Choosing a Wallpaper Removal Technique

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. Among providing other services, such as painting and drywall installation, his company puts up and removes wallpaper. Here, he explains various wallpaper removal techniques.

The technique you use for removing wallpaper depends on what kind of wallpaper you’re taking down and what kind of surface is underneath. There are three main approaches to removing wallpaper:

Dry-stripping

If a wallpaper is dry-strippable, you need to loosen each strip at the corners with a putty knife and slowly peel it back at a 10- to 15-degree angle. Don’t pull the wallpaper straight out; otherwise, you could damage the underlying surface, especially if it’s drywall.

After you remove all the wallpaper, follow the adhesive removal procedures the next section describes. If only the top, decorative layer peels off, leaving a paper backing behind, it’s a peelable wallpaper. Dry-strip the entire top layer and then follow the steps in the next section to remove the backing and adhesive.

If you plan to apply wallpaper again and the old backing is secure and in good condition, you may be able to hang the new wallpaper right on top of it. It’s best to discuss this option with your wallpaper dealer.

Soaking and scraping it off

To remove non-strippable wallpaper or any paper backing that remains after dry-stripping a peelable paper’s decorative layer, use warm water and wallpaper removal solvent. Soak the surface with a wallpaper remover solution. Although a spray bottle works too, the most effective way to get the solution on the wall and not all over the floor is to use a paint roller or spray bottle. Then scrape the soggy paper off with a wide taping knife or a wallpaper scraper.

Don’t wet a larger area than you can scrape off within about 15 minutes. You shouldn’t let water soak into drywall for longer than that or it may cause unnecessary damage. Usually, you can wet about a 3-foot-wide, floor-to-ceiling section at a time. Scrape off the wet wallpaper and let it fall to the floor. The canvas dropcloth or towels that you put down will absorb most of the dripping solution and keep your shoe’s soles clean.

If the wallpaper is nonporous, you have to roughen or perforate the surface so that the remover solution can penetrate and dissolve the adhesive. To roughen the surface, use coarse sandpaper on either a pad sander or a hand-sanding block. You can also use a neat gizmo called a Paper Tiger or another perforating tool devised for use on wallpaper applied over drywall. The rounded edges on these tools help ensure that you don’t cause damage that may require subsequent repair. Don’t use the scraper after the wallpaper is wet, though, because you could damage the drywall.

If you’re successful in using the soak-and-scrape approach, you can finish up the job. If not, it’s time to pull out the big gun: a wallpaper steamer.

Giving it a steam bath

You’re talking major work if you have to remove more than one layer of wallpaper or remove wallpaper that has been painted over. And if the wallpaper was not applied to a properly sealed surface, removing it without damaging the wall can be next to impossible. For these tough jobs, you may have to rent a wallpaper steamer (about $15 for half a day) or buy a do-it-yourself model (about $50). A wallpaper steamer is a hotplate attached to a hose extending from a hot water reservoir that heats the water and directs steam to the hotplate.

Although you can use a steamer and wallpaper scraper with relative confidence on plaster walls, use caution on drywall, as it it much more vulnerable to water damage and more easily gouged.

Fill the steamer with water and let it heat up, and keep a baking pan handy to put the hotplate in when you’re not using it. Starting at the top of the wall, hold the hotplate against the wall in one area until the wallpaper softens. Move the hotplate to an adjacent area as you scrape off the softened wallpaper with a wallpaper razor scraper and let it fall onto the plastic as described in the preceding section. When you’re finished scraping one area, the steamer usually has softened the next area, depending on the porosity of the paper.

Here at Harold Howard’s Painting Service, we are experts at removing wallpaper. Please call us with any of your wallpaper removal needs.