ᐅ Fiberglass Mesh Wallpaper: Can It Be Covered with Roll-on Plaster? Using Roll-on Plaster in General?

Initial situation: We have covered the entire living room with fiberglass wallpaper from Poco Market, which has a yellowish paint finish. This was done by the previous owner of the house. When all their furniture was removed, noticeable wear and some damage on the walls became visible.

We want to change the room’s color scheme as well. A craftsman recently visited and explained the following points:

1. Generally, the safest approach is to remove the old wallpaper before applying a new one. However, with fiberglass wallpaper, which is specially glued, and given the size of the room, this is an enormous effort. If we don’t want to do it ourselves, just the removal alone will be very costly due to the time involved.

2. We could perform a test: press a damp sponge several times against inconspicuous spots on the wall. If no bubbles appear, it’s very likely that new wallpaper or textured paint can be applied without problems.

3. An alternative to wallpapering is using textured paint. This could also level out irregularities of up to 2 mm (0.08 inches), and the structure of the fiberglass wallpaper would no longer be visible.

4. Simply painting over such a cheap wallpaper, which is obviously yellowish, probably won’t provide a satisfactory result, especially considering some structural damage.

We have seen pictures of textured paint, and it looks great—if done properly, I guess. According to the craftsman, applying textured paint is not much more difficult than regular painting. Do you have any experience with this?

Also, what about wallpaper over fiberglass or generally wallpaper over wallpaper? Some people report finding up to five layers of wallpaper in old houses.

I don’t understand the contractor. Fiber cement siding should be easy to repaint. Go ahead and try it. Buy good quality, high-opacity paint.

And you don’t think textured plaster is a good option?

The fiberglass mesh is 23 years old, and it was probably the cheapest option they could find.

Fiberglass is fiberglass, whether cheap or expensive. I have never painted on roll-on plaster. Don’t know. It might be good, but I’m not sure. What the craftsman is right about: fiberglass is glued with dispersion adhesive, not with paste. Removing it is tedious. Karsten

I have no idea what possible differences there might be in quality, but: We left this particular glass fiber in the bedroom and painted over it with Alpina. We’re certainly not painting experts, but overall, the result wasn’t 100% convincing. In some areas, it didn’t turn out truly white, and the texture of the glass fiber no longer looks as uniform...

That was basically the starting point for considering the use of this rolled plaster.

I have no experience with fiberglass, but I have plenty of experience with textured roller plaster. I have applied it extensively inside the house. In some cases, I applied a thin layer on drywall ceilings, while in other areas, such as bathroom walls, I rolled on a fairly thick layer over new plaster (applying thick paint to the corners first with a brush, then rolling the walls). In the kitchen, I used a brush to apply the textured roller plaster in a random wiping technique, essentially as a decorative top coat. However, I have not used textured roller plaster on wallpaper before. We used OBI Multiputz in fine or extra-fine grain. In any case, this product helps to hide small surface imperfections. When applied thickly and/or with specific techniques, it can even cover relatively significant unevenness—this was the reason for the wiping technique in the kitchen. For particularly uneven areas, I roughly skim-coated the old plaster first, then applied a thick layer of the textured roller plaster using the wiping technique. Many products can also be premixed with the desired color. Personally, I did not find it difficult.