Painting Over Wallpaper and a Flip

[Michael Noto]

Has anyone ever painted over wallpaper with success? The only reason I ask is painters in my neck of the woods charge between double and triple extra to remove it, compound, and then paint. This is a house in a middle class suburban neighborhood and is a raised ranch. Would you paint over wallpaper on a house to make numbers work or pass on the deal because of that? We are talking 7-8k more to remove the wallpaper and get it painted. Looking forward to hearing some opinions on painting over wallpaper.

[Shera Gregory]

I have not dealt with this on a flip property but I do have to speak up in defense of painting over wallpaper in some situations. It depends on the age of the property and the way in which the original wallpaper was stuck to the walls. My personal property was built in 1924 and had wallpaper on every surface including the ceilings. The ceiling paper came off in nice big sheets by just wetting it down. The paper on the walls however was put on with something much, much stronger and the paper itself was quite thick. Given this situation we decided to have the "mud guy" do a light coat of joint compound and cover the paper joins just like a drywall seam. Then that was primed with oil based primer. Then two good coats of nice flat Ben Moore deep color paint. Very lovely ten years later!