Painting walls

[Diane]

I have read several of the comments and inquiries, but our home is a modular home and the walls are not vinyl as most are talking about and needing help with, but they are a prefinished wallpaper. They are very thin covered gyproc, so over the years with children and life events, some have damage. I am wondering what type of repairs can be done to these walls, can they be painted? If so, what can I use to do the best job? These walls are in 4 foot widths with the same color slats between each one, can they be removed, the wall crackfilled and painted to avoid not having to put them back? I also have a question about the windows, over time the seals have leaked and there is condensation between them, can they be resealed, or is replacement our only option? Thanks for any help you can give.

[joedirt63]

i'm not an expert but i have done alot of work with walls ,sheet rock and painting ect, with my own m/h and my daughter's. not sure if i understand the type of panels you describe. i've seen sheet rock covered with a vinle type wall paper that's used in homes ,it also has strips at the seams of each panel. i've seen hard board, like peg board without all the holes, there are a number of posts here regaurding such info also, we all had these questions at one time or another. as far as painting the wall paper,it can be done,at least it worked for me, you need to clean it well like you would any wall, use a good primer first, zissner 1 2 3 is what i used , glidden makes a good one for all surfaces, wood vynle ,plastic, metal, used that on my house outside. as for the seams. court is still out for me on that one. tried just spackel, and then tape and spackel and then flex painters caulk, problem is these house move and flex more than a stick house,so crackes will develope in the wall seams, thus the reason for the strips, you could keepthe strips and replace them with amore decorative kind, wood or embossed pattern on wood. the windows on these things are garbage, any here with agree, figure on upgradeing soon