painting bathroom walls

[ladyharley1]

Hi all, I need some advice

I bought some latex Kilz, spackle and latex semi gloss paint.

Everything seems pretty straight forward, except when I pull those sticks off that cover the seams in the wall and I noticed that they are uneven..the left side is higher than the right.

Do I just need to keep putting layers of spackle until it's even or is there a better way? I don't want to paint and then realize that it's uneven and it looks like crap...

Oh and a friend stated that I can take off the molding off under the ceiling and just use the spackle and then a layer of wallboard mud..but when I pried some of the molding there is a 1 1/2" strip under that seems to be attached to the wall. I don't want to remove it in case it's part of the structure..

Thanks in advance

[Harry]

Hi

I leave them "sticks" in place. Lots of folks want them gone.

I'd rather put the time and money into other MH projects.

JMHO

Harry

[ladyharley1]

thanks...too late I'm doing my best to have it not look like a mobile home..it's a '93 Fleetwood...pretty nice

[Harry]

Hi

The wall board mud would probably work better than the spackel.

Youtube has lots of tips. Her's one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2T3NvkQ ... re=related

Harry

[Yanita]

Hi and welcome to the site.

Those sticks are called battens.

As you know these battens cover where the 2 peices of wall board meet. I personally leave them in place for a couple of reasons...1, the wallboard typically has a slight texture to it, and sheetrock mud, caulking or any other filler comes out smooth and to me this shows more than a batten strip.

Secondly, our homes, especially if in cold regions have a tendency to shift with those season. When this happens about all fillers will crack. With the wallboards having these spaces between them it allows for better movement without damage. Nope, I don't relish the looks of them either, but there are decorative paint treatments that disquise them well.

Take a look through our Landscaping and Decorating forums, also note any threads that mention "battens" There are several pros and cons for either way...

Yanita

[ladyharley1]

maybe I need to mention I am doing this over the original wall that has that wallpaper connected. So I'm patching, then kilz and then paint unless there is something I'm doing incorrectly? I didn't think I had to "plaster" all the walls do I?

[Harry]

Hi

Here's a previous topic addressing the painting of battens.

Be sure to read Yanita's last post.

https://www.mobilehomerepair.com/phpbb/v ... ht=battens

Harry

[Yanita]

Hi,

The walls with attached vinyl type wallpaper is called wallboard. If you look real closely you will see that it does have a slight texture to it.

When you tape and mud you then need to sand it for a finished look. When the sanding is done and paint applied you will see the completely smooth area next to the textured wallboard.

The only way I know of to eliminate that is to skim coat every wall with sheetrock mud. You simply trowel it on and wipe clean with the trowel. It will fill in all the texture. Then you would need to sand very llightly. In our BOOKS/PARTS link there is a video that you can purchase that explains and shows the process.

I am going to move this topic to the Decorating/Landscaping forum as it is not repair related. Please follow over there.

Yanita

[Silver Bullet 00]

One year ago we decided to eliminate the strips in the bathroom by using plaster in the cracks and then applying wall paper. Looked good, but now we decided to paint the walls. Two coats of primer over the wallpaper and two finish coats of paint and now it looks as though it has colored wallpaper, most of the seams between the wallpaper have filled in and it looks great.

[markow05]

ladyharley1 - we also re-did our spare/hall bathroom about 6 months ago. I hate those battans/strips that come with our MH so I got rid of mine.

We removed the battans/strips so we filled them in, let dry and lightly sanded for a smooth finish. I then cleaned the walls of dust and started painting. Used a slightly darker color on the walls & ceiling. (we have the ever famous popcorn ceiling to which I can not stand) anyway I wanted to take the focal point away from the ceiling so I used the same color of paint on the ceiling as I used on the walls. I then took a plastic Wal-Mart bag and scrundged it up dipping it into a lighter color but the same color tone as the darker one.

Everyone that has seen our bathroom is shocked and wondered if we had actually drywalled the bathroom. It looks that good and best of all.....no battans/strips. The way I painted it and then 'textured' it, you can't tell there were seams.

Of course it was a personal choice of ours to remove those battans/strips.

[Yanita]

Hi,

Like I said there are faux paint treatments that disguise the seams.

Yanita