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Taking down wallpaper...

 H and I have been taking down wallpaper for four days and were not even close to being done in the master bedroom. I would say we're only about 20% of the way there. We were using a steamer but that pretty much quit on us today (we borrowed it from my mom and she's had for years so it was a little old). I'm headed to Home Depot tomorrow to get a new steamer. Does anyone have any tricks to taking down wallpaper a little faster? We have A LOT of it in our house and it seems a little overwhelming right now. Any tricks would be helpful. Thanks!

http://bwallblog.blogspot.com/ imageimage My fur babies!Scout (on top)and Jack (bottom).

Re: Taking down wallpaper...

  • Wallpaper is painful. Do you know what kind you have? Is it vinyl? Is it dry-strippable?

    I used a chemical wallpaper remover and a paper tiger. The paper tiger scores the wall paper and allows the chemical to penetrate and then I could scrape it off. It still took a long time to get off and then I had to get the rest of the glue off using a combination of vinegar and hot water.

    If the wall was not sealed before they applied the wall paper you will have an even tougher time and damage the drywall. We had this problem in an older room in our house and had to re-drywall because there was no way to get the paper off without taking the dry wall paper off with it.  I hope thats not the case for you.


  • Is it just not coming off or is it coming off in pieces?

    We didn't use a steamer. I found a squirt bottle full of a vinegar and hot water worked best for us. We also used the scorer, squirted all over the holes with the vinegar and hot water, and then used a hair dryer to loosen the glue as we pulled. We had to quite frequently spray where we were pulling away from the wall in order to get it to let go. And there were still areas where the wallpaper would separate. We'd hit those with the vinegar water and then scrape with a razor blade.

    And if you bust through the drywall paper, you can patch areas. You'll have to get a sealant, then drywall mud it, then sand and prime over it, but it's not that hard.

    Good luck!

    My favorite place on earth: The Amargosa Valley.
    image
  • I've never used a steamer....I get this spray bottle of stuff called Dif at Home Depot/Lowes.  You spray it on the wallpaper, let it sit for a few minutes and the wall paper just peels off the wall.  The first time we stripped the wallpaper we used the little tool the others have mentioned to score the paper.  The second time we didn't.  I didn't think that it was any more difficult to remove the paper that hadn't been scored, so I probably wouldn't do that step again. 
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  • imagetonic:

    Wallpaper is painful. Do you know what kind you have? Is it vinyl? Is it dry-strippable?

    I used a chemical wallpaper remover and a paper tiger. The paper tiger scores the wall paper and allows the chemical to penetrate and then I could scrape it off. It still took a long time to get off and then I had to get the rest of the glue off using a combination of vinegar and hot water.

    If the wall was not sealed before they applied the wall paper you will have an even tougher time and damage the drywall. We had this problem in an older room in our house and had to re-drywall because there was no way to get the paper off without taking the dry wall paper off with it.  I hope thats not the case for you.


    This
  • imageStructenggal:
    I've never used a steamer....I get this spray bottle of stuff called Dif at Home Depot/Lowes.  You spray it on the wallpaper, let it sit for a few minutes and the wall paper just peels off the wall.  The first time we stripped the wallpaper we used the little tool the others have mentioned to score the paper.  The second time we didn't.  I didn't think that it was any more difficult to remove the paper that hadn't been scored, so I probably wouldn't do that step again. 

    It depends on the type of wall paper you have. If its vinyl, I believe you have to score it in order to penetrate. That was the situation that I had.  

  • We are using a scorer with the steamer. I'm not sure what kind of wallpaper it is. I don't think it's vinyl because vinyl is thicker. There was vinyl wallpaper in the bathroom underneath the top layer and it pealed off really easily. I think the reason why it's going so slow is because the steamer wasn't producing enough steam. When it was producing steam the paper came off pretty easily (slow but easy). I think due to age and the amount of time we were using it, the steamer quit.
    http://bwallblog.blogspot.com/ imageimage My fur babies!Scout (on top)and Jack (bottom).
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