Korean Landlords Redo Wallpaper and Floors — If You Ask
The flat is fine. The location works, the rent works, and then you notice the wallpaper has gone yellow above the radiator and there is a tear in the floor covering by the kitchen door.
Most people assume that is simply the flat they are renting. In Korea it often isn’t. Between tenants, landlords here routinely replace both — but it is a request, not a default, and the window to make it closes the moment you sign.
도배 and 장판, and why they get replaced
Two words come up together so often that Koreans say them as a pair.
도배 (dobae) is wallpapering. Korean walls are papered rather than painted, so a refresh means stripping and re-hanging paper across the whole flat rather than rolling on a new coat.
장판 (jangpan) is the vinyl sheet flooring laid over the heated floor. It comes in thicknesses — 1.8mm at the cheap end, 2.2mm and above for something that feels solid underfoot and takes furniture better.
Because both are relatively quick and priced by floor area, replacing them between tenants is a normal cost of doing business for a landlord, not a renovation. A flat that shows well rents faster. That is the whole reason the request works.
What you can reasonably ask for
First, adjust your expectations for the two separately. Paper and flooring are not equally likely to be replaced. Wallpapering is cheaper, faster and marks more visibly, so landlords redo it between tenants fairly readily. Flooring is the more expensive job, and if the existing vinyl is in decent shape a landlord will very often leave it exactly where it is — and that is a normal answer, not a brush-off.
So ask for both, expect the paper, and treat new flooring as the thing you have to actually make a case for.
You are on firm ground when there is a condition problem rather than a taste problem:
| Reasonable ask | Weak ask |
|---|---|
| Vinyl that is torn, lifting, or burned | Vinyl in a colour you dislike |
| Wallpaper stained, peeling, or smoke-yellowed | Wallpaper that is simply plain |
| Paper damaged by damp (fix the cause too) | Wanting a feature wall |
| Flooring worn through at a doorway | Wanting a different material entirely |
Two details worth knowing before you agree to “we’ll redo the paper”:
- Ask which paper. 합지 (hapji) is plain paper — cheapest, marks easily, and a wipe takes the print off. 실크 (silk) is PVC-coated, wipeable, and lasts a tenancy properly. Landlords quote hapji by default. Asking for silk is a normal negotiation and sometimes costs you a small share of the difference.
- Ask the flooring thickness in mm. Jangpan is sold in grades — 1.8mm, 2.2mm, 2.7mm and upward — and “new flooring” can mean any of them. Thicker is softer underfoot and takes furniture dents better, but it also sits between you and the underfloor heating, so it is a trade-off rather than a straight upgrade. Ask so that you know which one you are getting, not because a bigger number is automatically better.
If the wallpaper is damp-stained rather than just old, deal with the cause before the cosmetics — new paper over a wet wall is back to where it started within a season. That check belongs at the viewing, and mould behind the baseboard covers what to look for.
Say it before you sign
This is the part that decides everything, and it is not really about wallpaper.
Before signing, your request is a condition of the deal. The landlord wants a signed tenant. After signing, the same request is a favour, and favours get postponed.
So put it in the contract. Korean lease agreements have a 특약사항 (teukyaksahang) section — special terms — near the end, and it is the place where anything agreed verbally becomes enforceable. A line there naming what will be replaced, and by when, is worth more than any amount of goodwill in the viewing.
Be specific in it. “Wallpaper and flooring to be replaced” leaves the grade and the timing open. Name the rooms, the material, and a date that lands before your move-in.
Not sure how to say it in Korean? Send us what you want to ask for on WhatsApp and we’ll write it out in Korean for you to use — including the wording for the special terms clause. First answer is free.
The order matters: papering first, cleaning last
Here is the sequencing detail that catches people out.
Papering and flooring are construction work. Stripping old paper, mixing paste, cutting vinyl and trimming edges leaves dust, offcuts and paste residue across the whole flat. That is normal and it is not a sign anyone did a bad job.
Which means the clean has to come after the work, never before. A flat cleaned on Tuesday and papered on Wednesday is a flat that needs cleaning again on Thursday.
And this is where the bill quietly changes hands. The landlord pays for the dobae and jangpan. The move-in clean that the work makes necessary is usually yours — 입주청소 (ipjucheongso) is conventionally the incoming tenant’s cost, and getting the walls and floors redone does not change that. It is a good trade, but it is a trade rather than a free upgrade, so budget for it.
Guide ranges for the clean, as of 2026: a studio around 10 pyeong runs around ₩250,000, a two-bedroom around 20 pyeong about ₩500,000, and 30 pyeong upward from ₩700,000. Condition moves the number more than floor area does, and a flat that has just had work done sits at the heavier end of its range rather than the lighter one. The cleaning page has the current guide ranges.
Who pays for what
| Item | Usually paid by |
|---|---|
| 도배 — new wallpaper, if agreed before signing | Landlord |
| 장판 — new vinyl flooring, if agreed before signing | Landlord |
| Upgrade from hapji to silk paper, or thicker vinyl | Sometimes split |
| 입주청소 — the move-in clean afterwards | You |
| Repairs after you move in | Depends on the cause |
That last row is not a dodge. Wear and failure of the flat’s fixed equipment — the boiler, the plumbing, a leak — is normally the landlord’s. Consumables, minor upkeep and anything damaged through use are yours. Most disputes are really arguments about which of those two a particular fault is, which is why the answer is a cause and not a person.
Either way, a landlord who has just paid for paper and flooring has shown they maintain the place. That is a reasonable relationship to open with rather than to close.
One more thing for the far end of the tenancy. When you leave, you owe the flat back in its handover condition minus normal wear. Fresh paper at move-in raises what “handover condition” means, so photograph everything on day one — what to photograph on move-in day walks through which shots actually matter when a deposit is being argued over two years later.
The Korean part
Four places this goes wrong for people renting in English:
- The ask itself. It is usually made in person at the viewing or by phone to the agent, in Korean, in the same conversation as the rent. If you cannot make it there, it does not get made.
- The special-terms clause. The contract is in Korean. A verbal yes that never reaches 특약사항 is not an agreement.
- Scheduling the work. The previous tenant leaves, the paperers come, the cleaners come, your movers come — four parties, one week, and none of them coordinating with each other.
- Judging the result. Whether the paper was hung properly, and whether you got the grade you asked for, is a conversation to have on the day rather than after your furniture is on top of it.
Get it sorted
Ask before you sign, name the material, get it written into the special terms, and expect to pay for the clean that follows. That sequence is the whole thing.
We can put the wording into Korean for you and book the move-in clean for the empty window once the work is done. While you are still viewing, what to check before renting in Seoul covers the rest of the walkthrough.