Please help with peeling paint

[bcccboy]

My wife, my 10 month old son and I currently live in an older house where we rent. We have noticed areas of peeling/cracking paint on the walls and ceiling as well as an area of peeling/cracking plaster that resulted from a roof leak (we live on the 2nd floor of a 2 story house) – the leak has been fixed, but not the plaster. Because we rent and don’t plan to be there long term and fixing the walls might require more hassle for us since we’ll probably have to evacuate our son, is there a quick and temporary fix that we can do ourselves (ie use special wallpaper?) to cover critical areas? We are mainly concerned with protecting our son and just want something temporary. I am not super-handy, but am not incompetent, so maybe there is something I can do myself? We currently just put clear packing tape over areas of peeling paint.

Thank you!

[HayZee518]

the paint is peeling because of some form of moisture underneath it. poor wall/ceiling prep, incompatible paints, primers is the root cause of it. a wallpaper covering is just looking for more trouble. have your landlord fix it the correct way and he'll save himself and you a headache.

[bcccboy]

Well, I am looking for something to cover only the immediate areas for a temporary fix. I feel like asking the landlord to fix the root of the problem will cause us more hassle right now - in the long run, it would be better, but we probably won't be staying there until that time.

Thanks,

P.

[tudor]

Maybe you could try some peelable wallpaper, available at the big-box home stores. A roll or 2 probably would not be that much. Some of it is self-adhesive, so you don't have to put paste on it yourself. The peelable stuff has the advantage that you can just pull it off if you don't like it (or your landlord wants it off later). It also comes in vinyl instead of just paper, so may hold up better if there's moisture.

[bcccboy]

Hi,

Can you tell me if there is a difference between contact paper (used for shelving, book covers, etc) and vinyl wallpaper? I went to a local hardware store and when I asked for self adhesive vinyl wallpaper they pointed me to contact paper.

Thanks,

P.

[paintutah]

just let the peeling dry out,prime with kilz, patch w/fix all, and touch up paint. A wallcovering will peel id there is any moisture still in the damaged area

[tudor]

In answer to question about contact paper: I think the vinyl "wallpaper" is a lot thicker. Home Depot and Lowe's both have it that I know of.

Also want to look up Fix All--sounds like good stuff, but I'm not familiar with it.

[paintutah]

fix all is a powder you mix yourself, buy at lowes ect. It is like drywall mud but drys alot faster and is used on smaller fixes