Best way to take off wallpaper?

[Dakota731]

I don't want to pay for a professional, but I've never attempted it before and it's been on the walls for at least 25 years! A friend said you can use an iron to loosen up the glue - anyone ever do that? Then how do you get the glue off the walls then? Help please!

 

[mrsp1030]

Downey and very hot water. Mix in bucket, sponge on, and scrape off (I use a pampered chef scraper). Trust me, it works!!!

 

[teacup princess]

Ugh, wallpaper. Bad memories. The person we bought our house from had an infatuation with wallpaper. It was everywhere. Do what the above poster mentioned with the downy but score it first with a wallpaper scorer.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

It's a big, messy job. Do get a scorer and soak the wallpaper well before scraping off.

 

[alyssa810]

We actually had good luck using hot water and plain vinegar (and a scraper). We had tried getting peel-off stuff that was supposed to have the paper just fall right off, but it didn't work that well at all. We saturated the paper with the water-vinegar mixture and let it soak in, and it would peel right off. I think the key was to have the water as hot as you could handle- we microwaved it to do small batches at a time.

Good luck, it was a PITA project, but it saved us money from having someone else do it.

 

[jedijill]

You can rent a wallpaper steamer as well. That will help tremendously too.

Jill in CO

 

[nalajms]

Go slowly and gently when you scrap it off, or you'll end up with dents in the drywall/plaster. That add another PTA if you have to sand and re-mud.

Not hard, but lots of labor. Good luck!

 

[clh2]

We just paid a professional to remove the wallpaper in our bedroom and master bath. Paper had been hung about 22 years ago in a new house, and the previous owners did not properly prep the walls. I knew the project was going to be more than I could handle, because I took off the wallpaper in the half bath about 15 years ago. AND...since we have cathedral ceilings in our bed and bath, we thought it would be easier to have the job done. We also then had this person paint both rooms. It was a LOT of money. But, it was worth every cent to not be disrupted too much, i.e. our bedroom was back in order shortly after the painter left.

For the removal - she used DIF (and was very specific that she didn't use the gel). It took her on average 3 times more of this than usual, because the paper was not put up correctly.

Try to scrub as much of the wallpaper paste off. Our painter then used a product to "seal" problem walls - i.e. excess wallpaper paste called GARDZ. After that dried, then she used a product called PROTEX, which was a primer& Texture product. THEN she was finally able to paint. The only problem was the drying time needed, IIRC, the GARDZ was 3 hours and the PROTEX was 4 hours.

 

[TinCup]

I would always score the wallpaer with a wallpaper scorer, or pull off the top layer of the wallpaper. Doing this allowed the hot water to soak in and losten the wallpaper paste. I use a spray bottle (rather than a sponge) with VERY hot water to apply to the wallpaper to be removed. I have tried various solutions and mixtures, but plain hot water worked the best for me.

Once the wallpaper is lossened I use a PLASTIC scraper to remove the wallpaper. I once used a metal scrapper and it dug into the wall as it removed the wallpaper. Good Luck!

 

[aliceindisneyland]

If you're putting up new wallpaper, I have no tips
But if you're painting:
We put premixed joint compound right over the wallpaper.
We use a taping knife and just swipe the joint compound on in a thick layer that looks more or less like this: http://www.sarahforster.org/2011/04/24-hour-bathroom-makeover.html.
Joint compound is about $15 for a giant tub. DH can do a large room in under 2 hours. Once the joint compound dries, paint on a coat of drywall primer, then paint.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I used vinegar and water and the water was not hot. The wallpaper was about 15 yrs old. I pealed the wall paper off leaving the backing and glue. I saturated sections of the wall with water with vinegar in a spray bottle and waited a bit and then was able to scrape it off. I have used this method many times and it came off easy. No need to heat the water. To get the glue off I scrubbed the wall with a nylon scrubbing sponge.

 

[rock_doctor]

Wall paper scorer, wallpaper removing liquid from home depot and a plant/bug sprayer. I scored the paper, sprayed it twice and it all just pulled right off. It is a flour based glue so the remover is an enzyme that eats the flour. No fuss. Easy.

 

[Shleedogg]

We've tried various methods. I will preface this by saying that our house is 110 years old, plaster walls, and in most cases, the wallpaper was over 50 years old, minimum of 5 layers. Our first room was vinegar and water. It worked but very slowly. We found crumbling plaster under and ended up gutting the the walls. Next room we tried a steamer. Again, very slow going. In one area it pulled off the finish coat of the plaster or a very old layer of paint. We used DIF for the 3rd room and it was amazing. Truly. The wallpaper was off in a couple of hours rather than days.

