Stripping Wallpaper

And so the fun began. Only a couple of hours after closing, we were stripping wallpaper…in our dress clothes!

Tools we used to remove wallpaper:
-spray bottle with warm to hot water
-paint scraper, both plastic and metal worked fine, but the metal gouged marks in the drywall if we weren’t careful to approach it at the right angle
-big yellow sponges
-a couple of large buckets filled with water that is as hot as your hands can bare!

We thought about using a chemical-based wallpaper glue remover, but in the end, good old water and patience did the trick. And it’s safer.

  
There were 2 layers. Thanks to the seller’s cat, the job was already started for us on some walls :-) We picked up where it left off!

The backside remained glued to the wall after we easily pulled the top layer off. This is where the warm water in a spray bottle came in handy. We sprayed sections at a time, letting it soak in and loosen the paper. Five to ten minutes later, we would return to that section and use the scraper to get under the paper and lift it off.

The kitchen wallpaper was an older type (if you couldn’t tell by the pattern)...it didn’t want to come off in layers like the living room and hallway.

 

 

We had a much harder time removing it. LOTS of patience was needed here!

When all the paper was removed, it was time to wash the walls and get rid of excess glue.

Hot water and a big yellow sponge did the trick...and repeatedly washing sections at a time. And, any hidden glue that was left was eventually either sanded away or covered with primer.

We attacked it ferociously, and finished removing all wallpaper in the living room, hallway and kitchen in about 3 days!