Wallpaper removal tips

Shaffe

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The wife and I closed on our first house yesterday, now its time to get to work on it.

The house is very late 70s lol, so lots of wallpaper to come down. I went to the hardware store yesterday and picked up some Chomp(Wanted DIF but they didn't have any) and score tool and some scrapers.

Anybody got any other useful hacks or tips for getting wallpaper off?
 

skwerl

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I've tried in the past and came to the conclusion it's often easier to just replace the drywall. Or if you have room just get the thin 3/8" stuff and go right over the top. If you end up scraping it off you will likely need to skim the drywall anyway to fill in gouges from your scraper.
 

joe_momma

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I've tried in the past and came to the conclusion it's often easier to just replace the drywall. Or if you have room just get the thin 3/8" stuff and go right over the top. If you end up scraping it off you will likely need to skim the drywall anyway to fill in gouges from your scraper.

This. Removing wallpaper is a major undertaking, and a serious pain in the ass. Removing OLD wallpaper is worse. As mentioned, you'll likely end up messing up the wall and having to patch/skim coat what you end up with.

You can always try it, sometimes it comes off OK. Use a lot of the removal goo, and score the crap out of it. Let it soak, and then hit it again before you scrape it. Depending on the glue used, sometimes a steamer will help.
 

Fosters

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I've removed it from an RV, but that was on wooden panels, not on drywall... that Chomp stuff worked great. it works much better if you take off the shiny top layer, which rips out fairly easy in any wallpaper, and then spray the spongy sublayer...

I'd tell the wife: Honey, I've checked with the home improvement forum and they all agree, all drywall needs to come out, and for best results, we need to add 1000 ft of CAT6 cabling to the house.
 

Johnf78

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Do no score it unless it is a solid vinyl, you will do more damage to the wall then good, tends to put a million tiny holes in the dry wall. If it is paper the remover will be able to soak through.

Removing wallpaper totally depends on how the walls were prepped before hand. If they were prepped properly it will be easy to get off, if it wasn't then it is a pain in the rear. There are two kinds of wallpaper, Peelable and strippable. One you are supposed to peel the face off and it leaves the backing, the other gets stripped off all together. Do a test spot and see if the face comes off. If it comes off soak the backing, let it sit for 10 minutes, soak again, wait 10 more minutes. Upon the third soaking try removing. I use spackle knives unless it is really really on there, stripping blades can dig into the wall and cause more damage very easily. If the facing doesn't come off use the same process to remove.

Good luck, like others have said, it can be a nightmare but it helps a lot to know the right steps to do.
 

tjm73

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Wall paper removal is easy if the drywall was painted before the wall paper was put up. All you need is fabric softner in a spray bottle. Spray it on. Let it soak in for about 30-45 seconds and scrap the wall paper off. I got so good at it I could scrape it off in sheets. I used a plastic scraper but it got dinged up and I replaced it with a metal scraper. Worked better.

The fabric softener also acts as a lubricating fluid to prevent wall scouring. Get one that you like the smell of, because the whole room will smell of it.
 
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mfergel

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Wall paper removal is easy if the drywall was painted before the wall paper was put up. All you need is fabric softner in a spray bottle. Spray it on. Let it soak in for about 30-45 seconds and scrap the wall paper off. I got so good at it I could scrape it off in sheets. I used a plastic scraper but it got dinged up and I replaced it with a metal scraper. Worked better.

The fabric softener also acts as a lubricating fluid to prevent wall scouring. Get one that you like the smell of, because the whole room will smell of it.

This. Also, I get one of these tools. It scores the wallpaper with a bunch of holes and helps in allowing that solution to soak in behind. I've never had problems removing it using this method.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Piranha-Wa..._clickID=20c7cdf5-286f-4df9-9bea-51cc0217f030
 

AR Stang

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I've tried in the past and came to the conclusion it's often easier to just replace the drywall. Or if you have room just get the thin 3/8" stuff and go right over the top. If you end up scraping it off you will likely need to skim the drywall anyway to fill in gouges from your scraper.

This. I went days trying to get old wallpaper off my old house years ago, and ended up saying f@ck it and bought new drywall in the end. The stuff had been up so long it was bringing down chunks of the old drywall with it.


I did the solutions you leave on it, and the wall roller deals that didn't work for a damn. Wallpaper is awful.
 

'14StangGT

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Years ago, we used some stuff called Zap

Came in a non aerosol spray bottle.

Soak it in - then wait ......
Soaked thru the wallpaper and dissolved the glue, and then I took a scrapper and it came off like wet newspaper...

The hardest part was just waiting ... It's not a spray on and immediately take off.

Worked real well for use - should be at your local Home Improvement store ...
 

waylander

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use a wallpaper steamer works like a charm


this ^^^

something like this for the steamer...

334.jpg
 

Shaffe

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Update

So in the master bedroom we have two styles of wallpaper. The majority of it is the paper style above a chair rail. Below that is the vinyl style. The decorative layer up top is not peeling off easy, so scored it and soaked it with the chomp. That stuff works ok, picked up some DIF today to try that.

The vinyl paper peeled off with no problem, all i have to do is soak the back layer and that stuff scraped right off.
 

slow06stang

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You can steam and scrape it, or peel the face off and squirt water on the brown paper/adhesive layer left, let the water soak in(you will see it darken as the water soaks in) and spray again and scrape with a mud knife. You can also use good primer on it remove any piece flaking and mud over the seams then paint. Remove the drywall and replace. Overlay the drywall with 1/4 or 3/8 inch. I normally just peel the facing off and soak the adhesive paper left and scrape it.
 

oldVOR

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Update

So in the master bedroom we have two styles of wallpaper. The majority of it is the paper style above a chair rail. Below that is the vinyl style. The decorative layer up top is not peeling off easy, so scored it and soaked it with the chomp. That stuff works ok, picked up some DIF today to try that.

The vinyl paper peeled off with no problem, all i have to do is soak the back layer and that stuff scraped right off.

This is what we ended up with in our home as well; paper, vinyl and cloth wall coverings in different rooms.

The vinyl and cloth wall coverings came off easily and left very little adhesive that wasn't too bad to get off and left a fairly clean wall behind.

The paper was a different story, after trying one room and ending up with the outer layer of sheetrock paper peeling off, we decided to take the sheetrock down and put up new. This actually went faster than expected in the other rooms and is what I'd recommend when the wall covering is paper. In as much as I don't like mud work, I'd do that any day over removing wall paper!

I don't know why this stuff was the rage in the 70's......
 

tjm73

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I don't know why this stuff was the rage in the 70's......

Fast to put up. Easy to put up. Looks decent when first put up. CHEAP!

Just like stucco/popcorn ceilings. Every God damn ceiling in my house. I hate it.
 

oldVOR

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Fast to put up. Easy to put up. Looks decent when first put up. CHEAP!

Just like stucco/popcorn ceilings. Every God damn ceiling in my house. I hate it.

We had three ceiling like that (family room, living room and foyer), did the same thing, took down the sheetrock and put up new. We tired painting it prior and it didn't turn out that great.

Had a couple walls that were wood paneling and took that down as well. THAT was much easier and behind each was an unfinished sheetrock wall. Applied fresh mud, sanded, primer and paint. Wish the wall coverings had been that easy!!!!!
 

Shaffe

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Ended up getting a steamer, peeled right off with ease. Scraped right off, got the walls washed up and had to do some patching where there was gouges nothing to serious though. Got it primed over the weekend and hopefully should be good to paint today.
 

tjm73

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It's not too bad once you get into it. Also helps if you just resign yourself to having to deal with any damage you might cause and just get on with it.
 

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