 

[CTdiznymom]

I have to agree it is a messy job, but it doesn't have to be a difficult one.

This is what works for me:

First score the paper lightly with what they call an alligator tool. It fits in the palm of your hand and has rotating teeth that puncture the paper. DO THIS LIGHTLY so you don't leave marks in your sheetrock or plaster walls.

There are plenty of recommendations for a liquid for soaking. I find plain old white vinegar and HOT water works best. It gets right to the sticky glue.

Here's my time saver(and finger saver) tip....Get yourself a pump weed sprayer. The kind that looks like a canister with a hose and nozzle tip. Mix your solution in that. Pump it up and adjust the spray to a fine mist and SOAK the paper. Top to bottom. I lay newspapers and roll towels to put at the base of the walls to catch the excess water. Lightly spray and then WAIT. Then spray again. Do this until you see the paper backing of the wallpaper coming off. Use a chisel or plastic putty knife to coax it off. Only fill the canister 1/2 way so the water remains hot. Keeps you from constantly mixing it in a bottle and your finger won't be sore from spraying a bottle!

You can use the solution to wash down the walls to remove any residual glue.

good luck

 

[dpswift]

We actually had good luck using hot water and plain vinegar (and a scraper). We had tried getting peel-off stuff that was supposed to have the paper just fall right off, but it didn't work that well at all. We saturated the paper with the water-vinegar mixture and let it soak in, and it would peel right off. I think the key was to have the water as hot as you could handle- we microwaved it to do small batches at a time.

Good luck, it was a PITA project, but it saved us money from having someone else do it.

This is what we did. Small sections at a time and we ripped off as much as we could and then saturated it with the vinegar water spray. It took some time but I actually found it relaxing.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I had the best luck with doing the "paper tiger" tool to scratch it up, then peeling off the top layer of the paper so that just the under layer was left. Then using a sponge and hot water, I soaked small sections at a time. After letting it sit for a few minutes, I scraped with a wallpaper scraper. Time consuming but not too hard. I didn't think the DIF really worked very well the times I used it, and I used a steamer once and that didn't work any better than the sponge method.

I did get very very lucky the last time I had wallpaper to remove. I had dreaded taking down what was in my kitchen, but I hated it, so one day I thought I would just test it to see how bad it was going to be. I pulled at a seam over a doorway and it peeled right up. It came off in huge sheets with no residue. I had never had paper come down so easily. I don't know what they did when they put it up, but I was thankful it didn't work well!

 

[Lewisc]

Hot water may do the trick. Hot water and vinegar might work better. A commercial product like DIF (I agree with the PP, I don't like the gel) is designed to dissolve (soften) wallpaper paste. Sometimes you need DIF.

I don't agree with some of the PP. You don't want to get rid of as much of the paste as possible. You need to get rid of all the glue residue. Getting all the glue off the wall will take more time then getting the paper down. PP is right, a garden sprayer works best.

The alternative to getting the glue off the wall is to cover the wall; either skim coat the wall with spackle or use an oil based primer.

 

[Mickey & Minnie Mom]

Best product I've used is WP Chomp. Picked up at Home Depot.

It did a great job on wallpaper that had been up for about 12 years in one room and a border up in another for about 10 years.

No need to score ... less mess.

Removed the top layer of the paper, sprayed backing on wall, soak, remove backing in long sheets versus small strips. Not all came off so there was some residual that need pulled off but so much better than any other I've tried over the years including DIF, steam, scoring, etc.

 

[MrsPete]

If someone else put the wallpaper up, it's impossible to know whether it'll be an easy job or a difficult job . . . until you get into it. Here's the story of the two bathrooms in my house:


Smaller bathroom -- Removing the wallpaper took about 15 minutes total. The pieces came off it large sheets, leaving behind no residue. Why was it so easy? The person who put the paper up was smart enough to use PRIMER underneath.

Larger bathroom -- Removing the wallpaper took 3 full evenings and was difficult. I had to fight for every little bit of paper to leave the wall. Why was it so hard? Whoever put the paper up didn't bother with PRIMER.

Two morals:

1. Before you hire someone, test a bit of the paper. If it's easy, don't waste your money. If it's hard -- pay someone!

2. If you ever put up wallpaper yourself, spend the extra effort to put up a coat of primer!

 

[ImDMous]

Ugh, just the word wallpaper gives me nightmares. We tried to take down the wallpaper in my grandmother's house. It was terrible 70's foil stuff and it didn't want to go quietly. We tried everything, scorers, steamers, hot water, vinegar, glue dissolver. After 4 people working for a week and about a 2 ft square where it actually came off, we ended up having to hire someone. It was awful and they ended up having to refinish the entire room.