Harold Howard is the owner of Harold Howard’s Painting Service, which is based in Columbia, Maryland, and serves Howard, Baltimore, Ann Arundel, Carroll, and Hartford counties. Along with both residential and commercial painting services, his company offers wallpaper removal and other services. Here, he explains how to work with different wall surfaces and wallpaper types when removing wallpaper.
New wallpaper can transform a room from boring to beautiful. But before you can determine the best approach to removing wallpaper, you need to know what type of wallpaper and surface you are working with.
In most cases, walls are either drywall (gypsum sandwiched between layers of paper) or plaster smoothed over lath (either strips of wood or metal mesh). You can usually tell what you have by the feel (plaster is harder, colder, and smoother than drywall) or by tapping on it (drywall sounds hollow, and plaster doesn’t). When in doubt, remove an outlet cover to see the exposed edges. Drywall is more vulnerable to water damage; you must avoid over-wetting it. And use care when you’re scraping because drywall gouges more easily than plaster.
What about the wallpaper? Be optimistic: Assume that the paper is dry-strippable. Lift a corner of the paper from the wall with a putty knife. Grasp the paper with both hands and slowly attempt to peel it back at a low angle. If it all peels off, you’re home free. If the wallpaper doesn’t peel off, or if only the decorative surface layer peels off, you must saturate the wallpaper or the remaining backing with water and wallpaper remover solvent and then scrape it off.
Some types of wallpaper, such as foils or those coated with a vinyl or acrylic finish, are not porous. If you’re removing such wallpapers, you have to scratch, perforate, or roughen the entire surface to let the solution penetrate below the nonporous surface to the adhesive. You can test for porosity by spraying a small area with hot water and wallpaper remover. If the paper is porous, you should see it absorb the water immediately. After the paper is wetted, you can scrape it off.
Now that you know what you’re dealing with, you can choose an appropriate removal technique for the entire surface. Depending on your situation, you can choose one of three wallpaper removal approaches: dry-stripping, wallpaper remover, or steam.
