Advice on Wallpaper Removal

Where to begin....

1) You Will Hate Wallpaper
I cannot stand looking at wallpaper and I cringe when I get emails from Lowes telling me I should put wallpaper up (they now sell paintable wallpaper).  I knew when we bought the house that  it would take a lot of sweat and elbow grease to get the wallpaper off the walls (every room had wall paper on it), but I didn't realize it would take this long.  Or be as difficult as it has been to get off.  and don't get me started on the smell of wallpaper glue.

2) The Key is Water
From our experience of getting wallpaper off the walls the best thing to get it down is a scraper and water.  Hot water works best, but cold water will do just fine.

 The easiest thing to do is get a strip or corner or the wallpaper and get that saturated.  

Not just wet, saturated.  And then wait.

You then peel as much off as you can.  Typically more wallpaper will come off and the backing will be left on the wall.  All you have to do is get it saturated and continue until you are done.

I usually have two sections going at a time.  I spray one section and peel section two.  When I am done I spray section one and peel section two.  This seems to give the wallpaper enough time to really get to the back of the paper.

3) Try Everything
I think we have tried everything but vinegar on the walls to get the wallpaper down.  We used so much Downy Fabric Softener that I cannot smell it without getting sick..  I am not a fan of using the tiger shark tool.  If the paper is too thick, it doesn't work.  If the paper is too thin, you damage more than you can fix.

I will say that DIF gel works well on stubborn paper.  I used it on one of my bathrooms.  It makes the paper wet without making the wall behind it wet.  (The only time this is a problem is when people do not prime under the wallpaper.  Making taking if off a pain.  Wallpaper on un-primed walls should be illegal.


4) When in Doubt, Paint Over It.
 I admit I have.  I have two bathrooms that were not primed before the wallpaper went up.  I struggled for weeks on the half bathroom.  Practicing the delicate art of making the wallpaper wet without making the drywall wet.  I had to prime and paint over a few very stubborn pieces that would not leave the wall at all.  I then had to skim coat the majority of the wall. :(

I got smart and decided to paint over the wallpaper instead of damaging the wall. I used bonding primer from Lowes because it fries in 10 minutes.  This leaves little chance for the wallpaper to get wet enough to peel off the wall.  I then used a stain blocking primer to hide the wallpaper pattern.  It was a lot less work than taking the paper down.  The only thing I had to do between primes was to skimcoat the joints of the wallpaper so they would not show through.

5) Be Patient
It will come off and you will do a great job.  Take your time and do it right the first time.  It is a bigger pain to have to go back and fix walls.