I moved in to a house that had wallpaper glued on so hard that after many hours of exhaustive steaming, scraping, peeling, etc. I took an old belt sander with a super coarse grit belt and ran it up and down the walls with light pressure then used hot water and a sponge. After soaking for just a minute or two I was able to peel it off in large sheets, rewetting with hot water as it got harder to pull. This made a huge difference in time and effort.
25+ years experienced painter/wallpaper remover here. Use liquid dif or pirahna remover mixed with hot water in a garden sprayer. The liquid remover has an enzyme in it that breaks down the glue. Dont use a scoring tool, ever! You have to apply it up to 10 times and be patient. In between applications I use my time to clean off adjoining surfaces. Sometimes I have to remove the top layer of paper if it is vinyl. But most of the time the paper will come off in full sheets. Use the rest of the remover to get remaining glue off of the walls, then rinse with hot water twice with a sponge and prime with Gardz or pro-999. I can do a whole bedroom in half a day. Only problem is if paper was applied to bare drywall or plaster with no sizing, primer or paint on it beforehand. Then its a nightmare. Do all removal jobs by the hour, that way you are guaranteed not to fail!
Hey man I've been painting for about 5 years now and we've done a fair share of wallpaper removal. We always used a wall paper steamer and a 6 inch mud knife. You ever give that a try? I'm wondering how it compares to your method
Great video, as always Ben! Everyone seems to use a different method. The steamer didn't work for me but I work alone. A steamer may work better if two people are on the job. One person scrapping while the other person is steaming the next section. What worked for me was hot water with a squirt of dish soap. I load a 1 gallon garden sprayer and spray a good portion of the wall, then walk away for about 15 minutes, then spray again and walk away. When you return in 15 minutes, try lifting a corner and peel away. Most likely you'll have to spray again, but you find a few spots that have been penetrated by the water/soap mix. Focus on those areas. And yes, you are correct; a collection of worn drywall knives work very well. For this work, I have found that patience is the most important tool in my tool box. Without it, you will be doing a lot of repairs to the paper layer of the drywall. Yes again, peeling large sections of paper off the wall is very satisfying, like peeling a sunburn! I have enjoyed your videos over the years. Thank you for posting them and please keep 'em coming!
Hey Ben, being born in Germany 61 years ago, I grew up with wallpaper around me and got involved with having to strip it off, suffered through your struggles and then installing new one. Stripping old wallpaper off remains a challenge! Time and patience always work best. I can feel your satisfaction of pulling off the top layer, then soaking the paper underneath... In my local area, once in a blue moon, I keep getting referrals for wall paper installation. I always love those.
So did we. We bought a 1960 home with approx 2500 board feet of wallpaper throughout the house. We ended up buying our own steamer from Home Depot (Wagner I believe) and it worked great. Very messy but that is unavoidable.
Had a job a few years back where we stripped wallpaper. Those scorers are more trouble than they're worth. Our combination of Dawn dish soap and fabric softener in a spray pump of warm water was most effective, but not foolproof. If you can get the outer layer of the wallpaper off that helps trememdously, but not always possible. And don't forget to rinse the remaining wallpaper paste off the walls after removal before painting. Thanks for the vid. Brings back a few not so special memories!
Spraying warm soapy water on it works really good. Start from the top and work your way down. Completely saturating the sheet. Once the brown is exposed keep spraying and it will come off in big pieces. Commented before watching the video.
Doing handyman jobs over the years I have found that a steamer and a wide plastic putty knife works best for me. Keep a sponge to mop up the run off of the water and you will be good!
Just watching this triggered the memory of the flavor of wet cardboard. I’ve done wallpaper removal several times and it does something in the air to make that flavor. I swear, I don’t eat the stuff!
Ben I could have really used this video a couple of months ago when I started patching holes in a closet in my 150yr old house. I didn’t realize the previous owners had painted latex over 3 layers of wallpaper. The walls were pretty rough but I just figured it was the old plaster and it was just a closet, albeit one with a 10ft ceiling and I didn’t want to drywall it. This was going to be just a quick patch up and paint. Well the moisture from the mud made the wallpaper start blistering. Next thing I’m peeling painted wallpaper. I Had very similar results as you by the way. Every time I thought I had it peeled to where it wouldn’t come off anymore I would take a break and come back to find more peeling. It was just a nightmare. So frustrating! People just remove the wallpaper, don’t paint over it.
I just removed the wallpaper from my bathroom. It peeled off very easily in full sheets. No issue there at all. Yesterday I spent the day removing the glue. To remove the glue I used a spray bottle from the Dollarama and. a yellow plastic putty knife. Underneath was thick wine-colored paint on the top half of the wall and light pale green on the bottom. I now have a lot of spot repairs to do on the wall where the paint lifted and I removed a chair rail and underneath there is paint and in some spots exposed torn drywall paper. Your videos are helpful.
Nature did the work for me. We bought our house like 6 years ago. 100+ years old with original plaster. Every room had wallpaper that the previous owner has painted (badly). Even the ceiling in the hallway upstairs and stairwell. We bought the place from the bank after it had sat vacant for 4 years. The freezing and thawing over that time pretty much killed all the glue. Almost all of it came off in full sheets. The paint on top of it held all the paper together and kept it from ripping for the most part.
I just moved into a wallpapered home a month ago. Living room, dining room, kitchen and master bath all papered. Wagner steamer worked but it took a while. Just peeling the top layer and using a large sponge worked better. I imagine the steamer is good for some types of wallpaper. The sponge is also great for removing the glue residue. Even the parts where the top layer didn't peel nicely to expose the bottom layer worked well with a sponge by wetting the edges the capillary action seems to draw the water under it and helped remove the paper.
I've removed wall paper from 4 rooms in my house. Three of them were pretty easy. We removed the outer paper and then soaked the inner paper and removed it the same as you. The kitchen was an entirely different story. The only way to get the kitchen wall paper down was to score it and use the gel you didn't like. Even then, it made a mess of the underlying wallboard outer layer which we had to repair. Still, after applying 3 skim coats (thanks for the vid), it still turned out well. Now I have just one tiny bathroom in the house with wall paper. I think I'll keep it for old time sakes :) EDIT: we used a steamer as well. Our steamer has paid for itself 10 times over.
