Any tips on stripping wallpaper?

[searchdog]

Ok I have decided to strip some wallpaper in my laundry room since it is ugly and I would love to give the whole room a fresh coat of paint. Well I think I am in over my head at the moment. I have stripped paper many times before but I always used a little hand held black and decker wallpaper steamer and had no problems. Well the steamer isn't working right. Besides that the walls were not prepared properly for paper and whatever is under the paper ?paint? is coming off with the paper leaving me with an incredibly uneven surface that in many places is down to the raw drywall, so that is going to be a ton of extra work to resmooth the wall, but that is another story.

Anyway after that lond winded explanation I basically need to know the best/easiest way to strip this horrible paper off the walls?

[aliceinwonderland]

They have these steam thingies in Home Depot, where you steam water and they have this square thing you put on the wallpaper which basically melts the glue and gets paper wet. After that, it's easter to just peel the thing right off. I'll ask my DH for the correct name.

My husband and I stripped 20 years of wallpaper off of everywall in the house we bought last year. it was quite a feat, especially because there were multiple layers...But just one room is very doable.

[VClute]

Ugh. We had the same problem. The paper was original to the house so when we tried peeling it off, we got part of the drywall with it, too. DH (who has infinitely more patience for such things than I do) found that using plain water on a paper-tigered surface worked best. Then you have to peel S-L-O-W-L-Y and just little (annoying) pieces at a time. HTH and best of luck!

Amy in NC
mom to Dixon, born 2/14/05

[DebbieJ]

On that show Sell This House on A&E, Roger always used a mixture of fabric softener and water, after he has used a paper tiget to score the surface first.

You could probably google it to find the correct ratios.

~ deb
DS born at home 12/03

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/10029.gif

[ribbit1019]

I've been there Meg. EVERY wall in our house was wallpapered and we stripped and scrubbed it all for painting. Minus the entryways, by the time I got to them I took the top layer of paper off and papered over the base, tired of scrubbing. :(

Anyway, here is what we had to do to get the paper off.
We scored every wall, sprayed with fabic softner with hot/warm water (cheap kind from the dollar store worked like a charm, I don't know why, my mom found this online somewhere), peeling off what would come off VERY slowly. Steamed and scraped the rest.

The steam/scraper was a big deal in the nursery since it was super cheap/super pasted paper. That room took the longest and was one of the last one's we did. There were already patches under the wallpaper that were terribly done and you can still see some of them through the paint on the walls since we couldn't sand them down. But we had to minor patching in the nursery because we had learned at that point that you have to go very slowly with the super yucky stuff.

Oh and if the paint is coming off in large patches see if you can scrap it all off and then start from scratch with a primer. Sounds like the paint might be hard to paint over if you have pieces coming off with the paper anyway.

GL! I hope it doesn't continue to be such a pain!

Christy
Maddy born 06/09/04
http://lilypie.com/baby2/040609/3/4/0/-5/.png
Little Peanut due 03/02/06
http://bd.lilypie.com/K8fum4/.png

[searchdog]

Christy or anyone else,

I ended up getting the paper off with a trick a contractor told my mom. (I called her out of desperation, not knowing what to do) I took a regular garden sprayer and filled it with the hottest tap water I could get. You then spray the area you want to remove the paper from and let it sit 1-2 minutes and then like a miracle the paper just peeled off.

So know my next question what do you use to wash the extra paste off with? Do I need to paint that wall with primer before painting it, does wallpaper glue "bleed" through paint?? If I need to prime it what kind do you all recommend?

BTW I was getting worried when the first part was going so awful that DH is going to KILL me for starting such a horrible process, at least know he will be glad the paper is off before he gets home. Hopefully he will help with some of the patching and sanding ;)

[saschalicks]

I've never done it, but I think you need to sand the paste off. Also, I would definitely prime the walls b/c I think that the glue will bleed through. I'd double check w/the contractor that helped with getting it off.

[searchdog]

No contractor to ask, I got the paper off myself. I might just ask the paint person at the store what to do.

[alkagift]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned the DIF wallpaper remover from Zinsser. I thought it was your basic standard. Usually to remove wallpaper you score the paper (I used a Paper Tiger) and then you soak it with a mixture of very hot water and DIF (the directions are on the bottle). Then the wallpaper just comes off in sheets, very easily. They have a ready mixed version but it doesn't work nearly as well--you need that heat, as you found out with your success.

In any case, you can use the same stuff to easily dissolve the remaining glue--spray it on, wait 5 minutes or even less, then sponge it off with clear very warm water. They sell it everywhere, I get mine at Home Depot and Lowe's. I have taken wallpaper off of almost every room in my house--50 years of layers.

Allison
Mommy to Matthew, who is TWO!

[octmom]

I have used several of the methods mentioned already-- rented steamer, used hot water alone on paper-tigered walls, used hot water and white vinegar (found this online somewhere) on paper-tigered walls, and used DIF on paper-tigered walls. Despite going S-L-O-W-L-Y for the most part, we did have spots where the paper coating on the drywall peeled too. Ugh. I ended up doing a skim coat on those spots with spackle (or maybe it was joint compound?-- it dries to a matte finish) and then sanded the entire wall, especially the spots that were patched to try to get it as smooth as possible before priming. I think the sanding is a *really* important step. DH took care of a small bathroom downstairs and he didn't sand very much. You can really tell. I try not to go into that bathroom because I always notice the skinny scraps of paper he left behind in a few spots and the rough spots on the walls. :(

In the rooms where we did sand the walls better, we used both a hand-held power sander and the old manual method of sandpaper on a block. I think if you got a sandpaper block that you could attach to a pole (like you would use to extend the handle on a paint roller), you could do it quicker.

Good luck!

Jerilyn
DS, Sean 10/03

"Baby makes days shorter, nights longer, home happier, and love stronger."

[ribbit1019]

Meg,
I used the fabric softner again with very hot water and a scrub brush to get the excess glue off. Wiped down with a damp towel and then repeated until all the glue was washed off, dried off with a dry towel.
ETA: The wall will feel tacky/sticky if there is still glue on it. Once it is clean it should have a smooth feel to it.

I feel your pain, it is a digusting process, I doubt I will ever wall paper a regular sized room in my life. The entryways about killed me and I rationalized that I liked this particular paper so much I doubt I would be the one taking it down. A bit OT but we used Paper Illusions from Lowe's, it is SOO cool! It looks like stone when you are done. You rip it into pieces from the roll dip it and stick it to the wall, so quick and the results are awesome. I pity the person who gets to take it down though.

Since the hot water worked to get the paper off, it may work for scrubbing too.

You really need to get the glue off though, the paint will look very streaky and uneven if you leave it up. I know this from helping someone else paint over wall paper paste. ;) Her's was a darker color though, so if you choose a lighter color you may not be able to see it as much. But I would still recommend getting it off.

We used DIF too but it didn't work as well as the fabric softner, plus I was preggo so I wanted to avoid the hard chemicals in the DIF.


Christy
Maddy born 06/09/04
http://lilypie.com/baby2/040609/3/4/0/-5/.png
Little Peanut due 03/02/06
http://bd.lilypie.com/K8fum4/.png

[VClute]

This is what we did when we got our paper down. Be sure to open all the windows when you do the Kilz. It's nasty stuff. But it keeps any water stains from the paper removal from coming through to the paint.

Amy in NC
mom to Dixon, born 2/14/05

[lizajane]

currently doing the exact same thing...

you need oil based primer after spackling then sanding.