bubble in wallpaper?

[DrGonzo]

Thinking about repainting a room but it has previously had wallpaper and the previous owner just painted straight over it. There are some bubbles in places but I'm not sure whether it's damp, bad plastering, or the paint. The bubbles seem pretty hard so if it was just air it would have "popped".
Any ideas what to do? I can't strip the wallpaper as the landlord doesn't want the room redone completely so we are just going to recover with a fresh layer of paint.

 

[oldgreymouse]

Sorry DrGonzo but if you can not strip off the wallpaper, the bubbles will have to stay.

First off, when the original paper was put on, the person who did it did not remove all the air bubbles. The chances of this happening are increased if the walls are not sized first.

At a later date the paper was painted over and all the bubbles would have shown up, but as the person who did it had not removed the original wallpaper, they were most likely not bothered and just left it.

What may happen, is that when you paint it again, more bubbles will show up as the paper is wetted yet again, but these should go down to what you have now when the paint has dried. Good luck!!

 

[DrGonzo]

Sorry DrGonzo but if you can not strip off the wallpaper, the bubbles will have to stay.

First off, when the original paper was put on, the person who did it did not remove all the air bubbles. The chances of this happening are increased if the walls are not sized first.

At a later date the paper was painted over and all the bubbles would have shown up, but as the person who did it had not removed the original wallpaper, they were most likely not bothered and just left it.

What may happen, is that when you paint it again, more bubbles will show up as the paper is wetted yet again, but these should go down to what you have now when the paint has dried. Good luck!!

OOI, why are the bubbles rock hard instead of being able to be pressed in?

 

[joe-90]

They are bits of plaster. Cut them out with a stanley knife and fill where they've been.

 

[oldgreymouse]

The air bubbles usually have nothing inside, they just go rock hard after a couple of coats of paint.

You could try cutting them out which is ok if it's just few here and there, but if the person papering was getting bubbles, then it is likely that there may be quite a few !

If its a rental property then you may just have to put up with it if the owner does not want a better job, perhaps they were the ones who did the job in the first place.