Had wallpaper in my house at some point. Other areas had oil paint. Last homeowner decided to paint latex over both. I tried removal in my dining room. Thought it was all good so then I “sealed” the wall with Kilz clear. It is supposed to be a sealer like guardz. Couldn’t find guardz. Then started to skim coat walls. The just kept peeling and peeling. Thought I would have to rip out drywall and replace it was so bad. Kilz clear is a terrible product. Found out later all I had to do is hit it with Kilz original oil based primer and that would have sealed it up and saved me a bunch of headache. I have done that in other rooms since and it works great. Painting latex over oil. People are so dumb. I have literally had to scrape every wall in this house. They look really good now thanks to all you have taught me. Been meaning to post on here and just say thank you for everything. You were kinda bummed out a few videos back. Keep going. I learn something every time you post and I am extremely grateful. I wish I could work with you as I guarantee I wouldn’t be one of these guys you didn’t have much luck with. My walls look amazing thanks to all the training you have provided me with.
A little while back I removed ancient wallpaper from several walls. I found 7 layers in some spots. I used a putty knife and a heat-gun (using a sprayer with warm water with a bit of clothes softener worked great in most areas). The layer touching the wall had to be sanded in some places. The weird thing and that paint would drip from the walls later. I believe it was some kind of chemical reaction between the wallpaper glue and the drywall. The only solution I found was to dilute both primer and paint. I applied 4 layers of primer and than 8 layers of paint on those areas to have a nice finish. The work looked perfect but you can imagine the time and effort it took from me.
had to do a half bath last year. Wallpaper just wouldn't come off for love or money. Finally just skimmed the whole bathroom right over the wallpaper. Added a squirt of dawn and a shot of PVA and mixed it all up. Worked a treat.
UK handyman here. I suspect we are a bit more used to it as a wall covering here. Most of the paper manufacturers recommend peeling the face paper off as a method, indeed many of them are designed to work that way. If it comes off well and the wall is in good nick the remaining backing paper can stay on and be used as a lining paper, though I prefer to take it off. For stubborn wallpaper you can't beat a steamer. Apply to a small area with the off hand and work behind it with a stripping knife. You do need to be a little careful with it though, t0o hot and/or too long and it will blow the plaster.
Or quickly run a palm sander over all the wallpaper. This will allow the wallpaper to easily become saturated with the hot water you will soon apply with a pump sprayer. You will want to wet the wallpaper down at least a couple of times. This will make the removal go 5-10 times faster. No need for the broad knife, either.
G'day, Here in Australia, I've found the steamer to work well. I do think you were really lucky with your wallpaper. So thanks for sharing the knowledge man ✌️ Peace from Melbourne Australia.
Score with a scoring tool. Mix a splash of fabric softener into a gallon sprayer of HOT water. Spray wall. Let it soak for a min or two, scrape away with a 4" drywall knife. Works beautifully. Clean wall afterwards, prime with oil based primer, finish with latex.
I like to use a garden pump sprayer and hot water and patience. Saturate, wait about 10 minutes and saturate again. As you stated, use an old 6" knife to scrape it off. Usually works well and leaves the walls in good condition.
The wallpaper I had to remove wasn't so forgiving. It absolutely refused to separate from the glue paper. One thing I found was to NEVER use a spray bottle because it ended up oversaturating the glue paper, and soaked into the drywall paper. This caused the drywall paper to peel off with the glue, and expose the darker brown paper underneath. What I ended up doing was using a 5 inch orbital sander, and fluctuated between 80, and 120 grit paper. Since I knew the whole job was going to be a nightmare, I pre-emptively bought some Kilz spray primer for the exposed darker paper. Doing it that way allowed me to not be as concerned about any damage because I knew I'd be priming, and patch-coating anyway. Since I'm a homeowner, and not doing it as a job, I had the luxury of not having to find the quickest way to do the work. I've learned that sometimes the quickest way isn't the best way. The job will take however long it takes, and trying to take shortcuts almost always results in less-than-desirable outcomes.
I feel for ya. I also had a nightmare wall once, of course one that went up to vaulted ceiling so ladder work. It was over orange peel texture as I recall, so the bumps made for no smooth long scraping, it was inch by inch. That was with water spray , no steamer if I remember right.
I use a Paper Tiger (perforator) and what has worked best for me is using light pressure so that I’m only perforating the vinyl surface layer. Then I wipe the perforated wallpaper with a well soaked sponge, wait a few minutes for the subsurface layer to absorb enough water to loosen the adhesive and start scraping. I agree that a well worn taping knife is the best scraper.
What's worked in our home, plaster over lathe walls: perforating tool, sponge on warm water, get the face off by mostly pulling it off, then soaking the backing and scraping off with a putty knife.
Once upon a time there was a product called WallWik and it was a wallpaper remover. You scored the walls then soaked large sheets of fabric(kinda similar to large dryer sheets) in wallpaper Remover and stuck them to the walls. Then sprayed the fabric to keep it wet for about ten minutes. Then peel off the paper. It was amazing. No fixing torn or gouged drywall. And the sheets would almost come off in one piece. I still have it and it still works better than anytime else.
What worked for him, has worked for me in most cases. With older types, we used to skim coat and re wet, lhe mud holds the moisture on, until it starts peeling, then scrap it down.
Hey Ben I had a nightmare getting the paper off in my guest bath that I re-rocked the room I was remodeling the whole bath any way and I think I saved time and sanity dong it that way. I have a feeling your like me and you would never paper a room for love or money. Cheers...
gardz product is amazing at sealing old glue into something that is solid to mud and paint on. I’ve removed thousands of square feet of all paper and always use gardz with amazing results
I had to strip almost an entire house and what I found worked the best was a mixture of warm water and fabric softener. Soak the paper pretty well and then let it sit for a couple minutes. After that it would scrape off pretty easy. Some spots had some stubborn glue but not too bad.
I used a steamer to remove wallpaper from my entire house. It's messy and steamy of course but really worked very nicely. I tried the other options Ben did also found them not helpful. I didn't have wallpaper where the front separated leaving the back as his did. That technique worked great for him. Fortunately I have no wallpaper left to worry about.
