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I have removed a lot of wallpaper - often multiple layers with paint over the top. We had three houses with wallpaper floor to ciling and even on the cielings. Since I enjoyed doing it, I went and helped neighbors rmeove their wallpaper from time to time. I also remvoed some at a church. I have probably removed as much wallpaper was people who do it for a living (becuase they usually only remove wallpaper occaisionally, and mostly hang it or paint).
I have tried all of the various methods and had some success with pretty much each one. What seems to work the best is to get a garden sprayer, soak the wall with hot water mixed with DIF (I mix it stronger than the bottle says to). Wait an hour and soak it again. You may want to repeat this one more time. Then go at it with a PLASTIC scraper. One you get an edge up, it should peel right off. Sometimes it will literally fall off the wall after a couple of soakings with DIF>
If you have stubborn wallpaper, it may need a lot of soakings, The wallpaper needs to stay saturated with DIF for a considerable amount of time and it should be wet (not damp) when you are scraping.
If regular DIF treatment is not working, get a device called a paper tiger. Get the big one with three circles, not the little one that is only one circle. Use the paper tiger in random motions to score the paper, you need to really rip it up. Do not press hard, or you will rip up the drywall under the wallpaper. It will take quite a bit of paper tigering to get the wallpaper opened up enough to allow the DIF to soak through. Sometimes, you have to rip it up so much that the wallpaper looks like a bunch of shredded paper (the brown or white of the actual paper is all that is remaining visible. It is rare that I ever had to do that much, but in a few places it was necessary. Fortunately, the paper tiger is very easy to use and kind of fun. My kids even liked to do it.
After you have the tiger chew it all up, soak it with hot DIF a couple of times and it will come off. You will have to work at it a bit, it will not peel off in big sheets like non stubborn wallpaper does, but it will come off. Keep it very wet, so you are scraping gooey muck off the walls.
TO remove the glue, spray DIF again and then scrape it off. Then use a scotch scrunge (the coarse side) and a bucket of hot DIF. Hove two more buckets one with hot water one empty. Dip in DIF, Scrub the glue off, dip in hot water, wring into the empty bucket. dip in hot water and wring again, then dip in DIF, scrub, , , , repeat. I did nto like the results when I put primer over the glue. The texture of the glue remained visible. If you use a thick shellac based primer (Zinnser makes one) it works OK but still nto great, plus you may get paint fialure later. Make sure it is the Shellac based primer or you will not be able to fill in and cover the glue. That other expensive primer (popular name that i cannot recall) makes a shellac based version as well.
It really is not as awful as it sounds. I really enjoy removing wallpaper. I find it rewarding. The key is to soak it a lot with hot DIF and keep it wet. The stubborn stuff is a pain, but as long as you keep soaking and soaking it as you scrape, it will come off and then you can be happy.
Of course be certain to cover your furniture and floors with plastic before spraying DIF. You may want to cover yourself too, but I never did (just my eyes). I am not sure what DIF is (my FIL says that it smells like an amine - he is a chemical engineer), but it never seemed to hurt my skin, hair or clothing. Note I am not recommending that you apply DIF without protection, just saying that I did it and did not seem to have any problems.
A couple of other tips. Do not use the paper tiger on wet or damp paper. It will gunk it up. Do not use metal scrapers unless you have really hard plaster. They will rip drywall to shreds.
Do not paint over wallpaper. The wallpaper is too soft and the paint will chip and peel and then the wallpaper will be five times harder to remove. If a piece of wallpaper comes off, you will not be able to fill the area with paint. You then have to remove the rest of the paper, or skim coat the area (bad idea), or just have it look bad. Skim coating over paper is bad. It eventually falls off. Further, it it very difficult to remove later.
The key to easy removal is to get the DIF to soak through the wallpaper and dissolve the glue. DIF on top of the paper does nothing. Keep it wet wet wet and make sure it is soaking through. Vinyl paper is very difficult. DIF will not soak through it. You have to get an edge, soak the edge and then peel off as much as you can, soak the edge again and repeat. It is a painstaking process.
If you do not have moldings, you can always put 1/8" drywall over the wall and just finish it and paint. I would not recommend skim coating over wallpaper. (tried that). If the wallpaper later comes off, the skim coat comes off.
DIF does not have to be hot to work. It just works a little bit better if it is hot. Steamers do not work as well as DIF and they are messier, harder to set up and clean up, and you generally do not want to do just little bits with them. With DIF, you can come home, do a 4 foot area and then go out to dinner and do some more tomorrow.
When it works right, and the wallpaper comes off in sheets, it is really quite fun. I have done whole rooms in less than two hours. Other rooms took four weekends of hard work, but eventually came clean.
PLaster is a million times easier to remove wallpaper from than drywall. If you have drywall where the wallpaper was glued right to the drywall paper (no primer or siezing) forget it. Just rip out the drywall and replace it. You will do so much damage removing the wallpaper that you will have to skim coat the entire wall. It is far cheaper and more efficient to just replace the drywall (or cover it up with 1.8 drywall - see above).
