Things Ottawa Buyers May Notice #19 - Wallpaper Borders

Posted on November 17, 2008 
Filed Under Buying Your New Home, Listing and Selling Your Home, Valerie Zinger

As I go out with Buyers looking at houses and host Open Houses on Sundays, there are things buyers seem to repeatedly notice.  This series looks at the good and the not-so-good things that buyers have noticed.

Wallpaper Borders

 There are many rooms in Ottawa with wallpaper borders.  These were very popular in the 70s and 80s but have lost their charm over the decades.  The one exception may be in a baby’s room when you know that the border is only temporary. 

Buyers see borders and think that there will be many many hours of intensive labour needed to remove the border, patch the damage and repaint the room(s).  If you are wanting to decrease the time it will take to sell your house, remove the border(s), repair the walls and freshen the paint.

One of my favourite TV shows is called Designed to Sell  (okay, I am awake at 6:00AM in order to see the show but…..).  In a recent episode the kitchen wallpaper border was a “must remove”.  The designer said there are four “S’s” to border removal:  Score - Soak - Sit - Scrape.  Score the paper with the small scoring tool, soak the paper with a spray bottle of hot water mixed with laundry softener - sit and wait a few minutes until the soaking has taken place and then - scrape off the paper.  Sometimes the thick paper is vinyl coated.  It will tear off easily leaving the backing on the wall.  If this happens, it is a blessing.  The paper backing is often very easy to scrape off once it is soaked.   Sounds like work?  Yes it is but it will instantly bring your house a couple of decades forward.

To paraphrase the name of my favourite charity…  Have  

La Maison sans Frontiere

Photo credit:  wallpaper removal….in progress @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tapps/2723330247/

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One Response to “Things Ottawa Buyers May Notice #19 - Wallpaper Borders”

  1. coated paper | Digg hot tags on November 17th, 2008 5:10 pm

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