Hi,
We are redoing our bathroom. In removing the wallpaper (which is coming off so easily my husband wondered if it was contact paper) we found that the drywall must have gotten wet at some time because there are “bubbles” in the surface of the paper covering (bubbles as in sections of the drywall paper covering stand up away from the rest of the paper). Some of these were visableb behind wall paper but we had thought they were the result of shoddy workmanship (there are 1/4″ strips of bare wall between each sheet of wallpaper on the wall). There appears to never have been a paint job, just primer under the wallpaper. My question is, does the drywall need to be replaced? It is going to be painted.
Thanks
Lisa
Replies
sounds like water damage to me. take a sharp knife and cut into the bubbles to see what's behind the paper. if you don't want to redrywall you can cut out the damaged area of paper then carefully re-plaster. I would recommend replacing the drywall with the green drywall (specifically designed for bathrooms. it has wax in the paper to keep water away from the core).
are the bubbles on the walls as well as on the ceiling, or mostly on the ceiling? does the bathroom have a fan? does the fan actually work? is the drywall 'spongy' to the touch?
We realized that this must have been an ongoing problem, because it looks like it's been patched before. We've repaired the roof and replaced the flanges around the vent. It's not wet anymore, but we've decided to replace and get the green board.
Thanks
Lisa
EMPATHY44-- one way to deal with the problem is to cut out the bubbles with a utility knife, seal the gypsum core with some BIN spray, spackle them smooth, and re-prime the walls I do this on a regular basis, and it works very well. On larger areas I sometimes use some heavy typing paper ( or paper grocery bags )as a spackling tape . Just be careful about bedding the paper, since its more delicate than regular tape.