I just finished removing wallpaper from one room in my house. Now that
I'm done, though, I wonder if it really was wallpaper or...is there
something that goes over plaster?

* It had a pattern, but it was only noticeable under the outlet and
switch covers and in the corners where the paper overlapped.
* It was also on the ceiling.
* Now that the walls are bare, they're....BARE; there's no paint that
was applied to the plaster and you can see the metal corner beads
around the windows and door. If this was wallpaper it was put on when
the house was built and the walls were plastered 50 years ago.
* I'm pretty sure all of my rooms are wallpapered, or whatever this is.
But I removed an outlet cover from the hallway and the paper pattern
was different than the other room.

Did I do something bad by removing something that should be over
plaster to keep it from cracking?

Mike

wrote:
I just finished removing wallpaper from one room in my house. Now that
I'm done, though, I wonder if it really was wallpaper or...is there
something that goes over plaster?

* It had a pattern, but it was only noticeable under the outlet and
switch covers and in the corners where the paper overlapped.
* It was also on the ceiling.
* Now that the walls are bare, they're....BARE; there's no paint that
was applied to the plaster and you can see the metal corner beads
around the windows and door. If this was wallpaper it was put on when
the house was built and the walls were plastered 50 years ago.
* I'm pretty sure all of my rooms are wallpapered, or whatever this is.
But I removed an outlet cover from the hallway and the paper pattern
was different than the other room.

Did I do something bad by removing something that should be over
plaster to keep it from cracking?

Mike

No, you probably did nothing bad. The house was probably just
wallpapered when it was built rather than painted. The printed pattern
had probably faded, but didn't fade under the outlet covers or the
overlaps.

Ken

The pattern in the alegid wall paper probably faded over time.
It didn't fade where it was protected.
The pattern is different in different rooms, whidh is not unusual.
TB

Canvas was common in old quality construction to keep cracks from
showing, not uncommon for 100 yr old homes with Canvas to have perfect
walls and ceilings. I never remove it unless water leaks have ruined it.
Now you may have unfinished brown coat cracks and may need to repair
cracks and skim coat it or re paper. Kind of hard to say for sure we
cant see it from here.

If its thick and you see canvas , it will rip like canvas and have
strings when ripped , leave it if its in good shape. The seams and loose
areas should determine what you do. Just because it is there does not
mean just remove it.

I removed all of my wallpaper (even from ceilings). Yes it's very ugly
to paint over wallpaper. You will have to patch the walls for all the
imperfections and cracks, but the result is a million times better than
the painted over wallpaper. Almost everyone in my neighborhood does
this.

Okay, now I'm not sure again.

It was painted over...I forgot to mention that. This wallcovering and
then many layers of paint. Made it real easy to remove. The papering
job was done very well, though. No bubbles or anything. But the paint
had cracked in a lot of places; that's one of the reasons I want to
remove it.

The paper is pretty thin, but it is stringy when I rip it. That there
is different patterns in different rooms (all painted over) leads me to
think that it's wallpaper. If this was something done during
construction (my house was built in 1953) I would expect the material
to be the same in all of the rooms. And I wouldn't expect any of it to
have a printed pattern.

Mike