Removing Wallpaper Guide

For a long time wallpaper was “in” and people covered every single inch of their house in the stuff. It has been known, on occasion, that some have even wallpapered their ceiling! One of the biggest problems withwallpaper is that it is very hard to remove; luckily there are some tips and tricks for getting it done without too much of a headache!

Preparation

Before you start there are few things you need: a wallpaper scorer or scraper, a bucket of warm soapy water and a sponge – and then you’re all set.
Take the wallpaper scorer and score along the wall in a series of reasonably close lines. Make sure you do this gently as you do not want to harm the plaster underneath. After all, if you’re not wallpapering again this is going to be your wall.

Next, sponge soapy water onto the wall to soak the paper – a good tip is to start at the bottom of each piece/sheet of paper and move your way up to the ceiling. Once you’ve finished return to where you started and re-soak an area about 3 widths of paper wide.

The next step is simply the scraping. This is where you need to apply a liberal sloshing of elbow grease. Work your way up from the bottom the sheet to the top removing all traces of paper along the way – making sure you don’t damage the plaster underneath of course. If you repeat this process as you go round, re-soaking a few areas ahead you should be done in no time.

Vinyl covering

If you are unfortunate enough to have vinyl coverings you may be in luck – often these are very simple to remove. Take a corner up with your wallpaper scraper and hopefully it should all come away with a firm and even pulling motion. Once it has been removed wash down the wall to get rid of any left-over adhesive. Some vinyl covered wallpapers have a paper backing, to remove this, once the vinyl has been removed, use the same process as you would for ordinary wallpaper.

Finishing touches

Inspecting the wall carefully once it is dry and clean is important, finding and cracks and holes is a must before painting. Otherwise all your effort will have gone to waste. For small cracks and holes you can use fine filler while larger holes or cracks will need something more substantial.

Finding any loose plaster by tapping the walls can save you time later – it’s much better to find it now than after you’ve painted it. Remove any parts which could potentially fall off in the future.

While filling cracks and holes you should attempt to make a smooth surface finish. Leaving a filled-in are slight raised is a good idea, as you can always sand it down afterwards.

Now that you’ve got a pristine wall you can probably start worrying about what colour to paint it!