Removing old wallpaper, whether you simply want to change the style of your home or you bought a new home, is a time-consuming chore. There is no easy way of peeling off sometimes years-old layers of well-glued heavy paper.
However, there is a right and wrong way to do it. If you do it wrong, you may end up damaging parts of your walls, warns Advantage-Properties.com. But, if you follow the methods outlined below, you can make your wallpaper removal easier and preserve your walls too.
Before you decide to remove the wallpaper
Note that removing the wallpaper will involve using water or solvent on your walls. The damage this can cause may be far costlier than the benefits of removing the wallpaper. Before you proceed, you should also ask yourself these questions:
- Is it completely necessary to remove the wallpaper?
- Can I change the design of the home without removing the wallpaper?
- Is there a chance that the wallpaper can be painted over and no one would know it is there?
If after asking these questions, you still think the best option is to strip the wallpaper away, then proceed as recommended below.
Important things to think about
Three things will determine the difficulty level of removing the wallpaper, namely:
- The age of the wallpaper
- The type of wallpaper
- The walls of your home
Required tools for wallpaper removal
- Razor scraper, putty knife or broad knife for lifting edges
- Spray bottle for applying warm water on the walls
- Drop cloths for laying over floors
- Wide masking tape to tape the edges of the drop cloth to the baseboard molding
- Wallpaper removal solvent for softening the wallpaper, in place of warm water
- Wallpaper scorer to make cuts in the wallpaper
- Water bucket, rags, wall sponges, rubber or plastic gloves, mask, and goggles.
- Rental steamer; if necessary
How to safely remove wallpaper
Step one: Prepping the room
- Remove everything hanging on the walls – décor, pictures, etc.
- Remove the plates around light switches and outlets. Tape over switches and outlets.
- If this will not keep water out of switches or outlets, shut-off electricity to the room.
- Remove all furniture to avoid them getting warped by steam.
- If you can’t remove any furniture, cover them with a drop cloth.
- Lay a poly sheet or drop cloth over the floor and tape along the baseboards. This will keep glue, water, and chemicals from running into your floors and baseboard.
Step two: Scoring and soaking
- Go over the wallpapered wall with the scorer. The goal here is to make tears in the wallpaper to let the water/solvent penetrate to the adhesive beneath.
- Use a light touch, do not press hard to avoid gouging the drywall or plaster behind.
- Pour your soaking solution into the spray bottle. This could be hot water mixed with a little fabric softener or hot water alone. It could be a chemical stripper.
- If you are using water, make sure to keep it as hot as possible.
- Choose a section of the wall – about 4 square feet – and soak with the solution or water.
- Wait five minutes to let the wallpaper soak, if you are using water.
- If you using a stripper, wait 15 minutes or follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.
- Avoid waiting too long so that your walls don’t soak up the liquid and become mushy
Step three: Start stripping
- Use the knife or scraper to lift the edges of the softened wallpaper and peel it away.
- Use a wall sponge to remove remnants of glue and wallpaper.
- If you find another layer of wallpaper beneath the first one, do not try to remove it. You can only remove one layer at a time.
- If you do all these and the wallpaper refuses to come off, you will need to use a steamer.
- If there is coated wallpaper on the walls, you definitely need to use a steamer.
- Using a steamer is like ironing your walls; the pads can generate enough heat and steam to ruin your walls, so be very careful.
- Removing furniture pieces from the room is important when using a steamer
- The steaming pad should not be left on the wall for longer than 30-40 seconds. This should be long enough to soften the adhesive and let you peel off the wallpaper.
- When you use a steamer, remember to use gloves and open all windows.
Finally, if you have succeeded in removing all the wallpaper from your walls wait, at least, two days for the walls to dry before you repaint it or do any repairs.
But if this looks like a lot of work, which it is, you might want to talk to the experts. Professionals have the right tools and experience; they can remove old wallpaper in record time, without damaging your walls.
