ᐅ Better to avoid wallpaper when moving in for the first time?

Tolentino schrieb:

Cool, thanks!
It really looks better now. And here comes the key question: How much did it cost (Euro/effort)?

The wall surfaces of 120m2 (1300 sq ft) of living space were worked on, with the added challenge of an open gallery.

I’d say... 2 guys..., and a total of 100 man-hours at 22€ per hour...

Plus several buckets of filler, primer, and paint...
So you can roughly estimate from that...

Bookstar schrieb:

Thanks! Overall it looks really good, though not perfect. But that’s acceptable. The result can also be achieved easily with one coat of plaster without sanding, at Q2 level. For that, you do need a skilled tradesman.

I think it depends on the existing substrate as well. If there are extreme waves or unevenness like we had, one filling coat won’t be enough, in my opinion.
But I don’t want to state that as a certainty.

The guys did a good job. The price was fair, so I’m more than satisfied.
If I had paid much more, they might have needed to do 1-2 touch-ups...

I should also mention that the workers used LED spotlights to hold up against the wall and worked precisely.
I even checked it myself and said it was fine.
After I installed the wall lamps in the living room, I noticed some very small spots. That showed me how differently the lighting can highlight surface details...

The next level would be to apply fine painter’s fleece over the surface... But we like it as it is, and we had enough of the mess...

It’s an absolute nightmare when you’re already living in the house. No matter how well you tape everything off...

Next time, I’ll definitely stay in a hotel for those two weeks.

We are among the few who actually wallpapered.

I’m attaching a few pictures. The surface was directly primed over Q2 and then wallpapered. In some spots, the painter sanded a bit.
It’s not perfect. It’s not perfectly sanded, not perfectly smooth, not perfectly painted, not perfectly wallpapered.
However, we didn’t care so much that the walls be completely smooth. We have a toddler and quite honestly, we were too cheap to spend a five-figure sum on wall finishes right now.
In five years, once the house is dry and everything has settled, we can always renovate and make it “more perfect” if it becomes more important to us or bothers us by then.
At the moment, I’m quite happy with it. Already during the move, the stairwell and one or two walls got a few small scratches. I would have been four times more frustrated if it had cost four times as much.

Attached are a few pictures. By the way, they show quite clearly what it looks like when a somewhat smoother wallpaper is applied over a not entirely smooth Q2 wall, and why that is not an option for perfectionists.


Hallway under the stairs

Wallpaper with wide stripes. Hard to see from a distance in the photos. It’s used like this upstairs in the gallery and downstairs in the hallway—basically throughout the stairwell.

Office. Cable knit pattern painted in gray-blue.

Living room. Very delicate vertical stripes, barely visible in the photos.

Storage room: Here you can see what happens when you put smooth wallpaper over Q2. I assume the painter didn’t do much extra sanding here either. It’s also cramped in this small closet.
We don’t mind because it’s a storage room, and a shelf will be placed in front later.

Children’s room, slightly textured and gray-green.

Bedroom, same cable knit pattern as the office, light gray-brown. Light from the window.

Ceiling in the bedroom – admittedly it looks pretty bad. The ceilings overall didn’t turn out great with our method. We don’t really mind since we don’t constantly look at the ceiling. Only in the bedroom is it a bit annoying.

These aren’t classic textured wall coverings, but they look neat and you like them, or they fit your lifestyle; that’s what really matters. It’s important that each person chooses what they truly like, and if that happens to be a textured wall covering, that’s perfectly fine, even if I can’t imagine it for myself.

pagoni2020 schrieb:

These aren’t traditional textured wallpaper patterns, and they actually look quite neat. As long as you like it and it fits your lifestyle, that’s what matters. It’s important that everyone chooses what they truly like, and if that’s textured wallpaper, that’s just as fine—even if I can’t personally imagine it for myself.

I’m also tired of textured wallpaper. I’ve lived in rental apartments and houses for a long time, where textured wallpaper is usually on the walls. We used non-woven wallpaper, which comes in countless different designs. But you have to be careful—sometimes we picked ones with a thinner coating that weren’t great. That, combined with Q2 plaster, caused some bumps or lumps in places.
Overall, we built in a rural style: rough brickwork, casement windows with muntins, gables. I find that a modern, smooth plaster finish inside wouldn’t really suit that style.

I wouldn’t spend that much money on plastering. I was actually able to do it myself on the first day after some instruction, just finishing it off with the drywall sander later. But the painter probably appreciates perfectionism and a comfortably open wallet.

Reinhard84.2 schrieb:

I wouldn’t spend that much money on plastering. After some basic instructions, I basically managed it on my own the first day, then just went over it with the drywall sander (referred to as a “giraffe”) and that was it. But the painter surely appreciates perfectionism and a relaxed budget

It’s really a matter of time and skill…