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How to easily remove wallpaper

So you are faced with this dilemma? The horrid wallpaper from the 70s? And you have no idea how to get it off?? I mean, you could just sheet straight over the top, but that’s expensive!

Recently I was faced with this challenge…. A house FULL of wallpaper! I needed to find an easy way to get it off! 

How to easily remove wallpaper

What you need

  1. A garden pressure sprayer
  2. Bottle of fabric softener (cheap stuff will do)
  3. Wallpaper scoring tool
  4. Paint scraper

How to start

  1. Score the walls. By this I mean run that wallpaper scoring tool in all directions over and over. The more you score the easier the fabric soften gets in and behind the wallpaper, dissolving the glue.
  2. Mix about 4 capfuls of fabric softener in to WARM water in the garden sprayer.
  3. Then spray the wall (you’ll need to do this about 4 or 5 times). So, score an area, spray the wall, and then move on to score another area. Then come back to spray the wall again. You won’t need to score again, but you do need to spray the wall a few times. You might leave about 20 mins between spraying. Work in sections so you know where you are up to.
  4. You’ll KNOW if you have sprayed enough because the paint scraper will easily slide under the wallpaper and lift it off. If it doesn’t, then wet the area again (warm water and lots of fabric softener will do the trick!)

It’s so messy! But it works so well.

You’ll get the hang of it and start to work out how much water you need to start lifting it.

After it’s all done you may find some glue residue still on the walls. A light sand will be required.

If there’s still lots of glue, you know what to do, wet it again and scrape again!

Good luck. KC.

One comment

  • Roger Beilby

    In regards to removing old wallpaper I have found by removing as much as possible the face wallpaper dry this will reveal the backing paper wet with water allow time for the water to penetrate the backing paper wet again do a small section at a time , once the backing paper has been removed allow the wall to dry completely, if your going to hang new wallpaper sand down the walls to remove all bits of old wallpaper re size the wall and hang your new wallpaper, if your wanting to paint these walls the walls would need to be washed down thoroughly to remove the old adhesive failure to do so would result in the new paint system cracking, we have often come across such problems so once the old wallpaper has been removed and the walls sanded we apply a lining paper once dry paint over the lining paper. By applying a lining paper it’s quick, clean and most of all it a dry process. Finally never use a steam stripper on solid plaster walls .

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