Would textured wall paper put you off buying a home?

[smellybarnarnars]

Bought my first flat 5 years ago, a two bed that was derelict. There were 8 layers of wall paper, it needed re plastering, and it was a nightmare.

I spent £30k on the renovations and DIY as much of it as possible and hunted for deals, cried over the stress of it all, lived in a building site for 3 of the years, and now its still a bit shabby and needs polishing. it has my dream kitchen and shower and every product such as over is of the highest quality. The value of the home has gone up only £20k which is annoying. It feels a little wasteful. I don't want to make the same mistake again.

Well we are selling and will be buying a three bed flat we can have our first child in. The flat has a good enough kitchen and bathroom, but all the carpets are stained, wall paper textured.

Im going to replace the carpets.

I just dread the thought at having to strip the wall paper again, seeing it needs plastering, bringing in a plasterer and painter. It will take away all my savings.

Could I get away with just a painter painting over the textured wall paper? I foresee myself in this flat for the next 5 years only. What would you do?

I'd paint it and see how it looked and put off making a decision until later.

it would need to need to be done before we move in so im worried about making the wrong decision as its much harder with furniture

I couldn't live with it being textured so would need to strip it all off, but I'm probably in the minority @smellybarnarnars!

We once bought a four bed house that was full of amazing original features, but where the previous owners had covered every surface (including internal cupboard shelves, top and bottom as well as between ceiling beams!) with woodchip wallpaper. Took forever to strip everything, but it was soooo worth it, although most rooms needed re-skimming afterwards. Fortunately DH can plaster 😉

Actually, we completed a week before Christmas and gave the living room a quick coat of emulsion to make it more 'ours' than the magnolia we inherited. I foolishly thought it would look OK and spent a small fortune on F&B estate emulsion, only to realise it looked shit and would have to be redone in the new year.

I find textured wallpaper easier to remove than flat. You can often pull off the top textured layer really easily then use a steamer on the underlayer which comes off with little effort.

I've also painted over it no problem at all.

No, it wouldn't put me off buying a property, as I look at the bones of a property, not the decoration.

I'm not sure how you have managed to spend £30k on a 2 bed flat though.
Perhaps a lesson for you that putting in my dream kitchen and shower and every product such as over is of the highest quality. when you are never going to get that back.

Like pp, I would get new flooring down and move in.
You can gradually replace it as and when you have time, or go for a 'paint over' if you prefer, but wallpapering isn't a major job.

In our current house we had to replaster quite a few walls as we decorated, over time, it really isn't that big a deal.

Clad the walls in plywood?
pin.it/WOhNwau3h

Walls dont always need replasstering, part of the issue is people use steamers which damage the wall

Wouldnt put me off, but then I wouldnt rush to redecorate either, I dont understand people that rush to get it all done as if they're going to die if they have to live with a bit of a shitty bathroom for a while. As long as its livable and functional then it may take time.

I have no idea whats under the wall paper but it's thick and my guess is layers of wall paper (very similar flat to the one I have got) I do think it will need skimming at least.

I would rush to get it done because we will have an overlap of about 2 months with no furniture. it's so hard to decorate a house with all the furniture in it when you live there too, especially when rooms are small

Most people dont have that luxury though. Yes, it is a bit harder but the vast majority of people live in their houses while they decorate. Most dont have even another room to decant everything to. You just work round it.

I’d paint over it. I’d be delighted if it was anaglypta

Most people paint with furniture including decorators, move everything to the middle of the room,cover with sheets and paint.

Oh lovely, you should see my house, we have textured walls and ceilings. More than half is asbestos too. No it didn't put us off.

Id rather have textured wallpaper than painted textured wallpaper.

But given you've got 2 months, id strip it off.

Do you really need to remove it? I’ve done a few house renovations and have had a few that have had it in the hallways and I’ve just painted over them.

Unless you go massively overboard it wouldn’t cost more than £5k to strip the walls, replaster, paint and replace the carpets for a 3 bed flat. So no, it wouldn’t put me off.

@Giraffeandthedog it cost me £5k just for the plastering of my 2 bed flat without the stripping and the painting.

The rooms in this flat are very small so not easy to paint around furniture

The wallpaper is the wood chip, bark effect, one room looks like a fan

No, it's not a big deal.

Could you use lining paper instead of plastering over to save some money? We had textured wallpaper on the ceilings and a decorator recommended doing this. I wasn't sure initially but it looks fine when finished.

5k!!!!

As if

I’ve only been doing it for 25 years across 20+ properties. What would I know 😅

What difference does that make? Unless you've got a mate in the trade not giving full qhotes, you wont get that work done for 5k. Unless you're in some very veyr very cheap part of the country with tradesmen desperate for work.

Replacing it with liner paper is what I’d suggest too. If you know you’re only going to be there a few years I certainly wouldn’t be spending a fortune trying to get it ‘perfect’.

I’d look for a house rather than a flat of children are on your agenda.

so would I but would need about £600k more to buy a small house in my area and I prioritise a nice location over having a flat @Tortephant

It really depends on the textured wallpaper.
Our house has textured paper on the landing and stairs in a woven basket pattern, not what I would choose but painted white it's fine.
We put textured paper in our bedroom, I wanted something with a 60s vibe, so we chose a wavy pattern and painted it white, this was 12 years ago, still looks great.
My last house was Victorian and had Victorian style textured paper in the hallway, I painted it a pale yellow and really liked it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that textured paper can easily be painted - you may need to prime first depending on the previous finish. If you like the texture and can live with it painted then don't strip it.
If you can't live with the pattern, strip it and risk needing to re-plaster.