Re: wall paper removal

Laurie wrote:

Ron Lyle wrote:


I plan to remove the wall paper in the kitchen and I need all the
infomation I can get. The wall paper was installed over 15 years ago
and has a raised pattern, therefor must be removed.



Depends on what you are going to do afterward - repaper or paint (with or without texture). I'm in the process of stripping wallpaper from about $1800 sq ft of house and retexturing/painting. Some of the wallpaper is 3 layers of progressively ugly wallpaper thick. :-)

If you want to repaper, maybe you'll be lucky and find it is peelable and/or strippable. Then all you have to do is peel a corner loose and pull - nice long strips should come free, leaving the paper backing behind. Once you've peeled everything off, make sure all seams are tight and then you can size and repaper.

If you want to paint -- or if your wallpaper is not peelable/strippable -- you will have a harder job. You should score it and then either rent or buy a steamer and go section by section - steaming in order to melt the glue and then pulling the paper off. DON'T tear off what you can first - big mistake as you then are left with tons of little bits to pull off after steaming (BTDT)! Once that is all done you can either sponge the remaining glue off the wall, repair any damaged spots and then either prime or texture.

Good luck!
Laurie




I've stripped a lot of wallpaper, but never used a steamer. If the surface doesn't peel off as Laurie describes, I score it with extra coarse sandpaper, running it lightly across the paper surface and being careful not to dig into the wall. Spray warm water a couple of times, waiting about 5-10 minutes each time for it to soak into the paper/paste. Scoring across, rather than vertically, helps keep the spray from running down the wall. Start peeling/scraping, always taking care not to gouge the wall. It will probably take repeats of this step to get all the paper off, and it is messy, but work at one strip at a time. Put down plastic and an old towel or newspaper to help soak up the mess. It isn't necessary to get every last bit of paste off if you are going to repaper, but it often shows through paint because of the texture left behind by paper. I usually wait until the day after removing paper to wash it down and remove the last of the paste just to give the wallboard a rest and keep it from being damaged by the moisture. Only once have I run into wallpaper paste that didn't soften quickly with water, but it did eventually wash off. .... Windex helped.
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