# Wallpaper: The work of satan



## 302XR7 (Jul 2, 2006)

Hi my names Tyler I'm new to this forum, and as you can tell from the title of this post Im having trouble with removing wallpaper.Any how heres the story:
We bought our house in 2001 and have been planning on changing the paint in our bedroom. So yesterday after 5 years we decied to go look at paint, we found a color(it's a sort of a toapish color) and decided that we would try and paint our room tomorrow. Well today we started around noon and moved all of our furniture out of the room, and finally started on the wallpaper. After 6 hours of scraping at that wallpaper we've only gotten about 5 feet of it off. This is a problem because theres about 50 feet of it. We,ve tried spraying it with this Dif stuff thats suppose to help remove wall paper , and we've used one of those small round things that spins and puts holes in the wallpaper, not to mention we've sprayed warm water on the wall in an attempt to loosen the wallpaper glue. So if any one knows of anything that will help get it off a little faster please say somthing, Thanks .


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## glennjanie (Jul 2, 2006)

After you have sprayed the Dif on the perforated paper, is the surface wet behind the paper when you scrape it off? Dif is an enzyme product which will eat regular wallpaper paste and the paper should almost fall off. If the wall is not wet behind the paper, then the perforations are not effective. Some slit the paper very lightly with a razor blade to allow the liquid to penetrate. Be careful not to cut the drywall paper facing behind the wall paper. If this doesn't work, someone has used a different kind of glue (Elmer's woodglue). In that case just cuss the installer and keep scraping.
Glenn


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## manhattan42 (Jul 10, 2006)

What kind of wallpaper? Vinyl? Paper?

Is the existing wallpaper already painted?


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## pqglen (Jul 10, 2006)

I have found that fire and or explosives works real well to remove wallpaper...just kidding it takes alot of labor and paitence to terms that often mix like oil and water good luck. I have used some comercial steam machines before with mixed results

pqglen


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## disneyrsh (Jul 11, 2006)

Here's what my parents used to remove 5+ layers of wallpaper from a prewar house.  They took boiling water, vinegar, and fabric softener, mixed them all together, sprayed it on the wall, and that stuff started dissolving like crazy.  You're probably going to have to google the ingredients to find the exact ratio, my mother doesn't remember it anymore (she says she's blocked it out), but it really worked.  That Dif stuff didn't work at all for me, either.


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## Square Eye (Jul 11, 2006)

Dif doesn't always work, but when it does, it's great! I've used it and had varying results. It's usually better than most other products I've tried.


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## ks_tornado_chic (Jul 18, 2006)

Something that helped us remove the 5(!!!!  ) layers of wallpaper from the plaster in our house was using a sponge saoked with warm (or Hot) water and putting it on the seams. Most of the places curled right up and we were able to scrape with a putty knife. Otherwise we soaked and scraped along. Another helpful thing to try is if there are any bubbling spots, cut that open and pull.... it should come off in sheets. keep the warm water handy though to wask the walls, and put KILZ up on the bare walls before putting the paint on.... the color will look better.


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## Paper Hanger (Jul 22, 2006)

Unfortunatly all wallpaper removal jobs I do are different. Every wallpaper comes off different and so much depends on how the previous installer prepared the walls. The most important thing is to try and remove the vinyl facing from the paper backing. Most papers it will seperate. Try pealing from the top or bottom and determin what end it is coming off easier. I use a razor blad to start it off or a window scraper for removing paint off glass. That tool holds a razor blade. Dont dig into the drywall. Once the facing is off the backing can be wet several times than removed. Stay ahead of yourself when wetting it down.

Hope this helps ,
John Aufiero
http://www.wallpaperyourwalls.com


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## crispiddy12 (Nov 6, 2006)

my g/f and i have been remodeling our house for the last couple months and we came accross the same problem...  she used DIF on a few rooms that had wall paper. she saturated the walls with the DIF and hot water...50/50 split...
then the paper came right up with a wall paper scraper....   the bathroom that we tried doing this weekend however did not go so good using DIF...  i think it was just contact paper on the walls cuz i didn't see any type of glue...  i ended up ripping everything out and put up new drywall...  figures

wallpaper is definetly the work of satan


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## akradar (Nov 13, 2006)

I re-did the bathroom, and had some wallpaper to take off.  It was old, and looked like c&*^.  I grabbed and pulled and got most of it off, then began to paint.  The primer went on, then I noticed the wall was bubbling in spots.  Turned out I only got the top layer of wallpaper off, and the wetness of the primer was helping the rest.  Wet a sponge with warm water, then scraped.  It all came off, and went OK after that.  I had my kids wetting the paper while I scraped, so they stayed ahead of me.  My neighbors warned me of an impending divorce possible when wallpapering with your spouse a long time ago.  But they also said if "any marriage survived that, it's built to last".  How true....


