Posted Mar 3, 2022, 2:38 PM UTC
Soak the wallpaper with a wet sponge about 5 minutes before scraping and it helps. Use both a sponge and a wallpaper stripper.
Sand the walls once done but if they are in a bad way then a skim of plaster might be the only option.
I feel your pain, I have stripped 3 bedrooms, the halls and stairs and the living room of our house. Very similarly, layers of wallpaper, some of it painted over.
The thing that I found to work the best was wall paper stripping solution diluted in an old spray bottle, spray it over a couple of feet at a time, leave for 10 minutes or so, and give another quick spray before you start to scrape. We have a a heavy duty scraper tool that words much better than the pallete knife style scrapers. Then you scrape off as much as you can, spray the walls again and have another go. Finally, wash the walls down with a scourer and warm water to get the last bits.
Our walls were pretty dinged up after all the scraping, but I went round with a little tub of polyfiller, a pallete knife and a damp cloth, and I managed to smooth most of it out. Doesn't look perfect, but I would say the painted bare walls with minor imperfections look so much better than bumpy wallpaper, tatty anaglyptica, or lining paper that doesn't quite meet at the joins.
If you are good at wallpapering, you could always put fresh lining paper up once you've stripped off all the old stuff. It does a good job of covering terrible old plaster.
If you hate wallpaper as I do, then you can get some special, thick primer paints that do a decent job of covering minor imperfections.
You need some of this;
https://www.screwfix.com/p/zinsser-dif-wallpaper-stripper-concentrate-1ltr/8421j
Follow the instructions, leave it to soak, spray it again and crack on
those reviews sure are positive. Gonna bike over now, I've lost all hope with the steamer! Here's hoping the paint won't scupper that working.
I'm glad someone else posted this - I swear by this stuff. Pair it with a perforator (screwfix call it a paper tiger), get it all scored up, spray that stuff on (make sure to cover up, wear goggles and a mask) - Go have a cuppa and most of it will start falling off the walls.
I tackled the walls in my 1890's victorian terrace - two layers of lining paper, with a layer of woodchip in the middle, came off like a dream.
biked out and bought a bottle of this and some hefty chemical gloves. Neat stuff.
it does work! You do need to score the everliving shit outta it, and give it a good douse. Only 1.5 layers seem to come off at a time with it, and they (for me) certainly didn't come off in one go, still took quite a bit of scraper action.
Far nicer than wielding the giant steam wand, but sadly no pancea for me.
only answer... knock the wall down and rebuild :-).
I feel for you, my first house purchase was like this and I ended up putting up plain paper again and painting it as I could not afford to plaster.
Having recently removed wallpaper (often up to 4 layers + paint) from walls (and ceilings!) of a large house the best method I found was from another post here on reddit which I'll try to summerise. The method was to score the paper in vertical strips slightly closer together than the width of the steamer plate. Soak the wall with ~75/25 water/fabric conditioner solution. Work in relatively small sections. Once previous steps complete - steam the top layer and aim to peel it off by hand from top to bottom (wide scraper can also work but honestly peeling by hand ends up easier and faster depending on the paper). Repeat for the next layer as needed. The most important thing to remember was to take it easy (patience) and let the steam/water do the work, if it's not coming easily give it more time soaking and steam again - whenever you start trying to scrape manually with force it only makes the process slower, physically draining, and increases chance of damage. Good luck!
Either
Score into it crossways, steam and skim over the scores once it's off
OR
Chemical strippers to bubble the paint, strip, repeat for next layer (and the next...)
OR
Blowtorch (wear a mask and open windows)
I’ve tried everything except the blowtorch and they can all be arduous.
One bit of advice that comes up is a mix of fabric softener and water in a spray. Leave it to soak for a while and then strip it. Might be worth pre-scoring too.
The only thing i tried that on was horrible ancient wallpaper which wasn’t so porous though.
I could afford to be brutal as the walls were getting a skim anyway.
Book the plasterer now. It'll make you feel better.
Grim, but thank you. I dread to think what the wait or cost for one of those will be in London…
It's never as astronomical as I imagine. I once got quotes from a plasterer and decorator. One to replaster a room, the other to decorate it afterwards. The decorator was three times the price of the plasterer.
Literally just got a guy to do a room for 300 quid all in. This will give you a very good "as new" finish. However.... whatever part of you thinks they can do this over the remaining wallpaper, kill that part now. It can very easily bubble so soak that paper, watch a short show and then start peeling! Time is main bit here.. wet paper is good and all but you need to give it 10-15min to full soak before it comes off easily...
Assuming 300 quid for a skim?
yup
Sorry to be that guy (contractor) but can you do it? Do you live in London? Is it expensive to live there? Can you do something very well that very few other people can do? Doesn't matter whether you're a doctor or an electrician
Pay the plasterer
oh damn right, and I'm freelance and proudly expensive, I *totally* get it. more I was hoping / budgeting to strip, sand, then just paint... not this hell ;)
Me too. Glad to pay over the odds for good work because that's what people pay me to do!
