elanamig wrote:

Hello, group,

We are buying a house that has wallpaper everywhere imaginable. In one
room however, only one wall had wallpaper, and the other three had some
kind of cheesecloth layer. This is a 1960's house. I've heard that
before they'd put canvas/cheesecloth on walls to make them smoother for
wallpaper. Do you think this is it? If it is, would I remove it like
regular wallpaper or are there special techniques? Should I expect
this cheesecloth layer behind the wallpaper everywhere else? I'd like
to tear down the wallpaper and paint the walls. In the room that has
this cheesecloth stuff, should I remove it, or would the primer/paint
cover the cheesecloth texture?

Thank you,
Elana


Most likely, you are going to find cheesecloth behind the
other wallpaper as well. That is an old method of
wallpapering that was used back in the old days. It is
applied with tacks over shiplap walls (solid wood). When you
remove the cheesecloth, you are going to find the shiplap,
which does not have an even surface. You can paint it, but
there are gaps between each board and these will stand out
with paint.

I have seen these types of walls sanded down and stained, but
that is labor intensive and expensive. Just removing all the
tacks will be a job in and of itself.

Take down a wall of the cheesecloth and look at it. You are
the only one that can decide what you can live with.

In most cases like this, we have installed drywall over the
shiplap and then taped and floated, textured, then paint.
This also repairs the drafty quality of these kinds of walls,
as the gaps between the shiplap allow quite a bit of air and
sound through the walls, especially on exterior walls.

I like the shiplap walls because they are solid wood. This
makes installing drywall a breeze and you can hang a picture
or cabinets anywhere, without having to look for studs. The
insulation may be another issue that you have to look into,
however, as these walls are often uninsulated.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX