Can we talk about the big debate on painting over wallpaper?

I was at a hardware store last Saturday and overheard two guys arguing about painting over old wallpaper instead of removing it. One guy swore it saved him 20 hours on a 12x12 bedroom. The other said he tried it and the seams showed through after 6 months. I've always been team tear it down because paint just hides problems for a while. But now I'm wondering if I've been wasting my weekends with steamers and scrapers. Has anyone here painted over wallpaper and had it hold up for more than a year or two?

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faith_schmidt3mo ago

Honestly nobody's talking about the humidity factor. I painted over wallpaper in a dry central room and it's been fine for three years, but did the same thing in a bathroom and the paper buckled within months because moisture got behind the paint. The guy at the hardware store probably wasn't asking about where the room was in the house or what kind of wallpaper adhesive was used back in the 80s. That old wheat paste stuff reacts totally different than the modern vinyl stuff under layers of latex paint. So it's not just about if you can paint over it, but where and what you're painting over.

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nathan_thompson623mo ago

Painted over wallpaper in my old kitchen two years ago. Did the prep work right with primer and all that but yeah, the seams started peeling up around month eight. Looked decent for a while but now I'm kicking myself for not just ripping it down first time.

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