What is the best amount of prep you can do for a plasterer? Is it really necessary to remove paint?
I removed all our wallpaper (took ages) and as we're a good year or so away from plastering, I just threw a tine of white up for the time being.
Can confirm. We had the exact same situation last week. Started taking off backing paper that (based on the graffiti underneath) was there from the late 80s. Damaged plenty of the plasterboard in the process.
Two walls needed plastering, got a plasterer to come next day, took 3 hours and £160 to reskim two walls and it looked beautiful afterwards.
that seems super reasonable tbh!
The best way I found was close the door and windows, set the steamer going, and spray the walls with a bottle sprayer leave steamer going for and hour or so and keep spraying every 15 -20 mins after an hour go to town with a sharp I.e with a blade. Wallpaper scraper and should be easy
So the room fills with steam
File that under 'Things I never want to do again'. In the 70's I was 21, unsophisticated, and a milkman. A lady customer asked if I wanted to earn some extra money helping her to decorate her bedroom. She said she usually decorated in the nude to save her clothes getting messed up. I thought strange but - no way - I'm not doing any decorating. I think back and blush at my naviety. Good luck - most of us have stripped three gloss coated woodchip wallpaper but never in the nude with Mrs. Robinson. I'm 70 - I wonder if she's still alive daydreaming of her escapades.
Don't do it. It starts as on let's get rid on the wall paper to you have stripped back to brick and trying to find someone to plaster and skim the walls. At one point we found that one of our walks was supported by the 7 layers of wall paper. Just stop patch up and put the kettle on like nothing happened. Unless you love pain then walk steamer and a good scraper you will be done by Christmas 🤣
Yep, I’ve pretty much just come to that conclusion, sigh. The existing paper in the bedroom is shockingly bad condition, too, which makes it even more frustrating
Score the paint then wet it. The scoring will allow the water to soak into the paper under the paint and make it easier to get off. Might have to wet it a few times before it works.
Score the wallpaper first (carefully!) as it helps the steam and moisture get underneath.
I feel your pain, the donkeys who've had my house decided 10 layers of paint on wallpaper was a good idea and then got shocked when the plaster was being pulled off when I tried to take some wallpaper down.. apparently its my fault for the damage 🤠
Good luck! Just have to keep at it im afraid. We had the same situation on our living room, layer after bloody layer! ....i saw another comment said they had to replaster after and we also had to get it replastered once everything was off but it was well worth it.
Steamers are useless. Use a spiked roller, and get it really, really wet. Like spray it down every 30 minutes for 6 hours. Then it'll just peel off with a scraper, or even just pull off in your hand, once you've got it started.
But don't skimp on soaking it.
Using a paint roller dipped in warm soapy water, letting it soak in, repeated 1-2 times before peeling with a paint scraper worked well for us - we could pull it off in strips using that method!
I feel your pain! Just bought a house that's got woodchip in almost every room. I'm scoring the walls, spraying with wallpaper remover and then steaming it. It's painstaking but coming off, slowly.
I have 3 rooms and a hallway to do… 🤪
Have you got a steamer?
Steamer, scorer, scrapers, steps!
Steamer not taking it all off then? Murder if not
aye, murder
Best of luck my man! We had a similar situation here and pretty much steamed the life out of the walls - 2 layers plus paint for us.
Only problem we had was when we did the two bedrooms, the aggressive steaming had blown the original plaster which meant we had to get it replastered... If this is the plan anyway then I say keep going and try to lose yourself to whatever is being played on the radio!
We are currently at the painting skirting board phase... Our backs hurt!
That very much isn’t the plan, though I’ve got a horrible feeling it might have to become it, yay another thing I can’t afford!
https://www.toolstation.com/prep-wallpaper-perforator/p63466
Use this to perforate the painted wallpaper so then a wallpaper stripper works as the steam can go through the holes
Cheers, yeah, already got and using one :(
So sorry. It is the worst. Plus plastering is unevitable
I was told by someone that in hindsight then I should have by hand sponged the walls down with cold water and got it off that way.
Definitely wasn't an option due to the paint over the top...
... Completely hear you with the cost of stuff - my approach is that I'm more than able to do the labouring stuff (lifting, shifting and removing), which goes a long way to saving cash. For instance, I have removed our old bathroom and have saved £££ in labour costs!
Keep going, because it will be worth it in the end, and you'll end up living your home that much more!
Ugh, I'm getting PTSD here. Stripped the back bedroom which had multiple layers of wallpaper, with multiple layers of paint. Blew out the plaster as well but I managed to fix that.
Yet to work up the courage to do the same to the other walls. We're just going to freshen it up and move I think.