Advice on redoing walls in kitchen

So...the wife and I are planning our kitchen renovation. Most of it is pretty straightforward....except for how to handle the walls. Below is a quick rundown of what's been done to the walls in the past:

- wallpapered (possibly attached with Liquid Nails - unsure @ this point)
- then painted over
- THEN sprayed with knockdown

(Yes, I'm serious....no, I'm not kidding.)

With at least one of the walls in the kitchen, I have a crapload of 1" x 6" stock of cedar; and am planning a possible 'feature wall' by resawing them with a bandsaw. However, that leaves at least one other wall, plus the backsplash.

I *believe* that if the wallpaper is attached well (in other words, damn near impossible to get off), it'd be OK to install a backsplash over, or the like...but if at ALL possible I'd love to remove the damn stuff. I'm also willing to have the kitchen re-sheetrocked if necessary, but would rather not, as that's an obvious extra expense.

So....thoughts on how to handle the wallpaper? Is it possible to install backsplash over, or to (semi-easily) uninstall? Or should I just bite the bullet and plan to re-sheetrock the whole damn thing?

 

Re-sheetrock.

It will be cleaner, stronger, and you'll be able to see what's going on behind (needs insulation, crappy wiring from previous owners, human sacrifice, etc.)

The wallpaper was NOT adhere with liquid nails. That stuff does not smooth enough to adhere something like wallpaper. It was likely some degree of paste, that may be stronger than glue, or may get super weak. You COULD test this by using a heat gun on it to see if it softens/scrapes off, or test with with a spray bottle. Soak the area, give it a few minutes, and scrape.

The big risk is that the tile thinset adds moisture to the wallpaper, which weakens it significantly, and then succumbs to the weight of the tile (however slight)... and begins to sag. Tile, like all things, does not look good when sagging. This is buy once, cry once, in action.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

I can/will try this. BTW...I say that it may have been adhered with Liquid Nails because elsewhere in the house, wallpaper (which is pretty thick) *WAS* adhered with Liquid Nails elsewhere in the house, believe it or not; as well as some wood paneling. The previous owners of the house did some REALLY stupid stuff. Our living room had that knockdown stuff applied simply because @ the time, we could not afford new sheetrock, and the ONLY way to hide some of the gouges caused by removing the wood paneling and then the Liquid Nails attaching it was to fill in the big holes and then cover the imperfections with knockdown.

Yep, you're right, unfortunately. *le sigh* And actually, now that I think about it....I'll only be re-sheetrocking about 1-1/2 walls, as I'm dead sure the walls were *NOT* wallpapered where the cabinets are hung, of course.....so that will cut down on the cost significantly.

 

I can see paneling, and a lot of people now glue drywall and screw it - especially in tract homes. But after quite a few years in the industry, I'm not quite sure how on earth anyone could get liquid nails flat or smooth enough to adhere wallpaper.

 

You can use a thin, 1/4" backer like Hardy for the backsplash. But at the edges the tile will be 1/4" + from the wall and will require special radius tiles, can't remember what they're called, not bullnose. As mentioned, re-rocking offers the opportunity to add insulation and make adjustments to wiring/plumbing if desired. To actually remove the old wall paper is probably more time and labor intensive than re-rocking but it can usually be done by getting it and keeping it moist.

 

Neither can I, but it was. The guy who applied the knockdown and did other sheetrocking work later on in our house didn't believe me either until I had him look for himself.

 

I thought about that too - I thought that required thinset to install, though? Or is it able to be screwed in? If so...that might be worth a shot.

I thought about installing the wallpaper, but even assuming it's installed with glue, there's paint *and* knockdown on top of the wallpaper, so considering time = money, I'm probably not exactly money ahead to try to do so, I'm thinking.

 

No thinset for installing backer. I just use long roofing nails.

 

Huh, OK; ya learn something every day. I did not realize that, but if I choose to go that route, that makes it tons easier. Every little bit helps - thanks!

 

If you plan on staying in this house for a while AND can afford it, I say re-sheetrock it. That way you'll always know what exactly is behind and in front of it. Peace of mind every time you look at your kitchen.

My last house was gutted and redone. Well worth it going the extra step and starting fresh.

 

Yeah thanks, or 1/4 round.

 

re-sheetrock. make sure its square and level. My walls were all plaster from the 50's and the cabinets had been built to the wall specs when the house was built. I did it all myself minus the countertops.

 

Or you can go with Schluter trim..

