LF: Wallpaper advice

[coffeegal]

I have all the patience in the world, but it is starting to grow VERY thin:mad:. Besides wallpaper remover, has anyone used anything else to make wallpaper come off easily. The lady at the paint store suggested liquid fabric softener and hot water, that works, but it still does not come off easily. I know its a tedious job, but if anyone has any suggestions, I am open to listen:D, thanks.

[nadia.m.]

I've had quite a bit of experience and may be able to help. A few questions first:

how many layers are there?

Are you removing it from drywall or plaster?

Is there paint under the wallpaper and if so, do you want to remove that too?

[coffeegal]

Thanks for the offer, at this point ANY help is appreciated, lol. I live in an older home, so I figured there would be LAYERS of paper, and was quite surprized to learn there was just the one. There are two types of a paper and a border in the middle. The bottom is vinyl and comes off fairly easy. The border and top paper is what is difficult. Plaster or drywall, hmmmm. I am a real dummy when it comes to this stuff. Just a plain old wall underneath, does that help, lol. I have border and wallpaper for the bottom and I am going to paint the top.

[nadia.m.]

have you tried a round scouring device to puncture the paper and let the water/removing compound penetrate into it? That may help.

But if you have unpainted drywall underneath, it is sometimes better to remove the wallpaper dry instead of wetting it, because the water just causes damage to the drywall and actually makes removing the paper slower. If you have plaster, you don't have that worry. Plaster would look like - grayish, whitish, yellowish - porous crumbly stuff. Drywall has white/grey crumbly stuff inside layers of paper/cardboard.

[Chinna Dah]

I have always had luck with liquid fabric softener, the trick is to really soak it down, use a water mister in a spray bottle, yes it will hurt your hand after awhile, but once it is soaked, let it sit for about 10 mins. Just before you start scrapping it off with a metal scraper, spay it again, it should peel right off.

P.S. this will make a mess on your floors, so if you have carpet, you will want to put some plastic down to protect the carpet.

[momof2sweethearts]

I feel for you, we bought an old house years ago now and we had layers upon layers to take off. My husband was so annoyed in one of the rooms he eventually just knocked down the gyprock and put up a new one. The best thing to do is get as much off as you can without water as someone mentioned, sometimes if you can start an end alot will rip off along with it. The glue underneath is the hard part, my husband used the device from Kent that scrapes it ,wall paper remover and the metal scraper , and it works easier when the glue is soaked in the remover for awhile. Good luck, its the worst job ever!! I thought this was going to a post on advice for wallpapering and I was going to advise not too, LOL.

[coffeegal]

Finished it today, wooo hoooo, with a little help from everyones advice, Merci, Merci, Merci!!!!!
Of course it helped listening to Mamma Mia as I was doing it, lol.
Oh and momof2sweethearts, you are right, I will NEVER do it again, lol