Community Forums

WichitaFalls · 04-23-2015, 02:15 PM

Good Afternoon. My question is to those who have redone their existing RV. Is it easier to paint over the existing wallpaper or put new wallpaper over old? I have sanded and repainted all the wood and wood paneling and now ready to start the walls. Any help is greatly appreciated!

edsperfect · 04-23-2015, 04:43 PM

I would look closly at the wallpaper. Mine seems to have some type of coating on it which i assume is a plastic coating of some sorts. Might be bad to paint over that

89sandman · 04-23-2015, 08:09 PM

Paint will turn off a lot of buyers when you go to resale. Don't really know how to explain it but all the MH's I've seen that have been painted inside just look odd. I would most definitely wallpaper.

djbmsu · 04-23-2015, 08:32 PM

Either will do just fine, IF properly prepared before you begin. Use good products and don't cut corners. I have seen excellent results for both.

Papa_Jim · 04-23-2015, 11:13 PM

When we renovated our coach in 2009, we elected to paint the interior walls. I gently scrubbed the wall paper with TSP. Then I applied two thin coats of a stain killing oil based primer. Although it is expensive vinyl coated wallpaper, I wanted to avoid the possibility of moistening the glue and having the wallpaper loosen from the wall. Then I applied two coats of latex paint.

Beautiful!

That was 6 years ago, and the walls look just as beautiful today. I was concerned, because sometimes our coach has had to sit in cold storage. I mean cold storage, down to -40 on occasion, and I wondered if the paint would stand up. Not a problem.

Jim

Mr_D · 04-23-2015, 11:22 PM

Jim, that's what I would do too and we don't have the cold temps out here.

WichitaFalls · 04-24-2015, 08:23 AM

Thanks for all the advice! I think I will try and scrub and then apply wallpaper. I had never thought about going to resell it, but now that make since! RV is gutted currently and I am repainting all the cabinet doors now. Hopefully I will have finished pictures to post next week!

SlaterDoc · 04-24-2015, 06:50 PM

Whitchita, most rv (all the ones I've seen) have a self stick vinyl wallcovering that is much like contact paper. I also am about to "re-paper" mine. In my case, there was a border that had to go first! I'd like to see who the mfg's have picking these things! When the border was pulled off it left the adhesive behind. But that can be removed with a scour sponge and a little paint thinner.
If you do a search online for "self-stick wallcovering" or "peel and stick" you will find a number of sources. There are a few on "epay". But, only found one style there I could live with! If you try using a wallpaper (non self-stick) be sure to use a "vinyl over vinyl" adhesive.
If you decide to paint, after you clean the surface well, be sure to use a 100% Acrylic paint. The cheaper Latex (non-Acrylic) will not adhere well to vinyl. You shouldn't need any primer.

Gary RVRoamer · 04-25-2015, 09:24 AM

The most common interior wall covering in an RV is a pre-coated sheet, i.e. a wallboard that had a vinyl or paper surface laminated on it at the wallboard factory. The RV builder puts it up as single unit - they don't wallpeper the RV on the assembly line. As long as the surface is still firmly attached, you can paint it or recover it, but odds are a primer will be required to get good adhesion.

Whether paint or wallpaper looks better to a future buyer probably depends on the quality of your work and their individual tastes.