 

If you don't mind my asking, how long did it take you? I'm not at all opposed to doing some of the work myself (though I'll likely have the mudding and cabinet hanging done by a friend, or with a friend), but being as I've never done a full kitchen renovation on my own, the last thing I want to do is tear everything down on my own without a clear plan and an idea of how long it'd take.

 

I had never done one before either, and it wasn't all that daunting. I'm not quite sure how long it took start to finish, as I worked on it part time when I could (spread over quite a few months) Depending on how much time you devote to it/size/complexity etc. Moving gas lines, water lines, drainage, adding electrical, etc all adds time of course. I'd at least give it 2 months for a DIY project.

 

Looks good

 

Definitely go with Schluter trim.

Someone said you can just apply backer with roofing nails - please god don't do this. They make special screws for this application (rockon or rockeron). There's a lot of people who "did it this way for years and never had a problem," but that should not be done in 2021. It is okay (at best) when doing it for floors, because you're using thinset as the main adhesive, and you better be using hot dipped ring shanks not just cheap "roofing nails." For walls, it should be screws due to the higher holding power, corrosion resistance, and limited risk of whacking right through your CBU while hammering -- it is only 1/4 after all. Also,

Most CBU's have screws designed to hold the board properly. It's probably $5 more to go with screws than cheap nails. Cheap peace of mind.

Also 1/4 is often not recommended for walls - only floors. You can get in the rabbit hole debating more strength coming from the existing drywall, but in order to rely on that you would need to thinset them together to become one unit.

 

+1 on the screws.....

https://www.lowes.com/search?searchTerm=cement+board+screws

 

I am not really recommending this but I have also seen people just add 1/4" or 3/8" Drywall right over the existing offending walls and act as if it was supposed to go that way!

Certainly a time and money saver at least in the short term but I also can not really think of any that did this and regretted it so there is that.

At least you get a fresh surface to finish anew.

 

I actually hadn't thought about that....and at least for part of the kitchen, not only would it resolve the issue, it wouldn't really take up any less space. It would also save one hell of a lot of time. I'll have to consider this.

 

So, stupid question - how would/does one do this while still having a semi functional kitchen? LOL Obviously we can't be without one. I'm guessing that aside from tearing down/reinstalling the cabinetry (which would almost have to happen within a few days), the vast majority of the other stuff can be done while not disturbing the rest of the kitchen.

In our case, aside from the aforementioned ridiculous Sheetrock fiasco, we're essentially just tearing down the old cabinetry/countertops and installing newer/better/working stuff. (In other words, it's not a complete reinvention of our kitchen layout; it's a simple renovation of the cabinetry/countertops, while fixing some issues in between.)

 

We didn't have a dishwasher before, so that wasn't missing, and we have a laundry room next to the kitchen with a utility sink we could wash dishes in. I did one wall at a time, as far as drywall, and cabinet install. Once the lower cabinets were in, I put down 3/4" laminated wood to act as a sort of countertop for the time being. Also, I grilled a lot.

edit to add... this all started when our oven died, so we were without that as well to begin with.

 

Ok gotcha. Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines - e.g., we've got another room that we can simply use a deep sink in to wash dishes; and we've got another fridge downstairs.

The other 'nice thing' is that all of our food storage is along one wall - since we have a pantry, we're able to have a few cabinets of food next to the fridge, and that's it. As such, we could conceivably tear down literally the entire kitchen except for the two smallest walls and finish those; then have a buddy assist with the other 2 walls to get those knocked out in a few days.

 

I am working in one house right now where the Kitchen is gutted,actually the entire 1st floor is pretty much gutted and they also have a Bar in the Basement so they have set it up down there as a Kitchen and I swear it looks like a Holiday Inn Express Breakfast Area!
Pretty amusing.

 

Dude, you're talking about 16"-18" of tile, not a full shower wall or heavy stone or something like that. No need to get crazy, KISS principle. BTW I have 40 yrs in the trades in earthquake prone Cali.

 

...tile backer requires thin-set.
can it be done... yes
will it be strong & last... no

 

Op- you can try soaking the wall paper and see if it peels. If that doesn't work kilz it and see if it bubbles. If does peel from there whatever you can. Once you get all the loose peeled then kilz again and you should be good to tile over or if leaving as sheetrock , float and go from there. Or like others said you can start new and just re sheetrock which imo is the best way to go but using the method I gave you can make it work too. Used this method in many remodels when I was in the trade.