Painting And Decorating

[postman44]

When doing a wall should you strip off wallpaper or paint over existing wallpaper. Thank you.

[Ken4155]

If the existing wallpaper has been applied well, there is no need whatsoever to strip it before painting.

[MargoTester]

Strip off preferably. If you paint over wallpaper it becomes more difficult to remove when you to re-decorate.

[Canary42]

It can be painted over, but very much depends on paper type and paste used. I suggest you try a patch and see if it goes OK.

After all, lining paper is sometimes used to cover a bad surface before painting.

[davebro]

I stripped my (slighly textured) wallpaper for the decorator to come and paint. But it left an awful surface that he re-lined before painting. The alternative would have been to re-skim the plaster.

[Canary42]

Further to my earlier answer, when you do try a patch bear in mind MargoTester's response, i.e. if the patch turns out badly, stripping that bit will be more difficult.

[Ken4155]

If the paper is meant to be painted (blown vinyl, anaglypta, woodchip (god forbid!)etc) there is no need to strip it unless it was a botched job when being applied. It has been my experience that most folk who have opted for this type of paper merely change their colour scheme when redecorating.
Of course, layers and layers of silk vinyl will render the paper very difficult to remove. Matt is a different animal.