that wallpaper can fall off the wall for many reasons, completely independent of the original characteristics of the base. Canvases can come off due to high humidity in the room, drafts, heat, too much glue, etc.
Therefore, experienced craftsmen recommend:
- Glue not only strips, but also the wall.
- No drafts during operation and within 1-2 days after: all doors and windows should be tightly closed.
- You should carefully choose the day of repair work: do not glue the wallpaper in extreme heat, cold (if there is no heating) or in high humidity.