Am I doing this the hard way - wallpaper removal?

[Antonia]

I have used the DIf spray gel and the top layer of the wallpaper came right off. Now I am left with a papery type under layer that won't come off in big pieces. I am spraying it with water and using a putty knife to SLOWLY scrape it off. The wall underneath looks fine. But it sure is a slow process. And it is taking a lot of spraying to get it wet enough to scrape it off with the putty knife.
I've never removed wallpaper so I thought someone here on the DIS may have some suggestions. I am redoing DS"s old bedroom to set up a crib for my first grandchild who will be here around January 5th!!!!!!

 

[BunsenH]

Try putting a little dishwashing detergent in the warm water. Spray - soak - scrape.

If the wallpaper is on un-primed drywall, it will be a @#$% to remove.

 

[golfgal]

Spray until soaking with HOT water. Let it sit for 15 minutes or so, spray again and scrape. It should come off in large chunks then. Basically what we did was buy one of those plant sprayers with the pump. We sprayed 2 walls. By the time we got done spraying the second wall, the first was ready to spray again, then scrape. Then we moved on to the second wall. You have to give the water a chance to loosen the glue. If the wallpaper is less then 10 years old you should be able to strip the printed layer off without doing much work and then take the paper/glue layer off using the above method.

 

[INDISMOM]

I actually used dryer sheets, dipped them in the hot water, rubbed it on the wallpaper and let it sit for a minute or two. It softened the wallpaper and made it a little bit easier to pull off.

My sister just poured some liquid fabric softener in a bucket of hot water and wiped the wall down with a sponge and that seemed to work too!

Good luck!

 

[Todd&Copper]

Try putting a little dishwashing detergent in the warm water. Spray - soak - scrape.

If the wallpaper is on un-primed drywall, it will be a @#$% to remove.

I tried all the tricks last fall to get the horrible hillbilly crossstitch wallpaper down in my kitchen and it must have been un-primed drywall. It was a @#$%& to get down, and then there was a lot of spackling and sanding of the walls to smooth them out for painting. Looks great now, though, but what a PITA.

 

[NowaSki]

My Dad has been hanging wallpaper for 40+ years, and so I have some experience with wallpaper removal. From the sounds of it, the walls were not primed. I went through the same thing about 15 years ago. We bought a condo that had wallpaper in every room. We went to remove it, and sure enough everything but the backing came off. My dad sent over the guy he uses for wallpaper removal jobs. This guy basically looked at it all and told us there was nothing he could do for us. We scrapped and scrapped. We ended up doing a skim coat of spackle over the really bad areas.

Good luck, and just try to be patient.

 

[MrsPete]

You're doing the only thing possible, and it's slow work!

The problem is that the person who hung your wallpaper didn't put up a layer of primer first. If primer was under there, you'd literally be able to pull the entire thing off the wall in minutes. When I moved into this house, I pulled wallpaper off the walls in my two bathrooms. One bathroom took me 15 minutes -- yes, literally 15 minutes, and I was totally done! The other bathroom took three days of scraping, heating water, using chemicals, scraping more. Both bathrooms are very large rooms.

A good layer of primer should go under ANYTHING on your walls -- paint, wallpaper, whatever.

 

[tinkntraining]

Get a spray bottle -- fill it with 1/2 very hot water, and 1/2 white vinegar. Spray the paper backer until it is completely wet. Wait about 2 or 3 minutes, then scrape off. I just did this last week for a border and it came right off in long pieces. Good luck. It's not a fun, or clean job.

 

[Par8hed]

A spray bottle with diluted fabric softener works great.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I tried all the tricks last fall to get the horrible hillbilly crossstitch wallpaper down in my kitchen and it must have been un-primed drywall. It was a @#$%& to get down, and then there was a lot of spackling and sanding of the walls to smooth them out for painting. Looks great now, though, but what a PITA.

It was probably unprimed. Also, older wallpaper in older homes is much more difficult to remove. The type of glue they used was much different than the more modern type and is very hard to remove.

When we moved into the house I'm in now, one bedroom had old flocked wallpaper that had been painted over. Yes. Some idiot painted over texturized wallpaper. We had to use an industrial steamer to melt the glue and scrape the wallpaper off. In the middle of August in Indiana with no air conditioning.
That took about a week to do.

Be patient and keep at it.

 

[njzieglers]

i just started in my kitchen last night. the top layer of the vinyl peels right off. mix fabric softener with water, spray it on, in a couple of minutes it will peel right off. i didn't even need a scraper, just came off in whole sheets.

 

[DrCavin]

Look at getting one of these to help as well: http://www.zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?ProductId=20

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

A spray bottle with diluted fabric softener works great.

This worked for the bathroom in my mom's house, but NOT the kitchen.

The kitchen was a looooong painful process of the hot water, wait.

The best thing was my shark steamer.

Also, we bought a BIG putty knife. That helped in some places.

 

[Bren's Mom]

We had original 1950s wallpaper...and alot of it...in our first home. The only thing that worked was:

Removing top layer.
Putting equal parts water and ammonia in spray bottle.
Ventilating room VERY well.
Spray small sections at a time, let the ammonia soak in for a few minutes.
Then scrape with a plastic spackle/putty knife.

Do NOT use those scraper things that create little holes...they just make a mess, imo.

The ammonia will break down the glue. You MUST be careful to ventilate, though or eventually you will get lightheaded and pass out! Not good!

 

[AKBAFB]

If your method does not involve paying someone to remove it for you, you are doing it the hard way!

Good luck!

 

[DisneyKT]

We used a steamer made the work much easier. Good Luck.

 

[Disney Doll]

If your method does not involve paying someone to remove it for you, you are doing it the hard way!

Good luck!

I'm with you!

That being said, whe we were young and poor and we bought our first home, there was no paying someone to do stuff...we did it ourselves. I used a steamer thing that sort of looked like a flat iron. I think it was made by Black and Decker. You would hold it on the wall, steam it for a couple of minutes and then all the glue and "schmutz" ould sort of peel off.

It didn't involve a lot of scraping, but it was very time-consuming.

 

[Chris2597]

Has anyone tried painting over the wallpaper? I am selling a home (not my residence) that has 70's wallpaper. The Realtor told me that I could easily paint the walls with Kilz and then paint, as long as the wallpaper was not peeling at the seams. I was wondering if anyone had tried this and how did it look?

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Chris i TOTALLY would not do it.

We considered covering up linoleum til we thought about it and when the bottom lino starts peeling, then the new stuff does too.

Better to put it right on the wall, IMO

 

[Todd&Copper]

Has anyone tried painting over the wallpaper? I am selling a home (not my residence) that has 70's wallpaper. The Realtor told me that I could easily paint the walls with Kilz and then paint, as long as the wallpaper was not peeling at the seams. I was wondering if anyone had tried this and how did it look?

Don't do this. You really cannot paint over wallpaper and have it look even halfway decent. The seams will always show, whether they are peeling or not. The Realtor is on crack (or watches too much DIY of HGTV shows where they do this "quick fix" monkey business).