Painting Travel Trailer Bathroom Wallpaper

[Apadgett]

I need some more help. I painted the bathroom wallpaper in my 1985 Travel Trailer a couple months ago. I went in there to night to put up a new shower curtain my wife got for Christmas and I barely touched the wall and it scraped right off all the way down to the wallpaper. I did a ton of research on this and got a primer to cover the walls with that my paint supplier told me to use. (Sherwin Williams) Well it didn't work and now I'm going to have to scrape it all and start over. Any suggestions. My wife wants it painted and does not want new wallpaper up. Has anyone tried this project before?

[dadmomh]

Since we are getting ready to move into a home in FL that has that lovely vinyl coated wallboard, your question got me to wondering. When in doubt, do a search. I searched "painting over vinyl wallboard". Depending on which one you go along with, this is not a 1 or 2 step process. One says use an orbital sander to completely cut the vinyl finish, the other says use a piece of sandpaper on a block of wood. Then wash the entire surface completely - don't recall they said with what product - and let day thoroughly. Then use a primer - or maybe 2 coats. See how much fun this is turning into??? Before applying any paint, check to make sure there are no places where the primer didn't adhere. Then either an epoxy (??) paint or latex, and again 2 coats. And they both said to start painting from the top down to catch any drips...apparently the paint is not quick to adhere. There were more sites I could have read, but decided I had found enough to know it wasn't going to be quick, slap it on the wall and be done. Since you're already into this project, suggest you back up to the sanding part and start from the beginning. Darn! Since we have only seen pictures of the 2 houses in contention, I can only hope that not every room has some gawd-awful pattern on the wallcovering....something we can live with for a while, anyway. Painting over regular wallpaper is much different. If you get done before we do, I'll send you our new address, lol.

[Speedogomer]

This is the perfect excuse to convince her it's time for a new RV. Instead of spending hours painting with no success, just spend hours trying to convince her of this with also probably no success.

[dadmomh]

If you use an oil based primer, you'll need oil based paint. Agree on the sanding. My dear cousin and hubby painted over some wallpaper with some product and then regular latex paint, did great, but I'd bet the wallpaper was not vinyl. Will something like acetone cut the vinyl finish so you could just prime with latex and then paint??? Dunno, but might be worth a test.

[Pepperoni]

Apadgett wrote:
I used what's called a bonding primer that has a sort of glue in it. That is supposed to help it stick to anything. I think I will sand it and go back to old faithful oil based primer.

Consider using self-stick vinyl. It can be had in solid colors.will not look like wallpaper and is waterproof

[westend]

It may be that the vinyl layer of the wall covering or it's adhesive is still off gassing. That would make it very problematic to paint. You may need to seal the surface with a compatible sealer before painting. There may also be the option of removing the wall covering completely and starting from an uncovered surface. That also, may be problematic, as some wall board in TT's have the covering integrated fairly tough onto the underlying material.

Wish I had a fool-proof method to recommend. I have successfully painted wallpaper, using an oil based primer, like mentioned.

[wlstroud]

Scuff sand the surface once you get the non-adhering paint scraped off. Then use a bonding primer made for vinyl. Then paint with an oil-based primer and oil-based egg-shell topcoat. Do not use all-in-one primer/topcoat paints.
I've used this system with great results on VWC in the hospital system for which I was engineer before I retired.

[Apadgett]

I used what's called a bonding primer that has a sort of glue in it. That is supposed to help it stick to anything. I think I will sand it and go back to old faithful oil based primer.

[TucsonJim]

FrankShore wrote:
Sandpaper the surface

X2 - You'll need to really rough it up. Then prime it and paint it. Don't use an all-in-one paint/primer.

[jfkmk]

FrankShore wrote:
Sandpaper the surface

I think you're right.

[FrankShore]

Sandpaper the surface

[Apadgett]

I used TSP and the primer I used is supposed to even stick to glass. That's why I'm really surprised by what happened.

[ScottG]

Since it's a vinyl surface, it's going to be very hard to get paint to stick.
You could try going over it with TSP or even something stronger. You want to break the sheen of the surface and give the paint a tooth to hold onto.