LESLIE: Debbie in Texas needs some help with a painting project. How can we help you?
DEBBIE: Yes, I live in a house that’s about 25 years old and I have some rooms that still have the original wallpaper.
TOM: OK.
DEBBIE: And I need to know, after I remove that wallpaper, how it is best to prepare the wall before I paint it. And also, I have popcorn ceilings; so if you could help me with that, on whether I should paint over those or try to remove the popcorn and do something else.
TOM: You have a lot of painting in your future, don’t you, Debbie? (Leslie chuckles)
DEBBIE: I do.
LESLIE: And, unfortunately, a lot of that painting needs a lot of prep work.
DEBBIE: I’m sure it does and I want to do it correctly.
TOM: Well, you want to get as much of that sizing off the wall as possible and then you’re going to need to prime the wall. And we would recommend a good-quality oil-based primer in this instance because, you know, we don’t exactly what that sizing was made of, what that adhesive was made of and we want to make sure that you have a wall that’s really neutral and ready to have new paint applied to it. If you don’t prime it, then we’re not sure the new paint is going to stick and we want to make sure that not only do we get a nice, even coating to that paint; that it doesn’t come off in a year or two. So that’s the secret there.
As for the popcorn ceiling, the key to painting that is the type of roller that you use. The paint roller you’re looking for is very thick. It’s about an inch thick and it’s sliced – it has like slits in it – and that does hold a lot of paint. It’s kind of a sloppy project but it’ll roll over that popcorn and make it look bright again.
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