The razor scraper ended up being the best solution on the 3 layers of very old wallpaper on my interior plaster walls. Got real good at it. Obviously had to skim it before paint anyway.
Depends on the situation. Sometimes, its almost easier to board right over wallpaper with 1/4inch drywall. Steamers work the best if its really old. Its still time consuming and messy though.
Beautiful job! Was the upper surface (above where you suggested you might repair with plaster) previously painted? Our worst experience removing wallpaper on drywall was multiple layers that were originally applied over unprimed (!) drywall. That was a disaster!
The couple of times I've done it I scored it with a knife and just used a very wet sponge. If it doesnt come off with just water then it will probably not bubble if you mud over it. Of course, priming the nasty spots always helps. Can even be done with cheap spray paint, just smells a lot.
Helped my Brother take off old wallpaper from several rooms in his very old brick home that was part of the Underground Railroad in our area. We worked as a team and would take turns either steaming or using the scraper on the plaster walls. It worked well for us, but I wouldn't want to "voluntarily" do it again.
Don't have a wallpaper story to share - just a thought for a potential future video: repair or refinishing of lath and plaster walls. very curious to know if you've any experience in this, if there are particularities to it, type of plaster used, etc. It's very clear that it's a different ballgame - and perhaps just a distant cousin of jointing, but still... would be curious to see you or even a collab on that subject.
Used same method years ago, spray bottle with just warm water/putty knife and it worked great. Horror story, one room previous owner had painted, wallpapered, painted, then wallpapered over and over. Must have been 3 layers of paper with layers of paint in between. Made such a mess to take it all down to the Sheetrock.
As a painting contractor that has done MANY MANY wall paper removals, water is all you need 9 times out of 10. Warm water is best. Mask the floor with plastic and tape to catch as much water and wall paper pieces as possible. Spray light coats of warm water. Every 10-15 mins another light coat. Eventually it will come off in sheets. Scoring has always made a bigger mess than not scoring. As shown in the video, try to remove the top layer of the wall paper. Some wall paper - especially the kind that has a foil backing is nearly impossible to remove. In that case, seal it with oil based or shellac based primer then float it with mud. Without sealing it first, it will likely bubble. In my whole career there have only been a few times that I couldn't get the wall paper off. I always do my best to remove it, and only go over it if a truly cannot get it off. Some of the REALLY old wallpaper was glued on with a type of glue that didn't soften with water, and if its glued on that well there is really no reason to remove it.
I've used the Dif product and razor scraper to get some wallpaper off, but in two rooms I'll likely never touch before moving, I'd have to get a steamer because test areas were awful, since it was painted over, apparently not put on a backing, or being strippable wallpaper. The Paper Tiger tool did help some, but not enough to really matter.
what ive found works well is to just paint it. oil based is best. when the paint sticks, and shrinks as it dries, it pulls the paper apart and causes it to start pealing on its own
I think the reason modern wallpaper can be difficult to remove is that it has a microscopically thin layer of PVC (vinyl) on the surface of the paper. This makes it very water-resistant. Loved your cheesy RUclips montage!
I did my bathroom about four years ago and did basically what you did. I dont know if the fact that it was "pre paste" had anything to do with it, but I can recall stripping wallpaper with the paste that had to be mixed and that was a nightmare. In my case, I allowed my five year old grandson to go at it since he was the one who started it to be begin with, but for the most part it was only about three to four hours to completely strip it.
Uhhg, As professional painter, ive spent hours and hours and hours doing wallpaper removal; we always dreaded these jobs XD. It all honestly depends on what kind of wallpaper it is, and whether or not it was properly primed out when it was installed. If it was properly installed, we found getting a big bottle of Roman/DIF remover concentrate, putting it in a big sprayer with the hottest water you can get, and absolutely drenching the wall with it, and then keeping it wet, and wet again, is the only way to get this stuff off quick in a way that won't utterly destroy the wall. If it's got facing, that'll come first, then repeat the steps like in this vid. Stay the heck away from the scoring tools, that just makes it worse, and makes the paper come off in smaller pieces. Once the backing comes off, it's important to get the transparent glue off as well or it'll bubble through whatever layer of mud or primer you put over it. If the wallpaper install wasnt primed out right, there's no way you're getting it off. The best method we found if the paper won't come off, is to treat it like drywall paper, OIL prime the entire wall, and just go over it. If the seams show though, simply mud them, its way easier than destroying an entire wall with a putty knife.
I had exactly the same experience using the spray and perforator a few years ago when I had to remove some really old-fashioned wallpaper from a wall. the shit was like rawhide glued to the wall. It took me about two weeks peeling little strips off here and there. I can't remember what I did to finally get it all off glue and all but eventually it did turn out pretty decent for a ham-handed amateur.
I have a job coming up where most of the wall paper has been peeled off and its a relatively small area. I was thinking of taking my Rotex 150 with some 60g and eating through everything, then doing a skim coat or two. Just curious on peoples thoughts on this (be honest, its ok, i can take). Thank you!
I’ve just started doing a removal. I’ve tried separating the top layer but it either just comes off in small bits or it brings the drywall paper with it. I’m assuming the drywall wasn’t prepped. I’m looking forward to a long process.
The trick is, like you found out, remove the face layer first. Try to figure the best way to gut underneath of the particular paper you stripping. You can usually pull off in full sheets. Then the best way to wet the paper layer underneath is with a pump up sprayer. Need to figure out the timing and mount of water to use. Not to dry, not too we. Once you find the sweet spot, not always, but usually you can pull off WHOLE SHEETS at a time, which this paper would have done easily. Scrap a whole sheet horizontally with a 6 in blade then get under the edge and it will pull off in whole sheets.
All of our bedrooms have at least 3+ layers of wallpaper, and some with paint over like 2 layers. We had to use warm water with a drop of fabric softener, and the razor blade tool since there were so many layers that it would take forever to get down to the bottom. Instead, I got good at skimming…
Years age I had customer wanting kitchen & dining room with peal & stick wallpaper removed. I'm talking about clear sticky adhesive not paste & adhesive wasnt water soluble. I told them NOT interested unless it was time + cost bid as no way was going to bid any other way. Ended up talking to contractor that was foolish enough to give fixed bid & told me lost his backside as couldn't remove clear adhesive from drywall 🤣 it's better to walk away then take a $ hit IMHO 😁
I used Dynamic and it destroyed the wall that was papered over drywall. Now I have all these divots!!! My entire house was wallpapered, so this was not my first time on the dance floor.....spray bottle and sponge with soapy water worked well. Now...how do I fill in those divots? Don't have time to search for your video.
