Removing wallpaper

[Craig D Peltier]

Hi, I have a small bathroom that I need to remove some wallpaper. My wife says its the adhesive kind, I dont know anything about it. Whats an easy way to remove it? Its one layer and the area is 2 5x5s an 2 smaller areas. Steamer? My wife says Martha Stewarts says " to determine type first, (she says adhesive), if adhesive just to wet it and it will come off? She did lightly with a sponge it will take a long time that way.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Bob Rufener]

I have had good luck with a "roller ball" type device that has points on it. You roll it over the old wall paper and it perforates it. It is inexpensive to buy and should be available at stores that sell wallpaper supplies. This allows the water to penetrate easier. I have also had good luck using warm water and a spray bottle. Let the water soak in well before you start taking it off. Some times you can just grab a sheet and peel it right off. Other times, a scraper may be necessary. It depends on whether the wall was sized or not and, sometimes, the type of paste or paper that was used. Sometimes it is easy to remove paper and sometimes it isn't. Good luck!

[Matt Meiser]

I've used a product called DIF that worked pretty good. But water worked almost as good and tends to be cheaper. Just kept rewetting it and pick bits off. I didn't like the roller thing as it make it harder to get a get a good run. It usually seems to come off in two layers. The first layer is the printed part. The second layer is the back side and the glue.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
Both products mentioned - the "roller ball" which has a brand name of Paper Tiger and DIF are made by Zinsser. You can usually find both at the borg.
I've used both. They work to varying degrees, depending on how the old paper is applied and the type of paper it is.
The idea with th Paper Tiger is that it scores the vinyl facing of the paper and allows the water (&DIF) to penetrate.
DIF chemicaly attacks the adhesive, unlike a tradtional wettting agent which simply keeps the water wetter.
White vinegar can be used as a wetting agent.

Hands down the quickest, fastest and messiest way is to rent a steamer - BUT -
only if you have plaster walls.
A steamer can often damage drywall.
Scoring the vinyl facing speeds thing up.

Another tool I use with some degree of success is the 4" long handled razor type scraper. I use it both wet and dry, depending again on the paper. With it, you use long continuous strokes to shave the paper off, and alternate sides of the blade with each stroke. That way it hones the edge evenly. In fairly short order, you work into a rhythm and the job goes surprisingly fast - relatively speaking.
The "dry shave" method seems to work best on walls with multiple layers and/or ones where some goof-ball painted over the paper.

Note - there are products which can be applied to the surface that claim to eliminate the need to remove the paper prior to painting or repapering.
I strongly recommend staying away from them unless it 100% necessary -like where someone puts paper directly on unprimed or unsized drywall.
At some point - it will be necessary to remove the paper. It may be several years down the road, but at some point it will be required.

We did a kitchen last year that had 1 layer - painted over - another layer on top of it, a layer on top of that one. That third layer had been coated in some spots and yet another layer of paper applied on top - for a total of 4 layers.
Miserable doesn't even come close to describing it.

Another tip I can offer is to break it up into small jobs rather than try to get it all done at once - if you aren't using a steamer.
I usually work on the opposite walls of a room.
eg.
I wet down the East wall, let it sit for a while then go to work on it.
After maybe 15 min, I move over to the West wall and wet it down.
Then back to the East wall for more scraping until it needs rewetting.
Then I wet it down, and move to the West wall to scrape until that needs rewetting.
It doesn't really speed anything up, but it makes it look like you're making headway - or at least it does to me.

[Craig D Peltier]

Thanks Rich, yes its drywall so good tip.No steamer. What a pain in the butt to remove wallpaper.Im glad its not used very much anymore.Its only in one room here and its the smallest. They did the ceiling too, why why why:confused:
Thanks for all the info.


