One of the most popular of all home improvement projects is painting the walls. New paint color can instantly change the entire look of your home at a very affordable price.
But while painting is a very easy project with standard “stick-built” home construction, where the walls are finished with standard gypsum wallboard, it is a little trickier if you live in a mobile home or manufactured modular home, where the walls are made from a different material.
Manufactured homes usually use vinyl-on-gypsum (VOG) wall panels rather than standard drywall. Instead of using tape to cover the seams, as is done with drywall, the joints are covered with batten strips during assembly. Although the way VOG panels are manufactured and installed does complicate the painting job, it doesn’t mean you can’t paint the walls when you want to update the look.
What is Vinyl-On-Gypsum?
These vinyl-coated walls have a shiny finish, and there is often a printed design layer applied over the gypsum and under the shiny vinyl topcoat. Manufacturers favor VOG panels because they are lightweight and easy to install in factory settings.
Before You Begin
Before you begin painting the walls in your manufactured space, you will need to decide if you want to leave the battens up or remove them. Taking them down and filling in the seams is cumbersome work, but the finished job will look great and appear similar to standard walls in stick-built homes. If you can live with the battens, you can simply paint over them, which makes for an easier painting project that is still a cost-effective update.
You’ll need approximately two coats of primer and at least one coat of paint. Make sure you get enough paint with the help of The Spruce’s Paint Calculator.
Source: The Spruce