Papering over wallpaper?

[Bakingnovice]

Two separate decorators have advised us to paper over wallpaper already on the walls. I wasn't even aware this was possible. The first decorator said it so I got a second opinion and he said the same. They both stated that if the wallpaper currently on the walls is flat and not bubbly or coming away then it acts as lining paper (which most decorators use now apparently) and can be wallpapered over.

I'm still not sure. Was thinking of steaming the paper off but the decorators both advised that steaming wallpaper off in old houses can damage the plaster.

Has anyone papered over their wallpaper?

Yep, did it in DS room and about to do in mine. If existing paper is intact then leave it be, will be absolutely grand. Stripping is time consuming and messy (besides, you've no idea what state the walls are underneath)...

Thanks mum. Just never heard of it before really. My dad is aghast! He asked whether we were also going to carpet over the current carpet?!

Yeah, good paper over old plaster, just carry on. When I was a lad I used to do odd jobs for pocket money and one involved getting layers and layers of the stuff off - the top layer was some sort of manky blown vinyl textured stuff - and it was about 5mm thick and spanned ten decades of fashion in wallpaper.

I'm terrified that once I start stripping the walls are going to start crumbling.

We live in an old house. Every time we have stripped the wallpaper in a room we have ended up replastering or having it skimmed. That's fine once. We can just paint instead of paper. Often there were three or four layers of wallpaper and they were hiding a multitude of sins!

Only strip if you have to!

I wouldn't be happy papering over old paper. Can't you steam it all off and get it skimmed and paint? Paint is so much nicer than wallpaper but that is only my opinion of course.

I've heard the same – it acts like lining paper and if you're papering on top of that, absolutely fine.

We used a steamer for my MILs house – if you hold the steamer on the wall for a couple of seconds more than you should, it will damage the plaster. It is actually quite hard to use a stripper without any patches of spoiled plaster. I've always stripped just using warm water and a scraper (but have just done our lounge and it took about 4 days just to strips the walls and another day to do the ceiling). We had no choice as the wallpaper was blown vinyl, and our walls were probably good enough to line and then paper over. The ceiling was a different matter. There were some large cracks in it, the plasterer said the paper had probably been holding it all together. But, I prefer just a paint finish so we've had the walls and ceiling skimmed and it is lovely -even in its current bare plaster state.

oops menat hard to use a steamer

I just paper over. It goes on fine and flat when it's dried. Saves faff and all that.

Plus I'm Impatient.. I can wake up one morning with the urge.. go into town for paper and knock it up when I get home. Have to grab the moment sometimes

mandy is totally right about blown plaster! I'm wallpaper stripping this week with steamer and it has blown in several areas. I'm not bothered though as we want to replaster or simply skim to get a really mint finish.
I really dislike wallpaper though and I can't imagine ever choosing to have it. I also hate it when wall are lined and then painted?! I would much rather start with a great base (newly skimmed or completely replastered) and go from there, I'm a perfectionist though...