How To Remove Wallpaper

Have you ever tried to remove old wallpaper? It has got to be one of the most frustrating, simple remodeling tasks. That is unless you don’t know the best methods for doing it. In this post, I’m going to show you…

How To Remove Wallpaper

When you enter the isle at your local home center and view all the products for removing wallpaper, you may become a bit overwhelmed. They have tools and products that claim to make the job easy and painless. Some work…. most don’t!

There are a few things to understand about wallpaper before you begin:

Newer wallpaper has a vinyl outer layer and is supposed to be strippable. Strip-able they say… ha ha ha… that’s funny!

 Older wallpaper has a paper outer layer and clings to the wall like paint. Of course you’d like to skip the removal step and paint right over it but don’t! It will never work.

Most of the wallpaper removal products I have used have fallen short when it comes to… actually removing the wallpaper. If they work at all it will be on the older wallpaper with the paper outer layer. They trouble is… sometimes you just can’t tell what the heck it is.

Since these products are a liquid solution, they must penetrate the surface to loosen the glue underneath to work. If you have a vinyl layer of wallpaper, the solution will never penetrate the outer layer enough to actually loosen the glue.

If you have vinyl (paper too) wallpaper you will need a scoring or perforating tool. A wallpaper scoring tool is small, will fit in the palm of your hand and will give you a bit of a workout. The perforating tool is a bit larger and would probably work a little better if you have a larger job.

The first thing you will do is score the wallpaper. The wallpaper scoring tool has four teeth like wheels that swivel to puncture tons of tiny holes in the wallpaper and cost you about $10.

Since you hold this tool in the palm of your hand and you need to literally cover the entire wall with tiny holes, you could have some sore arms by the time your done.

The wallpaper perforater is a bit larger and will cover move area with less effort. It does the same thing as the scoring tool, just a little faster. It cost about $20.

Once you have holes in your wallpaper you’re ready for the next step. You could attempt to use a spray solution and spend all day scraping off the wall paper with a paint scraper… or you can rent (or purchase) a wallpaper steamer.

A wallpaper steamer remover is the way to go period! You will spend at least $20 purchasing the liquid solutions and spray bottles or you can purchase a Wagner wallpaper steamer remover for $50. Is your time worth an extra $30? If you are removing wallpaper from an entire room you will actually spend more money in liquid wallpaper remover than you will purchasing a steamer.

Once you put the steamer to work, the wallpaper comes off easily. You may have to apply a scraper to stubborn parts but you will cut you time dramatically leaving more time to spend doing the things you love!

Hope this helps you do it yourself!