Does anyone have any tips on removing old wallpaper. I’m talking stuff many years old….I am having the worst luck. I might as well hang new drywal!
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The wallpaper paste softening liquids help. A common mistake is not waiting long enough for the paste to soften before attempting to scrape or peel. Be patient.
If any of the layers are impervious to moisture (vinyl, foil, etc.) they need to be punctured with a tool made for that.
A steamer can be effective, too.
Use something to break the surface, especially if it's plastic coated. Rough sandpaper will do it, or you can get a special tool that punctures the surface.
Of course, first check to see if it's "strippable" -- meaning that the surface layer can be peeled off, leaving a porous backing paper that is easier to remove by itself.
happy?
Like Dan suggested, if you can peel off the first layer and leave only the backing, all the better.
I'm not a fan of the "Paper Tiger" though, it only seems to create more work when I use it.
Were the walls sized or was the wall paper applied direct to the sheetrock? If it was applied direct to the paper face of sheetrock expect some patch work when you're finished removing it. That's another discussion though
In my personal experience use DIF, use the white bottle you mix with water, the blue gel in the spray bottle is not as effective in my experience. Use a garden sprayer to apply it, rather then a spray bottle. Get the walls wet, let it sit for 10-15 min, apply it again and wait another 10-15 min. After that you can start to remove it, just make sure to keep it wet. Hot water works the best and it doesn't hurt to mix it a little stronger then they suggest.
To scrape it use a 6" plastic disposable putty knife, round the corners over with sandpaper prior to using it, this will decrease your chances of gouging the walls.
After you remove all the paper you need to wash the walls using the same product and a sponge. Removing all the glue is critical. Even with "all" the glue removed I still like to prime the walls using BIN shellac based primer.
Thanks...this stuff is amazing. We are keeping it wet and tried the blue gel. That stuff makes a mess, water works just as well. The previous owner painted over one room, I'm not doing that..I've already gotten into the paper skin on the drywall in spots. Hopefully I can skim coat it and make it presentable. It sure is a pain though.
You can skim coat it, apply some BIN to the drywall and skim it with durabound.
I've done a bit of wallpaper stripping and I hate every moment of it.
You are right, it is the most aggravating thing on my remodel list. I have run miles of metal in all weather and I 'd take that over stripping wallpaper. This seems to be the worst I've seen, probably due to age. Somebody club me please...
Rent a steamer - IIR it has a flat plate some 10" x 6" and will penetrate several layers that will come off fairly easily. Mind you, there's lots of moisture from it - you'll need open windows or an extract fan!
All the best...
To those who know - this may be obvious. To those who don't - I hope I've helped.
I've done the steamer and won't do it again. Wallwik is what you want. My wife did a 2 story hallway in a couple of hours, and it had some of the worst paper to take off. Most of that time was just waiting for the stuff to work. See wallwik.com
Its a bunch of their felt sheets that you spray/soak with their solution and stick up to the wall (the dampness makes it stick). Just keep the felt wet and 20 mins later the paper just peel off. We scored a bunch of the wall first but it doesn't seem to be needed. You can get it at some paint stores and was worth the money.
The solution seemed to get all the paper and glue off, but we primed with 1-2-3 anyway, afterwards.