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## RaeBeth (Jan 21, 2007)

When I moved into my house, the kitchen had 70's era fruit and veggie motiff border. After threatening to knock down the walls and rebuild, someone told me to use warm water with Dawn dishwashing detergent mixed in. Just get the water as soapy as possible, scoop the bubbles off the top, and put it in a spray bottle. The clean up is a mess, but no more so than any other way. Also, a spackling tool (flat metal edge type) works great for scraping it off. Spray it down, give it a minute or so to absorb, and it should come right off.


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## dekor8r2008 (Jan 24, 2008)

LOL, this post makes me sad! I love wallpaper. Yes, I know... most people tell me I'm crazy. But I'm not a huge fan of plain colors... idk, maybe I am crazy!


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## spirits (Apr 23, 2008)

Removing wallpaper can be frustrating.  All the previous posts are correct.  It just depends on what kind of paper you have.  One summer day I spent the better part of the day stripping off the paper in our kitchen.  i worked all day and just was able to remove 1 panel.  My husband came home, took a utility knife and scored the paper in grids(careful not to get the plaster behind the paper)  Then he soaked it well with water and it came off much better.  It was foil wallpaper and scoring it helped the water soak in. Other wise the water didn't penetrate very well and came off in tiny strips. To top it off it was paper I had picked out years before.  I should have known better since I had done this before just not on foil.


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## fred333 (Apr 24, 2008)

That is the worst when you have to take down paper that you picked out years before. My wife and I did that same thing.


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## mnuttall (Apr 24, 2008)

Been lurking here for a while now, but had to sign up to respond to this thread.  My wife and I bought our (first) house one year and one week ago.  It's a 1920's foursquare.  I'm pretty sure that it had every layer of wallpaper or paint ever applied still on the walls.  Since we both hate wallpaper, and painted over wallpaper even more, we decided to strip it all off.  Every room had between 8 and 16 layers   of wallpaper on every wall - and ceiling.  It's a 2,400 square foot house so I'm sure you can all imagine just how much fun we had stripping it all...  Luckily it was all over plaster which makes it much much easier.


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## daniel2229 (Apr 29, 2008)

OK, I have to repsond to this thread! My wife and I wallpapered every room in our house when it was in vogue. Then, of course, when the wallpaper became tired or out of style, we changed it or removed it all together.

We have used DIF, and in most cases this stuff works well, especially when sprayed constantly from a bottle.

Well, a few weeks ago we did remove the Vinyl Wallpaper from Hades! As Sadam would say, the mother of all wallpapers!

We used the tool to craze the surface, sprayed DIF, and waited a few minutes. Pieces of vinyl began falling off the wall -- one inch at a time!. Then the backing had to be treated just like the outer surface. What a job!

My first response was to pour gasoline of the wall and burn this stuff off, but that would leave the adjoining rooms reeking of gas! So, I got out the big guns -- the steam cleaner wallpaper remover!

There are lots of these babies on the market, the one we used was a Wagner. It is so much easier than the old propane tank steamers that you had to fire up outside your door. Plug it in, add water, and let 'er rip.

Wow, do they work. Now you just soften the paper backing, and the paper comes off easily.


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## PaintIdeas (Oct 26, 2009)

I remember pulling the wall paper from my parents walls when I was a kid for hours on end. It is not a pleasant experiences. I found this blog post that I thought had some great tips. Hope it helps. 

Paint Ideas · Blog · Wallpaper Removal Preparation


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## taperguy71 (Sep 17, 2010)

I thought I would throw in my two cents here. Actually I agree with what Paper Hanger said, the best way is to first put some poly on the floor and tape it to the baseboard then dry peel off the wallpaper facing and lay the paper on the poly, peeling as much face paper off as you can. Next get a hudson sprayer and fill it with hot water (just hot water nothing else). Next soak the wall letting the water saturate it, keep soaking. Then with a 6'' puttyknife start to scrape the paper backing off the wall, now the ease at which it comes off depends on what type of wallpaper paste was used in installation, don't be afraid to soak the heck out of the wall. After you have removed the backing paper the wall will feel slimey, that is the residual paste left on the wall. Now you must get that residual paste off  or when you paint the paintjob will develop cracks called crazing that is from the paint reactivating the paper paste before it dries. So the best way to get that paste off is to wash the walls with warm soapy water and to continuously feel the walls as you go to see if the slimeyness of the paste is gone. Then after the walls are dry just patch the bad spots with spackle and prime.


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