wallpaper removal

What were your experiences removing wallpaper from your walls? Just about every room in our new house has wallpaper.

Re: wallpaper removal

Our master bedroom had horrible wallpaper on it and it was a pain in the a** to get off mostly because there was noting underneath it and was probably on the walls for 50 years. I think a steamer would work better then the wallpaper remover they sell in teh stores...it took 6 people a weekend to take all the paper off a 10x10 room and we ruined some the sheetrock. good thing my dad was able to save it and did a great job spakling.

Re: wallpaper removal

We just removed wallpaper from our diningroom that we put up about 6 years ago. It was on a primed surface so it was surprisingly easy to remove. Usually first the paper comes off and then the backing. We rented a steamer from Taylor Rental and in total a 10x12 room took us 3 hours with no sheetrock damage. I hope yours goes as smoothly

Re: wallpaper removal

We had wallpaper throughout our entire house when we bought it, including the ceilings in some rooms. We had professional remove it, it was well worth teh money to have it done. Our walls were perfect afterwards. It took 2 guys one whole work week to take it off, it would have taken us months to do it, if we could ever even do it right. It can be a real biotch.

Re: wallpaper removal

Wow, I'm glad to hear it can be done!
We have wallpaper in our master bath and hallway.
I bought the wallpaper remover months ago but I've been scared to use it. I don't want to ruin the sheetrock.

Re: wallpaper removal

I removed wallpaper in a spare bedroom when we moved in with Hot water and Fabric softener in a spray bottle. I first used a "Paper Tiger" on the wall. It puts little tears in the paper so the solution can go behind. I sprayed it in sections and let it sit 15-20 minutes and it came off very easy.

Re: wallpaper removal

Wallpaper removal is a nightmare!!!! It was the worst project we took on in rennovating our house. We like to do everything ourselves but this is one project I wish we had hired someone to do. If you have tons of wallpaper I highly recommend hiring a professional to take it down.

Re: wallpaper removal

When we moved in we had to tear down wallpaper in the dining room and a few borders in the living room/master BR and it was a NIGHTMARE!

I suggest Diff, friends, and a lot of patience.

Re: wallpaper removal

I bought the steamer and it kind of works But in some rooms it was making the drywall crumble. I highly recommend "Diff" they sell it at walmart. I ended up using about 7 bottles in the 6 moves I had to remove wallpaper.

Re: wallpaper removal

We used DIF, made by Zinsser. It worked great!! Didn't take long at all to take my DD's wallpaper down in her room.

Re: wallpaper removal

Re: wallpaper removal

wallpaper removing was my job for all of feb. every inch of our house was covered in 40 yr old paper. the best method we found was scoring it, then steaming it and gently scrapping (try to get it off in big pieces). We used DIF gel for a while. Pirana spray gel from Lowes better though... spray it on, then scrap off. Wet rough scrub the remainder

Re: wallpaper removal

Thanks for all the input, we are going to try everything, and if all else fails, we will hire a professional.

Re: wallpaper removal

We had a ton of wallpaper too. i learned that the age of the wallpaper was key. The newer wallpaper came off no problem - a little hot water and time to pull it all down.

The old 1965 stuff was impossible. I needed a steamer from HD - Dif does nothing for it. took me 12 hours to do 8x10 room. I got an estimate of $900 (to repaint too) from a professional!

Re: wallpaper removal

I've heard that soaking the walls with water mixed with Downy liquid fabric softener works really well.

Re: wallpaper removal

I think this is the WORST home improvement project.

It all depends how well the wall was prepared before (primer, how long ago it was installed, etc..).

You need to score the wall paper with that "tiger" tool.
I used DIF (but does not always work)

I never tried the steamer but heard it works (sometimes)

The main problem is not the removal it's actually not to take the paper of the sheetrock off. Then you have holes all over and you have to repair all the patches.

Re: wallpaper removal

My dad is a painter/ wallpaper hanger. He had us use a mister with hot water mixed with DIF. It worked really well. We had no problems at all.