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?

It's your first child. Why do you have to buy a three bed right now?

I dont love the textured wall paper but can live with it. There is very old fashioned vintage wall paper in the bedroom that I love.

@NeverDropYourMooncup we want more space

At least your first place showed you how much things can cost and the folly of having the best of everything when you don't intend staying long.

I am guilty of putting up wood chip.
My first house was really rough but I knew it was only a stepping stone and I would not be stopping long so wood chip was used extensively to cover the uneven walls.
It did the job, I learnt a lot and the change was immense. Along with a rising market, it provided me with a decent profit.
What I didn't do was spend on top quality fixtures & fittings as I got a similar effect for a budget price.
Stayed 3yrs.

Second house was completely different.
Textured wallpaper was already in evidence but with the correct tools, was easy to remove leaving some good walls and no replastering was required (well, not until we remodelled later on).
Initially I didn't want to spend too much on the place as I only intended staying a couple of years so an MFI kitchen went in but later on, with marriage etc it proved to be a good house in a great location so everything was done to up the quality as we didn't mind spending the extra.
Stayed 31yrs.

Current house, everything is being done regardless of cost as this will be our last house. Money no object.

The baby doesn't need two additional bedrooms, though, and it's causing you stress just thinking about it at this point - if you're about to go onto Maternity Leave, you've got a few years of money being very tight, too, so the last thing you would need is to go through all of that again with a baby/toddler to work around.

Most people just paint over the textured stuff to tide them over until they're ready to go through the awful stripping, finding gloss paint, black paint, big chunks of wall missing, horrendous black mould and the like - or at least that was what was underneath the stuff in the flat I moved into. The most irritating thing about the fan room was that paint doesn't go into the dips with a standard roller, so you end up spending ages going over it, even with a squishy one. But it was still better than what turned out to be underneath it.

thank you for the feedback

Yes if I thought I could have a baby here I would. The living room is a living dining room thats big enough for a 2 seat sofa and 4 seater table, and nothing else. It's already too cramped. The second bedroom is a single used as an office. We both work from home. The bedroom isnt big enough to put a cot in it. The bathroom has no bath and no room for one, and the kitchen is tiny. just so so small. This new flat has a bath, extra bedroom, and huge living room, just gives us that space. Really we need a 4 bed so we can each have an office but its not affordable

Yes paint over it

we have it here and was on the walls when we bought house in the 90s

Im putting this up in my hall & stairs - sick to death of flat painted walls.

I would not buy a house with textured wallpaper, especially if it has been painted.

Most textured wall paper is porous and when you paint it, with a water based wall paint you are adding in mositure to the paper and the glue. As the paint dries on the outside, moisture gets trapped inside the fibres of the wallpaper and the glue. Then any mold spore trapped behind will have water plus the food of wallpaper glue and start growing behind the wall paper, as it matures, it will chew on the cellulose of the wallpaper, spread onto and into any wood studs, get behind your baseboards, under & in your carpet.

That’s really not true. Mould needs persistent damp. Wallpaper and paint are not waterproof, so any moisture introduced from the paint would evaporate pretty quickly.

We've been in our house for almost 30 years and still have one room with woodchip. It just hasn't been a priority, and we don't need anything to be 'perfect'.