Use a spong with hot water . Wet it, wait for it to absorb a bit , wet it again and start peeling . Use a mud knife 6",8",12" and get under it and it will peel right off. If its not peeling wet it again, you will know its ready when it comes off with little effort. Its really easy
Fine. My story, it was on the plaster ceiling, not the wall..tried that wallpaper *tractor* and it was of little use. Found divide and conquer to be best. Plain water on the edge of what is already gone, a 2" putty knife, and perseverance. Some spots were trouble, other spots were easy.
I had to take wallpaper off the ceiling of a stairwell. It was a nightmare. My neck and shoulders were so sore. To make matters worse the vinyl layer came off in 1” pieces.
It’s really situation dependent. Some wallpaper is ready by scoring it and getting it wet-I do have plaster walls. I’m come across two layers of wallpaper, or some more impervious wallpaper, where a steamer is the only thing that worked. Hate the stuff. It’s taken years to get rid of. I’m a painter at heart.
I once stripped wallpaper that had been installed with some sort of glue instead of wallpaper paste. Tried everything, but it came off in slivers. It would have been faster and cheaper to remove the drywall and start from scratch.
we owned a cottage that had a pretty dated pink, flowered wallpaper in the bedroom. the wallpaper had been applied directly over the drywall, no primer, paint, nothing. i worked for hours with everything, steamer, fabric softener, scraping. Nothing worked. There was a little of the roll of wallpaper left in the cupboard, and filled in my work. I decided, i would just embrace, the flowered wallpaper. the bathroom had a really ugly wallpaper, and i just decided to wallpaper over it, with a textured wallpaper that looked like tiles. Never going to deal with wallpaper again
Actually I think what you came across was vinyl wallpaper that can be washed and is therefore largely impermeable to water, it was designed to be dry peeled.
heat is your friend. also, steamers are cheap these days. there are dedicated wallpaper steamers, but even a handheld general purpose/clothes steamer will do the job.
I absolutely HATE wallpaper and wainscoting. The wallpaper in my home had a vinyl coating that wouldnt let water through. I used a perforator and a steamer which worked well. Unfortunately a previous owner had replaced the wallpaper once and left a mess from their work. Had to glue and fill all their gouges and then skim the entire surface.
Ummmm. You have all kinds of thinned down drywall compound lying around. Take some of that, trowel it on to the wallpaper, and let the water in the compound dissolve the glue. Scrape the compound off, and the wallpaper will come with it. Boom done. The only caveat is, this doesn't work with vinyl wallpaper.
Temperature of the water will make a difference, but you don't want to waste your money on a steamer. Unless you can use it to bend wood, like i did! What you did was perfect, and you're correct. You did get off easy. If you run into a job where the drywall (not sure about plaster) didn't get primed, you're in for a fight! We ran into one, and we had 3 guys for 8 days in a small condo. Then the walls had to be repaired, THEN skimmed. Since that time, its never a job price. I dont care if I lose one of those jobs to a low baller.
Removed from teo bathrooms, total nightmare. I saw the steamer methods but did not want to money into that (and I think i saw mixed reviews on it anyways). In the end, for me, it was just combination of a bunch of siff techniques. I think there were like twonoe three layers of wallpaper and it was against bare drywall (i think). Suc a nightmare
The worst I've come across is wallpaper that would not come off at all,don't know how it was adhered.I ended up removing all the sheetrock and starting over.Good times.
When I was a senior in HS (84), my parents bought a house completely filled with wallpaper - including a surprisingly beautiful mural. We ended up gutting the entire house. 😂
Steam .. pull off the face paper .. steam again .. pull off the backing paper. Nothing else works better. We bought a 2800 sq ft house 25 years ago that had every single wall papered.
Does the same idea apply if my house (Built in 1916) has 7 coats of paint over 4 different kinds of wallpaper? I mean, the wallpaper is technically the first layer in front of the plaster and lath. 😂
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I moved in to a house that had wallpaper glued on so hard that after many hours of exhaustive steaming, scraping, peeling, etc. I took an old belt sander with a super coarse grit belt and ran it up and down the walls with light pressure then used hot water and a sponge. After soaking for just a minute or two I was able to peel it off in large sheets, rewetting with hot water as it got harder to pull. This made a huge difference in time and effort.
25+ years experienced painter/wallpaper remover here. Use liquid dif or pirahna remover mixed with hot water in a garden sprayer. The liquid remover has an enzyme in it that breaks down the glue. Dont use a scoring tool, ever! You have to apply it up to 10 times and be patient. In between applications I use my time to clean off adjoining surfaces. Sometimes I have to remove the top layer of paper if it is vinyl. But most of the time the paper will come off in full sheets. Use the rest of the remover to get remaining glue off of the walls, then rinse with hot water twice with a sponge and prime with Gardz or pro-999. I can do a whole bedroom in half a day. Only problem is if paper was applied to bare drywall or plaster with no sizing, primer or paint on it beforehand. Then its a nightmare. Do all removal jobs by the hour, that way you are guaranteed not to fail!
Hey man I've been painting for about 5 years now and we've done a fair share of wallpaper removal. We always used a wall paper steamer and a 6 inch mud knife. You ever give that a try? I'm wondering how it compares to your method
Great video, as always Ben! Everyone seems to use a different method. The steamer didn't work for me but I work alone. A steamer may work better if two people are on the job. One person scrapping while the other person is steaming the next section.
What worked for me was hot water with a squirt of dish soap. I load a 1 gallon garden sprayer and spray a good portion of the wall, then walk away for about 15 minutes, then spray again and walk away. When you return in 15 minutes, try lifting a corner and peel away. Most likely you'll have to spray again, but you find a few spots that have been penetrated by the water/soap mix. Focus on those areas. And yes, you are correct; a collection of worn drywall knives work very well.
