Hi guys,
Last weekend, the wife decided that the wallpaper in the downstairs bathroom had been there long enough (only 20 years or so !) and it was time for a change. We decided to strip it off and go with paint. The paper was the vinyl type and the vinyl layer came right off with a few tugs, leaving the paper backing glued to the wallboard. I did a search of breaktime and everyone that commented on the subject said that paper steamers were not worth the trouble, so I armed myself with a bucket of DIF and hot water, started soaking and scraping. After about an hour, I had managed to make a mess of a 4″ square section of wall and decided to call it a day. The DIF was not only softening the paste and paper, but the paint behind it, making it almost imposssible to remove the paper without scarring up the wallboard.
Fast forward to this afternoon…….I decided I was going to rent a steamer, so on the way home from work I stopped at HD and went into the tool rental section. Figures, thier steamer was broken ! Back to the wallpaper section, and I found a Wagner 705 steamer for $47 Figured what the heck, it was $30 a day to rent the broken one, I might as well buy one (can’t have enough tools !). Glad to say, it is one of the best tool buys I have ever made. Finished the rest of the removal in about 1 hr. Probably about 110 sq ft of paper. I had already scribed it with a “paper tiger” tool and once the steam hit it it came off almost by itself. I will probably spend more time spackling the mess I made without the steam than I will finishing the rest of the room.
Just wanted to let you guys know that these thing work !!