repairing cracked wallpaper over plaster

[mck6]

Hi all- this is my first post here. I have been scouring the web for information on how to repair cracked wallpaper that is over plaster and all I get is how to remove wallpaper from plaster. I would prefer not to have to do that! I want to paint a stairway hall in our 100 year old home.
Any solutions that do not require complete wallpaper removal-or do you recommend biting the bullet and getting rid of the paper? it has been painted over numerous times.
Thanks!

[pushkins]

Is it just the wallpaper that is cracked or is the plaster cracked as well? I ask that because it's unusual for wallpaper to crack, peel yes, lift yes, but just the paper cracking would be very odd.

If it's been painted over your task or removal is not an easy one, especially so if an oil primer or top coats have ever been used.

If you can peel the top layer off taking the paint with the top layer of paper, leaving the backing paper with the glue attached life will be easier as then all you will need is some water in a spray bottle and a good quality scrapper, wet down the paper leave it sit (you will start to see it lift ) then with the scrapper as flat against the wall as you can slide it under the wet paper, kinda like shearing a sheep..

Don't get suckered into those little wallpaper scouring tools that put little holes in the paper, they simply don't work and usually in frustration people tend to go harder and harder and damage the wall surface.

[Nestor]

Mck6:

I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that under each place where you find a crack in your wallpaper, you're going to find a crack in the plaster. Normally, plaster cracks when there is movement of the building, and that could be due to clay in the soil around and under your house, frost heave, or drought conditions causing the soil to shrink.

Take a look at some other walls in your house that aren't wallpapered over and see if you find any cracks in them.

If it wuz me, I would remove that wallpaper and repair the cracks in the plaster. You're in luck in that plaster handles heat very much better than drywall, and so you can remove the wallpaper by using a heat gun to soften the glue between the wallpaper and the plaster. (Or, at least, that would be my approach.)

Flooring installers will often have heat guns to both install and remove flooring materials. If you go to any retail carpet store and speak to their installations manager, I'd expect any one of the installers that work out of that store would agree to loan you an old heat gun just to try removing that wallpaper if you paid a $50 damage deposit on it, and maybe a $10 rental charge.

And, you'll need a sharp scraper that's highly resistant to heat. That is, you'll need a Nestor scraper, named after it's inventor, yours truly. Take a needle nose style pair of locking pliers and grip a single edge razor blade in the jaws and you have a Nestor scraper. It's highly resistant to heat and replacement blades are available everywhere. Also, you might want to dull the blade just a bit so that it doesn't gouge the plaster as much.

But, any gouges you make are quickly and easily filled with joint compound. And, I can advise you on how to do that kind of work as well cuz I've been repairing the plaster walls and ceilings in my building for over 25 years now.

[pushkins]

Heat will not soften wallpaper glue and to make matters worse if your not super careful too much heat will in fact lead to cracking of the plaster.
On top of that the walls are plaster installed 100 odd years ago, meaning they most likely were painted pre '78 at some point, meaning almost a 100% guarantee of lead based paint. The one thing you never want to use (and it's illegal under EPA rules) without masks and other safety precautions is heat.

[mck6]

Thanks for the replies.
Pushkins, I think I used the term cracked when I meant peeling. I have peeled some off and there are no cracks in the plaster- good news! The paper has been painted over a few times, only once since I've been here. The backing paper peels off with the paint. I really just wanted to paint over it , but fear it will just start lifting more and look really bad in the long run. Unfortunately, where it is not cracking, it seems stuck on pretty good. So total removal is my best option if I want it to look presentable- and I do.

Nestor- there is wallpaper or paneling over every plaster wall in this home, so I can't check for cracks without removing the paper.

Thanks for the tips- I am sure I will have more questions as I move into the task.

[Nestor]

Well I agree with the lead based paint point. That issue never crossed my mind when I posted about using a heat gun to soften the glue.

However, you won't crack plaster with a heat gun. I've had a TurboTorch burning MAAP gas impinging directly onto my plaster walls when plumbing pipes were set right against the wall, and nothing cracked.

I've also removed old dried mastic from the side walls of at least a dozen bathroom shower enclosures (after removing the plastic tiles first) by heating the mastic with a heat gun, and the plaster behind the mastic never cracked.

You might discolour the plaster, but I've gone through three heat guns removing old dried mastic from bathroom walls, and didn't crack any plaster in any of those bathrooms with the heat. And, I wasn't being careful, let alone "super careful". Lots of places on those plaster walls had 300 deg. F air blowing on them when my attention was momentarily drawn somewhere else.