For this work, I have found that patience is the most important tool in my tool box. Without it, you will be doing a lot of repairs to the paper layer of the drywall. Yes again, peeling large sections of paper off the wall is very satisfying, like peeling a sunburn!
I have enjoyed your videos over the years. Thank you for posting them and please keep 'em coming!
Hey Ben, being born in Germany 61 years ago, I grew up with wallpaper around me and got involved with having to strip it off, suffered through your struggles and then installing new one. Stripping old wallpaper off remains a challenge! Time and patience always work best. I can feel your satisfaction of pulling off the top layer, then soaking the paper underneath... In my local area, once in a blue moon, I keep getting referrals for wall paper installation. I always love those.
We use a steamer
Easy peezy. Did my 1917 house in the 90s in Victoria. Then had to skim all the exposed cracks (used mesh tape)
@@waynesitarz424 Yep, still lots of prep required most of the time
So did we. We bought a 1960 home with approx 2500 board feet of wallpaper throughout the house. We ended up buying our own steamer from Home Depot (Wagner I believe) and it worked great. Very messy but that is unavoidable.
Game, Set, Match. Amen.
Had a job a few years back where we stripped wallpaper. Those scorers are more trouble than they're worth. Our combination of Dawn dish soap and fabric softener in a spray pump of warm water was most effective, but not foolproof. If you can get the outer layer of the wallpaper off that helps trememdously, but not always possible. And don't forget to rinse the remaining wallpaper paste off the walls after removal before painting. Thanks for the vid. Brings back a few not so special memories!
You're lucky, it would not work for vinyl wallpaper etc.
Downey and Dawn do the trick every time.
Absolutely phenomenal teacher. Every single DIY wall question I have you've made a video for. Keep doing what you're doing!
Spraying warm soapy water on it works really good. Start from the top and work your way down. Completely saturating the sheet. Once the brown is exposed keep spraying and it will come off in big pieces. Commented before watching the video.
Thanks for doing the tests for us. And... What a nice garden behind you at the end there.
Doing handyman jobs over the years I have found that a steamer and a wide plastic putty knife works best for me. Keep a sponge to mop up the run off of the water and you will be good!
I do the same thing but I use a cheapo metal knife from harbor freight and I sand off the edges so I don't score the drywall.
Steamer saved me.
Just watching this triggered the memory of the flavor of wet cardboard. I’ve done wallpaper removal several times and it does something in the air to make that flavor. I swear, I don’t eat the stuff!
Ben I could have really used this video a couple of months ago when I started patching holes in a closet in my 150yr old house. I didn’t realize the previous owners had painted latex over 3 layers of wallpaper. The walls were pretty rough but I just figured it was the old plaster and it was just a closet, albeit one with a 10ft ceiling and I didn’t want to drywall it. This was going to be just a quick patch up and paint. Well the moisture from the mud made the wallpaper start blistering. Next thing I’m peeling painted wallpaper. I Had very similar results as you by the way. Every time I thought I had it peeled to where it wouldn’t come off anymore I would take a break and come back to find more peeling. It was just a nightmare. So frustrating! People just remove the wallpaper, don’t paint over it.
I just removed the wallpaper from my bathroom. It peeled off very easily in full sheets. No issue there at all. Yesterday I spent the day removing the glue. To remove the glue I used a spray bottle from the Dollarama and. a yellow plastic putty knife. Underneath was thick wine-colored paint on the top half of the wall and light pale green on the bottom. I now have a lot of spot repairs to do on the wall where the paint lifted and I removed a chair rail and underneath there is paint and in some spots exposed torn drywall paper. Your videos are helpful.
Nature did the work for me. We bought our house like 6 years ago.
100+ years old with original plaster. Every room had wallpaper that the previous owner has painted (badly). Even the ceiling in the hallway upstairs and stairwell.
We bought the place from the bank after it had sat vacant for 4 years. The freezing and thawing over that time pretty much killed all the glue. Almost all of it came off in full sheets. The paint on top of it held all the paper together and kept it from ripping for the most part.
I just moved into a wallpapered home a month ago. Living room, dining room, kitchen and master bath all papered. Wagner steamer worked but it took a while. Just peeling the top layer and using a large sponge worked better. I imagine the steamer is good for some types of wallpaper. The sponge is also great for removing the glue residue. Even the parts where the top layer didn't peel nicely to expose the bottom layer worked well with a sponge by wetting the edges the capillary action seems to draw the water under it and helped remove the paper.
I've removed wall paper from 4 rooms in my house. Three of them were pretty easy. We removed the outer paper and then soaked the inner paper and removed it the same as you. The kitchen was an entirely different story. The only way to get the kitchen wall paper down was to score it and use the gel you didn't like. Even then, it made a mess of the underlying wallboard outer layer which we had to repair. Still, after applying 3 skim coats (thanks for the vid), it still turned out well. Now I have just one tiny bathroom in the house with wall paper. I think I'll keep it for old time sakes :)
EDIT: we used a steamer as well. Our steamer has paid for itself 10 times over.
Nice video, I am removing wallpaper from a recent home purchase. Very helpful video
Had wallpaper in my house at some point. Other areas had oil paint. Last homeowner decided to paint latex over both. I tried removal in my dining room. Thought it was all good so then I “sealed” the wall with Kilz clear. It is supposed to be a sealer like guardz. Couldn’t find guardz. Then started to skim coat walls. The just kept peeling and peeling. Thought I would have to rip out drywall and replace it was so bad. Kilz clear is a terrible product. Found out later all I had to do is hit it with Kilz original oil based primer and that would have sealed it up and saved me a bunch of headache. I have done that in other rooms since and it works great.
Painting latex over oil. People are so dumb. I have literally had to scrape every wall in this house. They look really good now thanks to all you have taught me.
Been meaning to post on here and just say thank you for everything. You were kinda bummed out a few videos back. Keep going. I learn something every time you post and I am extremely grateful. I wish I could work with you as I guarantee I wouldn’t be one of these guys you didn’t have much luck with. My walls look amazing thanks to all the training you have provided me with.
