Looking for anyone who has actual practical experience (that what you did actually worked well) in covering vinyl wrapped sheetrock walls used in modular homes. It's like a slightly textured vinyl wallpaper that is on 3/8" sheetrock panels on the walls and there are visible seams every 4'

What I'm wondering is this: How can I paint it?

This is a side room, not much public view area, and I'm willing to take a shot at DIY.

This is my plan: fix any loose nails, prime with a non-porous surface primer, apply a non-woven wall liner or bridging material and fill in joints of wall liner w/ joint compound and paint. Will this work? Will the primer adhere well enough to the vinyl to hold the wall liner? Or could the vinyl actually peel off the sheetrock if the primer or the wall liner adhesive loosens the vinyl adhesive? I've chosen non-woven wall liner to bridge the seams of the vinyl wrapped sheetrock, to avoid having to tape and joint compound those, no knowing if joint compound will adhere to the vinyl.

Also, do I need to remove/replace the door and window trim at all, or does wall liner easily fit inside the trim (I've never actually wall papered anything before, but I am assuming that if you wall paper you don't remove trim and put the paper underenath the trim do you? Is it same for wall liner or is the thickness different?) I haven't purchased any product yet, just doing research to make my plan. I am also not planning to cover the ceiling with anything nor paint it, nor is there cornice trim there. It is textured drywall ceiling.

I'd really rather not have to re drywall everything.

If you answer, please try to cover as many points as possible. THANKS!

The best thing to do would be to use wallpaper borders near the ceiling to give it a different look. Trying to paint the vinyl will prove to be a nightmare, believe me. You can try and to this but I don't recommend it. You could also try wallpapering the wallboard (that's the correct word) using good wallpaper paste. They have paste that is vinyl to vinyl. I have used this product and found it reliable for the vinyl on vinyl applications. Do not suggest doing anything like re-drywalling unless you know what you're doing. Even some of the workmen we hire to work on the modular homes we sell with the drywall in it have problems replacing the drywall when it cracks during shipping. I work for a dealer/installer of modular/manufactured homes in Ohio so I would know the ins and outs of this wallboard you are asking about.

My sister and I actually painted her walls in her mobile home with craft paints mixed with glaze. We took scrunched up plastics bags and dabbed at the wet areas to give a textured effect doing 3'x3' sections at a time. It turned out great!

You may not need an answer this late in the game, but we also tackled our ugly wall board. We ripped of the seam covers and filled them in with spackle, then sanded. If you have an eletric sander, it doesn't hurt to run it lightly over the whole wall, it will degloss the vinyl so the primer sticks. We primed with really good primer, Kilz seams to be the thickest. Then painted. Don't use a semi gloss or gloss though. It shows every imperfection. An eggshell or flat is best if you've don't a lot of touch up work.

We've redone almost every room in our place and had great success washing the walls with vinegar/hot water solution, taped floated & textured and then primed, spackled and painted them. All has worked very well, except for a couple areas where the paper has delaminated near the floor. Must be due to years of mopping. After painting, we installed new colonial trim and it looks like a new place. Sure beats looking at that cheesy wallpaper. Good luck.

I'm not sure if this link will work, but lookie what I found. I've read all about this product after I sent an inquiry to the company as I was researching stuff on-line and it seems like it'll work, along with patching compund in my seams, I am anxious to get started with this and will let you all know the results.: Benjamin Moore Fresh Start® All Purpose 100% Acrylic Primer 023

Yea! The link worked!

Try painting inside one of your closets with this stuff before painting your walls to make sure it adheres to the vinyl wallboard. You MAY have hit on a winner. Let me know how this turns out, OK?

What a GREAT advice!

I I've in a modular home and like you also have wallboard with vinyl covering and those stupid strips. I started in my kithcen... all I did was remove all strips and compund, sand, compound and sand, cleaned off dust and painted with Olympia interior paint, (not any shade of white), I bought textured rollers so whole wall would match. I have textured wallboard also. It LOOKS great, no primer or anything. NO chipping, peeling or cracks. I also did my dining room recently and have a friend whom does this professionally and he said it looks professionally done, he could have not done a better job. I am self tought compounder, never done it before in my life. My biggest problem is I have huge gaps between interior walls and exterior walls, but compund tape took care of that, just unable to get corners defined.

Hi I own brd wallsystems in green bay wi what you could do is take off the pieces that cover the joint fill it with drywall compound tape it and coat it 2 times then sand if you are looking for a smooth wall you could coat the whole wall and then sand or you could put a light texture over the whole wall alsothe drywall compound should stick to the board you have the primer should also stick to it also

Well, I got it done with the Benjamin Moore Fresh Start. This stuff is great. It adheres beautifully, even on the smooth vinyl door trims, in fact it can even paint over formica,according to the product info guy I spoke to . My texture is not rough, it's just an imprint in the vinyl wallpaper and I found that if I primed a seam with the primer I could then apply joint compund and feather to get rid of those wallboard seams and it adhered perfectly. . I taped one seam but a drywall guy who was doing other work in my house saw it and said I shouldn't have to tape other seams. He was right. I ended up painting 3 rooms and used Shielz wallpaper primer on top of BM Fresh Start Primer and put up 2 wall paper borders ar chair rail height. Kids rooms. One with horses, one with jeeps. Look fabulous. I kept the strips and painted them white because in one room I alternated walls with 3 different shades of blue paint and the white acted as a dividing point between wall colors. Don't be afraid of painting these vinyl wrapped sheetrock walls! I got rid of some hideous floral and got my kids' dream rooms.

I, too am a self-taught compounder as you say. Wanted to add, I'm not sure if the gaps you mention are what I had, but is it where the 2 boards meet in the corners? I actually filled the depth of those with that grey foam I think it's called rope caulk filler and then I caulked those seams instead of compound, as they seemed to have more movement and needed a more elastic joint