Can someone tell me how to remove wallpaper?

[jess_g]

Can someone give me some advice on removing wallpaper? Its old wallpaper that does kind of peel off but I need something to help get those big spots that won't peel off. I don't want to damage the walls as I will be painting them once I get the wallpaper off.

Thanks,

Jessica.

[MoeJoe]

We (aka my husband!) are doing that right now! I actually think this wallpaper is from the 50's, so definitely old...
He started off using a gel made for removing wallpaper, that you are supposed to mix with warm water. It worked pretty good, but I don't remember the name of it- i'll ask him though. E/ once in a while he used just warm water in a spray bottle and that worked okay too, though he did have to scrape pretty hard. Last time we did a different room, we used a steamer and that worked great, IMO, but very very messy and needs prep time to heat and steam.
HTH

[jenfromnj]

We (well, DH) used a solution of fabric softener and hot water--our contractor suggested it, and it seemed to work well despite sounding really strange. I think it was a mix of equal parts of each.

[BillK]

http://zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=121

http://www.wagnerspraytech.com/portal/wagner_705_spray,43321,747.html

And lots of patience.

When patience wears thin...

http://www.usg.com/sheetrock-easy-sand-lightweight-setting-type-joint-compound.html

I've found the 20 minute formula works best.

Make 100% sure you have ALL the old wallpaper adhesive off - then use a good sealer/primer before painting - like Zinsser BIN (stinky but great) or Zinsser 123 - not stinky but not as good a sealer as the BIN.

[lilycat88]

I'm with Bill. The DIF worked well for us. Better than the fabric softner and water formula. The key really is putting the "stuff" on the walls and being patient to let it work before you try to scrape.

We're removing wallpaper from nearly every wall in our house. The previous owner even put wallpaper on the front of the trash compactor and EVERY switchplate in the house.

[kcimato]

I just recently repainted and needed to remove 3 rooms of wallpaper border. Nothing seemed to work well Tried Diff, a steamer and various other wall paper remover solutions. I had removed wall paper before years ago and never had this much trouble.

I finally hit on a product called Wall Wik or Simple strip as it's called now.

http://www.simplestrip.com/

The key to this was to keep spraying the strips and keeping them wet. It says 15 minutes then strip. I left it on for 30 min or more. You can get a feel for it by testing.

You can use your own wallpaper solution. Just buy the strips. and don't forget to score the paper..

You will pull off most of the paper backing but you may have to go back and spray the part that sticks, but it comes off easily.

Make sure you wash the glue off, then give it a coat off Gardz before you paint.

http://www.zinsser.com/wtb-GARDZ.asp?SID=11&WID=27


As PP said, be patient.

[galvjen]

I took the wimpy way out -- hired a painter who did the job in 1 lg room + 3 bathrooms for $2k. Tedious, time consuming work. Worth every penny to me in the end! It required wallpaper removal with water + chemicals... I'm not really sure, patching sheetrock, texturing the walls, and then painting a neutral color.

[LMPC]

I have always liked the steamer approach....I think the last one I rented from somewhere....home depot, maybe. GL -- wallpaper is such a PITA!!

[marie]

I had the best luck with a steamer. . . and a lot of cursing. :innocent:

[michellerw]

We had no success with DIF. We used a mixture of warm water, vinegar, dish soap (dawn) and (in some cases) oxy clean. The oxy clean was for when the wallpaper was up and we needed to scrub the glue off the walls.

We also ended up having to remove TWO layers of wallpaper laid on top of each other -- one of more "modern" vinyl paper and one of old fashioned 70s paper with heavy duty paste.

[MamaMolly]

You can also get one of those paper scoring devices. I think it is called a Tiger? It is round and fits in the palm of your hand. As you rub it on the wall little wheels with teeth under it roll around and puncture the paper without damaging the wall. Then you put the liquid on, wait a looooong time, then peel and scrape.

I found a large scraper did less damage because I was less likely to dig into the surface of the wall with it. YMMV. And IME plain water was just as well as the chemicals and was one less product for me to have to clean off the walls.

Good luck!

[KHF]

We (well, DH) used a solution of fabric softener and hot water--our contractor suggested it, and it seemed to work well despite sounding really strange. I think it was a mix of equal parts of each.

This. I just removed a border from the kids' bathroom with this method and it was unbelievably easy! Of course, your house will smell like fabric softener for a while, but it's better than the smell of some of the things you could try.

I peeled off most of the top layer easily, then sprayed the fabric softener on the backing part and waited a couple of minutes. The backing peeled right off, no damage to my walls at all. And they smelled Snuggle fresh :)