A little while back I removed ancient wallpaper from several walls. I found 7 layers in some spots. I used a putty knife and a heat-gun (using a sprayer with warm water with a bit of clothes softener worked great in most areas). The layer touching the wall had to be sanded in some places. The weird thing and that paint would drip from the walls later. I believe it was some kind of chemical reaction between the wallpaper glue and the drywall. The only solution I found was to dilute both primer and paint. I applied 4 layers of primer and than 8 layers of paint on those areas to have a nice finish. The work looked perfect but you can imagine the time and effort it took from me.
had to do a half bath last year. Wallpaper just wouldn't come off for love or money. Finally just skimmed the whole bathroom right over the wallpaper. Added a squirt of dawn and a shot of PVA and mixed it all up. Worked a treat.
UK handyman here. I suspect we are a bit more used to it as a wall covering here. Most of the paper manufacturers recommend peeling the face paper off as a method, indeed many of them are designed to work that way. If it comes off well and the wall is in good nick the remaining backing paper can stay on and be used as a lining paper, though I prefer to take it off.
For stubborn wallpaper you can't beat a steamer. Apply to a small area with the off hand and work behind it with a stripping knife. You do need to be a little careful with it though, t0o hot and/or too long and it will blow the plaster.
Would absolutely love to see you make a video Plastering!Comparing / contracting the process with drywall mud.
Or quickly run a palm sander over all the wallpaper. This will allow the wallpaper to easily become saturated with the hot water you will soon apply with a pump sprayer. You will want to wet the wallpaper down at least a couple of times. This will make the removal go 5-10 times faster. No need for the broad knife, either.
Thanks!
You’re welcome! And thank you!!
G'day,
Here in Australia, I've found the steamer to work well.
I do think you were really lucky with your wallpaper.
So thanks for sharing the knowledge man ✌️ Peace from Melbourne Australia.
Score with a scoring tool. Mix a splash of fabric softener into a gallon sprayer of HOT water. Spray wall. Let it soak for a min or two, scrape away with a 4" drywall knife. Works beautifully. Clean wall afterwards, prime with oil based primer, finish with latex.
Removing wallpaper tomorrow- thanks for the tips! Though that inner layer reminds me of a foot peel!
I like to use a garden pump sprayer and hot water and patience. Saturate, wait about 10 minutes and saturate again. As you stated, use an old 6" knife to scrape it off. Usually works well and leaves the walls in good condition.
The wallpaper I had to remove wasn't so forgiving. It absolutely refused to separate from the glue paper. One thing I found was to NEVER use a spray bottle because it ended up oversaturating the glue paper, and soaked into the drywall paper. This caused the drywall paper to peel off with the glue, and expose the darker brown paper underneath. What I ended up doing was using a 5 inch orbital sander, and fluctuated between 80, and 120 grit paper. Since I knew the whole job was going to be a nightmare, I pre-emptively bought some Kilz spray primer for the exposed darker paper. Doing it that way allowed me to not be as concerned about any damage because I knew I'd be priming, and patch-coating anyway.
Since I'm a homeowner, and not doing it as a job, I had the luxury of not having to find the quickest way to do the work. I've learned that sometimes the quickest way isn't the best way. The job will take however long it takes, and trying to take shortcuts almost always results in less-than-desirable outcomes.
I feel for ya. I also had a nightmare wall once, of course one that went up to vaulted ceiling so ladder work. It was over orange peel texture as I recall, so the bumps made for no smooth long scraping, it was inch by inch. That was with water spray , no steamer if I remember right.
@@cadthunkin Damn, man I thought I had it rough, lol. I'll make sure to tip a beer for ya the next time I have one.
I use a Paper Tiger (perforator) and what has worked best for me is using light pressure so that I’m only perforating the vinyl surface layer. Then I wipe the perforated wallpaper with a well soaked sponge, wait a few minutes for the subsurface layer to absorb enough water to loosen the adhesive and start scraping. I agree that a well worn taping knife is the best scraper.
That's a great name for a product
We did it exactly like you did to remove WP. Rip off the top layer. Soak the backing paper with a small pump sprayer and putty knife off.
Works quick.
What's worked in our home, plaster over lathe walls: perforating tool, sponge on warm water, get the face off by mostly pulling it off, then soaking the backing and scraping off with a putty knife.
Once upon a time there was a product called WallWik and it was a wallpaper remover. You scored the walls then soaked large sheets of fabric(kinda similar to large dryer sheets) in wallpaper Remover and stuck them to the walls. Then sprayed the fabric to keep it wet for about ten minutes. Then peel off the paper. It was amazing. No fixing torn or gouged drywall. And the sheets would almost come off in one piece. I still have it and it still works better than anytime else.
What worked for him, has worked for me in most cases. With older types, we used to skim coat and re wet, lhe mud holds the moisture on, until it starts peeling, then scrap it down.
Hey Ben I had a nightmare getting the paper off in my guest bath that I re-rocked the room I was remodeling the whole bath any way and I think I saved time and sanity dong it that way.
I have a feeling your like me and you would never paper a room for love or money. Cheers...
gardz product is amazing at sealing old glue into something that is solid to mud and paint on. I’ve removed thousands of square feet of all paper and always use gardz with amazing results
I had to strip almost an entire house and what I found worked the best was a mixture of warm water and fabric softener. Soak the paper pretty well and then let it sit for a couple minutes. After that it would scrape off pretty easy. Some spots had some stubborn glue but not too bad.
I used a steamer to remove wallpaper from my entire house. It's messy and steamy of course but really worked very nicely. I tried the other options Ben did also found them not helpful. I didn't have wallpaper where the front separated leaving the back as his did. That technique worked great for him. Fortunately I have no wallpaper left to worry about.
The razor scraper ended up being the best solution on the 3 layers of very old wallpaper on my interior plaster walls. Got real good at it. Obviously had to skim it before paint anyway.
Thanks man I felt the same satisfying sensation! Priceless ❤😂🙏🏾👍🏿
Depends on the situation.
Sometimes, its almost easier to board right over wallpaper with 1/4inch drywall.
Steamers work the best if its really old. Its still time consuming and messy though.
Ben Great video as always! I remember in one of your old videos you used a Steamer I believe.
I use a mixture of water with a bit of white vinegar. Key is to let it soak a few minutes so that the paper bubbles up
Beautiful job! Was the upper surface (above where you suggested you might repair with plaster) previously painted? Our worst experience removing wallpaper on drywall was multiple layers that were originally applied over unprimed (!) drywall. That was a disaster!
