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How To Paint Over Vinyl Wallpaper

Businesses and landlords can save considerable time and money by painting over old vinyl wallpaper, blocking dark colours and bold patterns, stained surfaces and odours with Zinsser’s high adhesion products. Click here to skip recommended products and to continue reading.

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Our 3-step guide below shows you how to prepare, prime and decorate over vinyl wallpaper properly, finishing with a topcoat available in over 4,000 colours. This allows for a fast turnaround of a property (often within the same day) without lengthy disruption to trade or tenancy.

See also: our blog post on how to paint over wallpaper.

Contents

Click on a link below to jump to the section:

The Benefits

Step 1. Surface Preparation

Step 2. Priming

Step 3. Decoration

More Information

Further Reading


The Benefits

When vinyl wallpaper is already sound, why spend time and money stripping it from walls when you can skip the mess and disruption by simply painting over it?

When a business moves into new premises they want to be open as quickly as possible. Stripping wallpaper and washing off paste residue creates a real mess and takes a lot of time – time that could be spent finalising signage and branding, ready for the big opening day. Interior decorating must be finished and dry before fittings can be brought in and stock placed onto the shelves, let alone opening to serve customers. Every day spent closed for refurbishment allows the competition room to attract your clientele, and on a crowded high street that could be costly for a new business.

For landlords and letting agents, especially with long-term tenants, a quick and easy redecoration of a vacant property can have it back on the rental market in tip-top condition in no time, attracting viewings and minimising the loss of monthly rental income.

Zinsser listens to contactors and develops new products – or adds features to existing products – to meet their changing needs, delivering world class products that meet “real world” challenges, providing tried and tested solutions to painting problems, such as painting over vinyl wallpaper.

Step 1. Surface Preparation

Ensure that the surface is clean, dry, and free from anything that will interfere with or affect the adhesion and application of the materials to be applied.

The wallpaper must be well-adhered.

Remove all visible signs of organic growth and treat the areas with Zinsser Mould Killer & Remover, in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, and allow to dry before priming.

Zinsser Mould Killer & Remover

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Step 2. Priming

Prime the prepared vinyl wallpaper surface with one full coat of Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3, in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, allowing a minimum of 1 hour to dry (in normal drying conditions).

Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3

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Step 3. Decoration

Now the surface has been properly prepared and primed it can be decorated with two full coats of Zinsser Perma-White Interior Matt, Satin or Semi-Gloss, in one of over 4,000 colours,  in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

Zinsser Perma-White Interior

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Allow a minimum drying time of 2 hours between coats, in normal drying conditions.

More Information

If you require more advice on painting over vinyl, give our technical team a call on 0113 2455450 (option 2) or send a message to [email protected].

Further Reading

5 comments

  1. Can you please tell me who stocks the primer and paint for painting over vinyl. Many thanks

  2. After applying the bullseye 123 can I then put on 2 coats of Matt emulsion?

    • Hi Rob,

      Many thanks for getting in touch. Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 is used as a primer for adhesion or for the blocking of some stains – we would then normally recommend this be overcoated with another Zinsser product such as Perma-White Interior or Allcoat Exterior depending on the application.

      It may be possible to apply a standard emulsion over the top instead, but we would recommend a small area be tested first to ensure compatibility and adhesion.

      Many thanks and I hope this helps.

      Stuart

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