\If you have drywall where the wallpaper was glued right to the drywall paper (no primer or siezing) forget it. Just rip out the drywall and replace it. You will do so much damage removing the wallpaper that you will have to skim coat the entire wall. It is far cheaper and more efficient to just replace the drywall (or cover it up with 1.8 drywall - see above).
WOW...i wish you are my neighbor. I think this is exactly the situation for me, wallpaper on drywall. Thanks for the tips!
Just FYI, after reading this thread I emailed a friend of mine who bought a house about 6 months ago that had wallpaper on two of the bedroom ceilings. There was no way she could have done the removal herself and so she got several painters in for estimates for the removal. I wasn't sure how much she ended up paying so I asked. She says it cost $375 for each ceiling done (wallpaper and glue removal, then a sealing primer added) and that each bedroom was 12x14.
She says it came out beautifully though.
I'm pretty sure that putting up 1/8" sheetrock wouldn't have worked for her because all her rooms have crown mouldings, ceiling fans or recessed lights, and air conditioning vents.
Just FYI, after reading this thread I emailed a friend of mine who bought a house about 6 months ago that had wallpaper on two of the bedroom ceilings. There was no way she could have done the removal herself and so she got several painters in for estimates for the removal. I wasn't sure how much she ended up paying so I asked. She says it cost $375 for each ceiling done (wallpaper and glue removal, then a sealing primer added) and that each bedroom was 12x14.
She says it came out beautifully though.
I'm pretty sure that putting up 1/8" sheetrock wouldn't have worked for her because all her rooms have crown mouldings, ceiling fans or recessed lights, and air conditioning vents.
I used a Pampered Chef nylon scraper to remove the leftover glue. It worked much better than a typical scraper because it was small and I could apply pressure to the edge against the wall where I needed it.
Yes, $375 each. She said all the other quotes were $400 or more each so this one was the most reasonable.
However I should mention that overall, here on Long Island most everything seems to be anywhere from a little to a lot more expensive than in some other parts of the US (except for places like California and similar major metro suburbs) ... so the going rate here isn't necessarily indicative of other areas of the country.
For instance the average cost for a pro to repaint an average to largeish (say 15x17) bedroom with 2 coats of paint on the walls and ceiling ranges from $400 to $500 depending on the grade of paint (something like Benjamin Moore's 'Aura' will be more because it's like $50/gallon versus $30 for standard latex flat). And if the trim is done also, it will be at least $500.
The same friend ended up having about 3/4 of her 3200 sq ft house interior repainted (no trim and only a few ceilings; no bathroom walls, no closets) and the best estimate she got was about $3500 including the Ben Moore paint. All the other estimates were well over $4000 just for labor (paint would be extra). The $3500 guy was the same one who came in with the best price for the ceiling wallpaper removal. I took her guy's contact information for future reference because he really did a beautiful job (just him and a helper) and in this area his prices are definitely competitive. He also doesn't charge sales tax if paid in cash.
My former neighbor paid $15K about a year or so ago to have their 4500 sq ft colonial's interior completely repainted (trim, ceilings, everything) before they put it on the market.
Add me to the list of folks who vote against painting over wallpaper. I promise you can see the seams and if the wallpaper is not on the wall good, it will bubble and fall off (causing more problems).
Something else to try, if the print of the wallpaper is coming off and leaving a backing on the wall, strip the print off the wall then do DIF. When I use DIF, I mix 1/2 the bottle to 1/2 the recommended water. Hot as I can stand it. Get a sponge and saturate the wall and take a putty knife to it.
Our hallway in our first house was so horrible after we stripped the wallpaper, that we used a textured paint over the wall. If you ever re-wallpaper, please use wall sizing. It does make take off TONS easier!
Good luck.
We just moved into a house that had/has wallpaper in two of the bathrooms. I started with the smaller half bath. I tried scoring the wall with one of those things they talk about but I think that was a waste. What worked for me and worked really well once i got the hang of it was fabric softener. And I used the cheap store brand mixed with water in a big spray bottle. I filled the bottle up about a third of the way with the fabric softener and then topped it off with the water.
First I pulled paper off the wall while it was dry leaving the soft layer with the glue behind it. Then spray a large section of the paper with the mixture and let it sit about ten or so minutes so it has a chance to soak in. Then I would respray it to get any areas that looked dry. Then I used a metal scraper and once I got a little area started I could run the scraper straigt up and it just peeled right off. I worked in small sections because once it dried you had to spray all over again.
The key was giving it about ten minutes or so to soak in and not starting right away. Once I got going it worked out smoothly. While one area was soaking in I was scraping another area. I just had to be really careful with the metal scraper not to tear up the dry wall.
I still have to do the master bath which is much bigger and will probably take a lot longer but I'm not dreading it as much as I was the other one now that I know how to do it.
To remove I helped my borther in law that had alot of experience in help his neighbor do it. he used a thing that pufeated the paer then a steam gun. He later sanded the walls and retextured then primed and painted.The was two year or so ago and swa it a coupe of weeks ago looked good.
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