Yep, been there, done that. The worst scenario.
It was primed and very well. Maybe oil. Seemed tough and water resistant. Unprimed would be brutal.
same! In fact you could still see the builder's notes and measurements written on the drywall sections.
Any paper with a vinyl type outer layer will be impervious to any liquid and peeling it off was the only way to get the water to soften the old glue
The couple of times I've done it I scored it with a knife and just used a very wet sponge. If it doesnt come off with just water then it will probably not bubble if you mud over it. Of course, priming the nasty spots always helps. Can even be done with cheap spray paint, just smells a lot.
Helped my Brother take off old wallpaper from several rooms in his very old brick home that was part of the Underground Railroad in our area. We worked as a team and would take turns either steaming or using the scraper on the plaster walls. It worked well for us, but I wouldn't want to "voluntarily" do it again.
Don't have a wallpaper story to share - just a thought for a potential future video: repair or refinishing of lath and plaster walls. very curious to know if you've any experience in this, if there are particularities to it, type of plaster used, etc. It's very clear that it's a different ballgame - and perhaps just a distant cousin of jointing, but still... would be curious to see you or even a collab on that subject.
Wow, your experience with removing wallpaper is EXACTLY the same as mine . . . right town to breaking the scoring tool in five minutes :)
😂
Used same method years ago, spray bottle with just warm water/putty knife and it worked great. Horror story, one room previous owner had painted, wallpapered, painted, then wallpapered over and over. Must have been 3 layers of paper with layers of paint in between. Made such a mess to take it all down to the Sheetrock.
As a painting contractor that has done MANY MANY wall paper removals, water is all you need 9 times out of 10. Warm water is best. Mask the floor with plastic and tape to catch as much water and wall paper pieces as possible. Spray light coats of warm water. Every 10-15 mins another light coat. Eventually it will come off in sheets. Scoring has always made a bigger mess than not scoring.
As shown in the video, try to remove the top layer of the wall paper. Some wall paper - especially the kind that has a foil backing is nearly impossible to remove. In that case, seal it with oil based or shellac based primer then float it with mud. Without sealing it first, it will likely bubble.
In my whole career there have only been a few times that I couldn't get the wall paper off. I always do my best to remove it, and only go over it if a truly cannot get it off. Some of the REALLY old wallpaper was glued on with a type of glue that didn't soften with water, and if its glued on that well there is really no reason to remove it.
I've used the Dif product and razor scraper to get some wallpaper off, but in two rooms I'll likely never touch before moving, I'd have to get a steamer because test areas were awful, since it was painted over, apparently not put on a backing, or being strippable wallpaper. The Paper Tiger tool did help some, but not enough to really matter.
had to do most of a two story interior. used a steamer. it sucked but did the job. fortunately the drywall guy came behind me
Hey Vancouver Carpenter do you have any videos on removing painted popcorn ceiling texture?
what ive found works well is to just paint it. oil based is best. when the paint sticks, and shrinks as it dries, it pulls the paper apart and causes it to start pealing on its own
I think the reason modern wallpaper can be difficult to remove is that it has a microscopically thin layer of PVC (vinyl) on the surface of the paper. This makes it very water-resistant. Loved your cheesy RUclips montage!
I did my bathroom about four years ago and did basically what you did. I dont know if the fact that it was "pre paste" had anything to do with it, but I can recall stripping wallpaper with the paste that had to be mixed and that was a nightmare. In my case, I allowed my five year old grandson to go at it since he was the one who started it to be begin with, but for the most part it was only about three to four hours to completely strip it.
i used a steamer and steamed the wall before removing the wallpaper. big pices went off easy :D
hah wow I had no idea you had another channel, I used to watch your skating stuff all the time!
Uhhg, As professional painter, ive spent hours and hours and hours doing wallpaper removal; we always dreaded these jobs XD. It all honestly depends on what kind of wallpaper it is, and whether or not it was properly primed out when it was installed. If it was properly installed, we found getting a big bottle of Roman/DIF remover concentrate, putting it in a big sprayer with the hottest water you can get, and absolutely drenching the wall with it, and then keeping it wet, and wet again, is the only way to get this stuff off quick in a way that won't utterly destroy the wall. If it's got facing, that'll come first, then repeat the steps like in this vid. Stay the heck away from the scoring tools, that just makes it worse, and makes the paper come off in smaller pieces. Once the backing comes off, it's important to get the transparent glue off as well or it'll bubble through whatever layer of mud or primer you put over it.
If the wallpaper install wasnt primed out right, there's no way you're getting it off. The best method we found if the paper won't come off, is to treat it like drywall paper, OIL prime the entire wall, and just go over it. If the seams show though, simply mud them, its way easier than destroying an entire wall with a putty knife.
I had exactly the same experience using the spray and perforator a few years ago when I had to remove some really old-fashioned wallpaper from a wall. the shit was like rawhide glued to the wall. It took me about two weeks peeling little strips off here and there. I can't remember what I did to finally get it all off glue and all but eventually it did turn out pretty decent for a ham-handed amateur.
Painter here. I hardly ever strip it unless it textured or just rolling off. Oil prime it and mud the seams.
Excellent! Thanks for sharing!
I have a job coming up where most of the wall paper has been peeled off and its a relatively small area. I was thinking of taking my Rotex 150 with some 60g and eating through everything, then doing a skim coat or two. Just curious on peoples thoughts on this (be honest, its ok, i can take). Thank you!
Just curious. After you got the wallpaper off, did you texture the walls so they would match the rest of the house or just paint?
I’ve just started doing a removal. I’ve tried separating the top layer but it either just comes off in small bits or it brings the drywall paper with it. I’m assuming the drywall wasn’t prepped. I’m looking forward to a long process.
We had to do this to EVERY room in our last house. And they didn’t use sizing. Just glued it straight to the raw drywall.
The trick is, like you found out, remove the face layer first. Try to figure the best way to gut underneath of the particular paper you stripping. You can usually pull off in full sheets. Then the best way to wet the paper layer underneath is with a pump up sprayer. Need to figure out the timing and mount of water to use. Not to dry, not too we. Once you find the sweet spot, not always, but usually you can pull off WHOLE SHEETS at a time, which this paper would have done easily. Scrap a whole sheet horizontally with a 6 in blade then get under the edge and it will pull off in whole sheets.