Hello,
Both products mentioned - the "roller ball" which has a brand name of Paper Tiger and DIF are made by Zinsser. You can usually find both at the borg.
I've used both. They work to varying degrees, depending on how the old paper is applied and the type of paper it is.
The idea with th Paper Tiger is that it scores the vinyl facing of the paper and allows the water (&DIF) to penetrate.
DIF chemicaly attacks the adhesive, unlike a tradtional wettting agent which simply keeps the water wetter.
White vinegar can be used as a wetting agent.

Hands down the quickest, fastest and messiest way is to rent a steamer - BUT -
only if you have plaster walls.
A steamer can often damage drywall.
Scoring the vinyl facing speeds thing up.

Another tool I use with some degree of success is the 4" long handled razor type scraper. I use it both wet and dry, depending again on the paper. With it, you use long continuous strokes to shave the paper off, and alternate sides of the blade with each stroke. That way it hones the edge evenly. In fairly short order, you work into a rhythm and the job goes surprisingly fast - relatively speaking.
The "dry shave" method seems to work best on walls with multiple layers and/or ones where some goof-ball painted over the paper.

Note - there are products which can be applied to the surface that claim to eliminate the need to remove the paper prior to painting or repapering.
I strongly recommend staying away from them unless it 100% necessary -like where someone puts paper directly on unprimed or unsized drywall.
At some point - it will be necessary to remove the paper. It may be several years down the road, but at some point it will be required.

We did a kitchen last year that had 1 layer - painted over - another layer on top of it, a layer on top of that one. That third layer had been coated in some spots and yet another layer of paper applied on top - for a total of 4 layers.
Miserable doesn't even come close to describing it.

Another tip I can offer is to break it up into small jobs rather than try to get it all done at once - if you aren't using a steamer.
I usually work on the opposite walls of a room.
eg.
I wet down the East wall, let it sit for a while then go to work on it.
After maybe 15 min, I move over to the West wall and wet it down.
Then back to the East wall for more scraping until it needs rewetting.
Then I wet it down, and move to the West wall to scrape until that needs rewetting.
It doesn't really speed anything up, but it makes it look like you're making headway - or at least it does to me.

[David G Baker]

I have capped wallpapered walls with 1/4 inch sheet rock. Sometimes previous owners have done such horrible jobs with wallpaper that it is cheaper and much less time consuming to cover the whole thing. If I had to clear a ceiling that was wall papered I would cap it for sure.
I feel your pain. I live in an old farm house that has wood paneling covered with wall paper in several rooms. The paneling is going along with the wall paper and replaced with Sheetrock when I remodel the rooms. Removing the paneling with the wallpaper on is will be much easier than scraping the paper off of plaster or wallboard.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I have only ever used the little 4" razor scrapers and a lot of elbow grease.
After 5 houses I despise wallpaper, it is the GREAT SATAN

[Peter Stahl]

I've taken paper off that was painted. Score it, wet it, wet it and wet it some more. It will come off once you get it wet enough. Lightly scrape the paper off then use a sponge and hot wat to get the glue off. You may have to skim coat the drywall after it dries.

[Craig D Peltier]

I ended up using Diff liquid and a paper tiger (perforator)and a scraper. Went through two bottles of diff. The paper came off with a fight and then there was the glue that she had to fight off after that. I think it took 4 hours or more to do two walls 5x8 and a small odd shaped area. She was glad I was doing raised paneling on the lower 40 inches.
She still has to do the ceiling.
The 1/4 sheetrock is a good idea although I cant tape an never been shown. So thats out.

Thanks

Any may I never encounter wallpaper again...Please

[Greg Cole]

DIF works for me. What Matt said about the 2 layers is spot on as well. I found the DIF to work better once the printed stuff pulled off (I just pulled the printed layer off with no DIF or whatever, just find a seam and start pulling). Then the DIF will cut through the backing material and get to work on the adhesive MUCH faster. My step daughter and I managed to strip our kitchen a few years ago in one long afternoon (oddly enough she LIKED doing it????).
If you are lucky, you don't find wall paper under wall paper with some more wall paper underneath. A friend of mines bedroom had 5, yes 5 layers of paper.......

Greg