Painting – How to Remove Painted Over Wallpaper Border?

paintingrepaintingwallpaper

I'm currently decorating a painted room which had a wallpaper border around it. The room has been repainted at least twice, and the border was never removed.

I have removed the border and this has left a good indent of a few layers of paint either side. Despite running a knife along the top and bottom of the border, some of the paint either side has chipped off, so I'm not left with a perfectly straight line around the room. To make things even more fun, some of the paint behind the border has flaked off too.

This has left me with a less than ideal surface to paint on. The question is, what is the best way to make everything nice and smooth for painting?

I have read this, which basically says to apply filler with a taping knife to fill the gap left by the border. Is this the best thing to do? Will the filler adhere to the paint properly, or do I need to treat it with something first?

Best Answer

A good quality wall filler should have no problem sticking to the existing paint or plaster. You can feather fine fillers down to fractions of a millimetre without it coming loose.

Aim to fill the channel left by the border, thinly feathering the filler over the edges to blend it in and hide the joint. You might need two or three iterations of filling, drying and lightly sanding, but you can get a smooth invisible repair without having to skim the whole wall.

  • Feel the edge of the joint where the border was. If there is a raised lip then it will need to be sanded flat.
  • Lightly sanding the area to be filled with P180 or similar will help adhesion, especially if the existing paint has a sheen.
  • The paint/plaster under the filler needs to be clean, solid, with no remaining dust, chalkiness or adhesive.
  • For wide areas a taping knife is a good tool to apply and smooth the filler. Use a flexible filling knife for small or shallow areas.
  • You can use the straight edge on the tool to check for uneven work when it's dry.
  • Try not to overfill the repair or overwork the filler. It's better to fill flat and need to add some more when dry than have to do a lot of sanding.
  • When sanding try to use a larger sanding block, such as one with a handle. It is much easier to get a flat surface.
  • Try a small area to begin with and refine your technique.
  • If using a powder filler, do not add too much water as this can weaken the strength and adhesion.
  • Prime the repair with diluted matt paint or wall primer before painting the top coats.

Everyone has their own favourite products, but as someone in the UK, I would use a quality powder filler such as Toupret Classic. For very thin layers (<1 mm) onto existing paint then I would use a ready mixed fine surface filler. This will stick better but is a little harder to sand down.

Related Topic