My husband and I have a tremendous amount of wallpaper to remove in our house. I am itching to paint!! However, we were just quoted some ridiculous figures to have it all taken off…So, I was wondering, how bad is it to do it yourself??
Thank in advance!
Shana
Shana, if you’re going to do it anyway, then you can test. Try removing a bit from each room to see how easily it strips and how many layers there are. I grew up in a house where some rooms had twelve-thirteen layers! My mom worked full time (unusual back in the 60s), and yet bit by bit scraped (and I do mean scraped, not pulled) the paper off each room and wall-papered. You don’t want to do that yourself! It’s a horrible job of soaking/steaming, scraping with a dull-edged knife (so you don’t dig into the wall). On a good day, you clear a square foot or two.
But if it strips easily, and you can pull wide swaths of it off and get to the bare wall, then save the money!
Oh dear…Hope this was the correct forum for this…
Thanks AvhHines for your response! I know they have some new products out now that are supposedly easier. I think what I’m afraid of is the scraping - although I’m almost certain there is only one layer of paper on the walls. We have plaster walls underneath the paper. Not sure if that will make it more difficult or not!
You could try the method my parents accidentally discovered when my brother was really little.
First thing you need to do, is if the paper isn’t lifting away from the wall at all on its own, use a blunt blade to pull up a couple of corners. Now, if you don’t have one of your own, borrow someone’s preschooler. Show them where the paper is pealing away and say “Don’t touch the wallpaper” then leave them in the room with a few toys, and go out of sight, but be within hearing range. The paper should be down in short order 
Ahhhh The Joys of Stripping! Mr CW and I are in the middle of stripping and painting the walls of our humble abode. I can’t imagine paying someone to do it. Reminds me of a peeling sunburn just can’t keep picking at it. 
Easiest technique - spray a strip with water top to bottom esp. over the seam. Try to peel up from the bottom edge, if that fails the mighty spatula (the kind you apply stucco with mind you) will work wonders. Expect to scrape, enjoy the scrape! I think the paint fumes have gotten to me. And yes elfkin477 is correct, my preschooler has been a treeemendous help in this project! Oh yes, cold brew and loud music a must.
Well we removed the wallpaper in all 8 rooms in our house.
We started with the wallpaper removal stuff called Diff. After papertigering the walls and rollering this stuff on everything and scraping it seemed there had to be a better way. The diff was very messy and we had globs of pasty nasty paper everywhere and papertiger holes in all the walls.
We did some scraping without the diff using a scraper with a razor blade. This was neater but not efficient either.
Eventually hubby and I rented a steamer from the taylor rental. Wallpaper removal is not pleasant but this was the best method of the three.
The plaster will probably make things harder. We had plaster in our old house that crumbled a lot. Blech.
I loathe plaster and I loathe wallpaper. The two together and I would have to burn the place. Good luck.
Ohh! I did that as a ten year old when the parents were renovating. Highligh of my year The painter also sponged warm soapy water on the walls to gently remove the stubborn bits too.
I did it again ten years later when I was stripping and repainting my own room. Those metal scrapers works wonders - but avoid gouging chunks of plaster out of the walls.
Get yourself a stripping tool - essentially a cross between a kettle and a glorified steam iron. Apply tool to wallpaper, scrape off wallpaper.
Rent a steamer and use that and one of those broad scraper things, can’t remember what they’re called… Anyway, it’s probably the most efficient way of doing things, and way cheaper than hiring people. The only thing that’s REALLY annoying is getting all the paste off the walls. That can be more time consuming than the actual paper is you don’t get them both in one go.
If it’s truly wallPAPER and not the vinyl stuff, I’ve had great success with a combination of liquid fabric softener and very hot water in a spray bottle. Spray it on, let soak for a few minutes and great big sheets of it peel right off. If the paper backing is still stuck to the wall, rinse and repeat above.
Good luck
The tool is called a Paper Tiger. It scores the paper/vinyl so that a solution of Dif™ (or a comparable product) can penetrate and sften the glue. Nothing worse than peeling up the paper and having the backing stay.
Score the walls and spray the Dif on all the walls. Let sit for a few minutes. Then, spray again each individual section as you get to it.
