Can I paint the wall after stripping wallpaper?

If I strip my wallpaper, can I paint directly onto the wall?

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This is an interesting question. The answer depends on a number of things:

• Was the gib originally sealed with a pigmented sealer prior to hanging the paper?
• Is the era of the house pre 1970 where the butt joining of wallboards was common.
• If walls had been completely sealed with a pigmented sealer, stripping is simple, and painting the walls should be fine, especially if the joins have been paper taped.
• Alas, that was not common practice pre 1970 and it is unlikely you can paint without relining the walls with a lining paper or retaping the joins and plastering to a level 5 finish.

Throughout New Zealand, the interior of older houses, pre 1970 were generally papered. This is because the gib was butt joined and they were plastered to a low level when the house was built.

Usually, if you have old wallpaper, the walls are not good enough to paint onto directly.

So, you must be extra careful when dealing with older homes. There is a high risk that the joins will crack with general house movement or earthquakes unless they are paper lined or paper taped and plastered to a level 5 finish.