Reminds me of the movie ‘The Burbs’ when the dude starts picking at the Klopecks wallpaper.
All of our bedrooms have at least 3+ layers of wallpaper, and some with paint over like 2 layers. We had to use warm water with a drop of fabric softener, and the razor blade tool since there were so many layers that it would take forever to get down to the bottom. Instead, I got good at skimming…
Years age I had customer wanting kitchen & dining room with peal & stick wallpaper removed. I'm talking about clear sticky adhesive not paste & adhesive wasnt water soluble. I told them NOT interested unless it was time + cost bid as no way was going to bid any other way. Ended up talking to contractor that was foolish enough to give fixed bid & told me lost his backside as couldn't remove clear adhesive from drywall 🤣
it's better to walk away then take a $ hit IMHO 😁
I used Dynamic and it destroyed the wall that was papered over drywall. Now I have all these divots!!! My entire house was wallpapered, so this was not my first time on the dance floor.....spray bottle and sponge with soapy water worked well.
Now...how do I fill in those divots?
Don't have time to search for your video.
Use a spong with hot water . Wet it, wait for it to absorb a bit , wet it again and start peeling . Use a mud knife 6",8",12" and get under it and it will peel right off.
If its not peeling wet it again, you will know its ready when it comes off with little effort. Its really easy
Fine. My story, it was on the plaster ceiling, not the wall..tried that wallpaper *tractor* and it was of little use. Found divide and conquer to be best. Plain water on the edge of what is already gone, a 2" putty knife, and perseverance. Some spots were trouble, other spots were easy.
I had to take wallpaper off the ceiling of a stairwell. It was a nightmare. My neck and shoulders were so sore. To make matters worse the vinyl layer came off in 1” pieces.
Instead of scraping it off, what about a skim coat of mud right over top of the wall paper, then light sand, prime & paint?
I would think I pretty high temp steamer might work best...?
How you go about fixing grouged wall marks from removing paper any help????
I was looking out for you at Paris 2024 Park sessions. You were removing wallpaper?
Guess so
It’s really situation dependent. Some wallpaper is ready by scoring it and getting it wet-I do have plaster walls. I’m come across two layers of wallpaper, or some more impervious wallpaper, where a steamer is the only thing that worked. Hate the stuff. It’s taken years to get rid of. I’m a painter at heart.
I once stripped wallpaper that had been installed with some sort of glue instead of wallpaper paste. Tried everything, but it came off in slivers. It would have been faster and cheaper to remove the drywall and start from scratch.
So does a textured wall survive the paper removal?
The worst to remove for me was 3 ft. wide Bamboo on paper. It was a beast to hang it, but looked good.
Nice! How about removing popcorn ceiling?
Painted or no? If it's painted, good luck, you'll need it.
we owned a cottage that had a pretty dated pink, flowered wallpaper in the bedroom. the wallpaper had been applied directly over the drywall, no primer, paint, nothing. i worked for hours with everything, steamer, fabric softener, scraping. Nothing worked. There was a little of the roll of wallpaper left in the cupboard, and filled in my work. I decided, i would just embrace, the flowered wallpaper. the bathroom had a really ugly wallpaper, and i just decided to wallpaper over it, with a textured wallpaper that looked like tiles. Never going to deal with wallpaper again
Actually I think what you came across was vinyl wallpaper that can be washed and is therefore largely impermeable to water, it was designed to be dry peeled.
Maybe. It didn’t feel very much like vinyl though.
You can’t press hard with the scoring tool. Use fabric softener, Dawn and a saturated car wash sponge.
I use hot water in a five gallon bucket with a paint roller and handle. Almost as if painting the wall.
Thanks for the video.
heat is your friend. also, steamers are cheap these days. there are dedicated wallpaper steamers, but even a handheld general purpose/clothes steamer will do the job.
I absolutely HATE wallpaper and wainscoting. The wallpaper in my home had a vinyl coating that wouldnt let water through. I used a perforator and a steamer which worked well. Unfortunately a previous owner had replaced the wallpaper once and left a mess from their work. Had to glue and fill all their gouges and then skim the entire surface.
Ummmm. You have all kinds of thinned down drywall compound lying around. Take some of that, trowel it on to the wallpaper, and let the water in the compound dissolve the glue. Scrape the compound off, and the wallpaper will come with it. Boom done. The only caveat is, this doesn't work with vinyl wallpaper.
Interesting idk how I never thought of that but I can see how that would work great! You mutha fuckaaaaa!
Temperature of the water will make a difference, but you don't want to waste your money on a steamer. Unless you can use it to bend wood, like i did! What you did was perfect, and you're correct. You did get off easy. If you run into a job where the drywall (not sure about plaster) didn't get primed, you're in for a fight! We ran into one, and we had 3 guys for 8 days in a small condo. Then the walls had to be repaired, THEN skimmed. Since that time, its never a job price. I dont care if I lose one of those jobs to a low baller.
Removed from teo bathrooms, total nightmare. I saw the steamer methods but did not want to money into that (and I think i saw mixed reviews on it anyways). In the end, for me, it was just combination of a bunch of siff techniques. I think there were like twonoe three layers of wallpaper and it was against bare drywall (i think). Suc a nightmare
Either replace the drywall or go over with a sheet of 1/4 inch it will never come out as nice and the labour is almost the same cost
The worst I've come across is wallpaper that would not come off at all,don't know how it was adhered.I ended up removing all the sheetrock and starting over.Good times.
When I was a senior in HS (84), my parents bought a house completely filled with wallpaper - including a surprisingly beautiful mural.
We ended up gutting the entire house. 😂
Steam .. pull off the face paper .. steam again .. pull off the backing paper. Nothing else works better. We bought a 2800 sq ft house 25 years ago that had every single wall papered.
Yes, the streamer is fantastic ❤
Sprite soda breaks down the wallpaper glue better than almost anything else.
Does the same idea apply if my house (Built in 1916) has 7 coats of paint over 4 different kinds of wallpaper? I mean, the wallpaper is technically the first layer in front of the plaster and lath. 😂