Vinyl Coated Drywall in Mobile Homes

I have a 1995 Palm Harbor that has regular drywall in all the public spaces, but the vinyl covered wallboard in the bedrooms and bathrooms. I would like to say that I’ve had GREAT success texturizing and painting this stuff. So far, in one room, I simply applied two coats of regular latex primer, then two coats of a colored latex paint. You can still somewhat see the vinyl design through all four coats, but the paint is not coming off at all and it’s been two years already.

In another bedroom, I wanted to get rid of the vinyl”design” altogether, so I first applied a thick coat of masonry leveling “paint”. It made the wall look like regular drywall. I then painted normally. No pattern, the wall looks great. I also replaced that nasty, plastic, vinyl covered seam molding with regular lathe strips. Looks wonderful. Just thought I’d share.
LeAnne

{ 5 comments… read them below}
Ken
How do I know if wall is Vinyl coated or not my home is a 1999 Fleetwood
Paul
Regular drywall is covered with paper. On walls the paper may have a drywall mud coating. If there is a texture to the surface it means some mud thinned with water was sprayed on the wall. The surface is then primed and painted. Drywall mud is a cement like substance, so if you run your fingernail over that surface you will feel the hardness and roughness.

Vinyl coated drywall has had a thin layer of vinyl (plastic) bonded to the surface. Running your fingernail on it will feel soft and, depending on how hard your nails are, may leave a track where you pressed.

Or you can find a place in a closet where no one will see and use a sharp knife to make a little slit and then peel the surface back. The different feel of plastic vs paper/cement should be obvious.

Alice
Is there any way to remove the vinyl from the drywall so that the drywall could be painted.
Paul
Not without more or less destroying the surface. I would look for a good primer so you didn’t have to do that.