Wallpaper and Wallcoverings - 46 year old wallpaper seams

Desperately seeking suggestions!

I bought a home that had wallpaper on the ceilings and 2-3 layers on nearly every wall all of it topped off with at least two layers of paint (with some paint between the wallpaper layers.) The wallpaper was applied directly to the untreated wallboard, I know this because I removed it from 3 bedrooms (very ugly process!)

Anyway, this left my hallway and living room & dining room (one large L-shaped room) to be done. Being a hugely daunting task, I had a professional finisher come in to remove it (after those bedrooms, there was no way I could face that large of an area by myself.) The finisher suggested that it would be hugely cost prohibitive to do and a better option would be to float the seams, prime and paint. As the wallpaper seems to be extremely well adhered to the walls, this sounded like a good idea.

They went ahead and floated, primed and painted. Now, some 2 years later, I have curling seams on the ceiling...painted, spackled, primed and painted again curling seams that just make me want to cry thinking about dealing with them.

Any suggestions as to what to do with these seams? I thought the best bet would be to try to tack them back down somehow, but as they're sporting all that paint and spackle I don't know if I can use the plain old wallpaper seam correcting suggestions. I had thought about cutting the curling bits back to more solidly anchored wallpaper, spackling over the gap that would create then priming and painting. I'm afraid that may just lead to more curling seams.

I just don't know what to do! (Aside from never looking up again!) :confused:

Thanks!
Chris.

You are on the right track. Use a utility knife and cut the seams out, all the way back to where it is solid. Then spackle, prime and paint.

There might come a time though to bite the bullet and remove it all. And each time its spackled will make it harder and harder.

Sounds like the contractor was daunted by your project also and lost out on a good job $$$.

Thanks for the follow up, prowallguy.

I realized that eventually this stuff is going to have to come down, but I just can't stand to think about it. Maybe if I wait long enough, it will all just fall down?? Okay.....so I can dream. :p

Really wish I would have asked a few more contractors. So much for going with the neighbor thinking he was trust worthy. Oh well. I'm stuck with it now!

Thanks!
Chris.
<digs out razor blade and spackle>