Sometimes, even the Paper Tiger or steaming method still ends up being a shitload of work. And there’s no way to truly accuurately predict how it will go untill you get into it. If one sheet comes off easy, it’s no garuntee the others will, too. That’s why the estimate seemed high to you. The contracter has to bid based on the most amount of labor likely.
BTW, even when it’s easy, you still end up with wall repair and texturing and prepping and oh so many little details.
If you still want to go at it yourself, post anything you may run into. I’ll keep an eye on this thread (as will other pros, I’m sure)
i hired a wall scrapper. he was extremely reasonable.
it depends on the age of the wall paper. paper from the last 20 years tends to come off easily. paper from the '60 and earlier is a nightmare.
the wall paper in my house is from the '30 and earlier, with lead based paint on top. i went professonal.
if you are going to do it on your own, go slow, and do it when the weather is at its coolest. scraping is hot, hot, work.
rocking chair is right – older paper, whether painted over or not, is a nightmare. I hired people to do the kitchen and dining room – an excellent investment in my mental health. (I’ve removed wallpaper, it’s not fun.)
In our case, the paper came off, leaving the backing paper. My wife actually liked the color of the backing paper (below the chair rail), so we left it like that for a few years.
When it came time to remove the backing paper (thanks to a two-foot hole my nephew made with his scooter), I found that Diff soaks through the backing paper extremely well. I grabbed a twelve-inch taping knife, a tool any owner of an older home should have, and I used it to scrape off great swaths of paper.
I used a huge sponge soaked in Diff to wipe off the remaining residue.
My contribution: If the front peels off easily, then peel it and use Diff on the backing layer.
A 12" taping knife works wonders. A tip: use a stone or a file to put a 1/8" radius on the corners of the blade. This will keep you from digging up hunks of wallboard, and it will also improve the smoothness of any joint compound you choose to spread using the same taping knife.
My sister just painted over the stuff in her bathroom. Looks pretty cool, too - the wallpaper has a raised pattern and you can sort of see it through the paint.
I would recommend against doing this (I did it too, though).
The main problem is that you are preparing for a problem several years down the road, if you will be in the house at the time. As folks have said, it’s a sweet pain in the ass to remove wallpaper after it has been painted over.
The other problem is that if you ever repaint the room, you might have an unpleasant surprise: the wallpaper might start to bubble when the moisture of the new layer of paint soaks through the layers, and you will have to scrape a section, spackle, sand, prime, and repaint.
We just started doing this last week. The kitchen and the bathroom were the only rooms we were allowed to change (the rest of the apartment is all-wood), so we decided to strip off the old-school wallpaper, and paint. The bathroom came off in a couple of swift pulls, but the kitchen is a bitch. We’ve unearthed 8 layers of paper so far. The best method we’ve found is to take a razor blade to the wall, and peel away inch by inch. The Diff wasn’t too helpful…messy globs, like someone else already mentioned. We’ve got most of the kitchen done now, we just have another wall to go
Good luck!
I’m glad to see that the issue of lead paint has been raised. By law, (EPA) if I’m disturbing more than 2 square feet of a painted surface in a dwelling constructed prior to 1978, all lead removal and handling regulations apply. I’ve got to give the homeowner or occupant special pamphlets and obtain signature that they have been given same.
I’ve read a lot of good tips thusfar, but didn’t note mention of sizing. If the walls received a coating of sizing before application of paper, it makes removal a whole lot easier. If the walls are true plaster, or if they are gypsum drywall with a plaster veneer, I’d say to give a rip with the steamer, should you not want to deal with the Paper Tiger™ and Dif™. OTOH, if the walls are gypsum drywall, an untrained person can wreak havoc in short order.
Example: A lady wanted to save money on a kitchen redo, and elected to strip the paper herself. She used a steamer, and by the time I repaired drywall seams and skim coated the walls, she could have paid me to take the paper off. YMMV
Good luck.
When I was a kid, I used to help my grandmother restore old houses. We always liked plain hot water in spray bottles. (Most of the houses were ancient-- no drywall to worry about.)
We would wet the walls liberally and let it soak in, then re-wet it again. Then we would use a razor-blade scraper. The paper almost always came off easily. (Keep the spray bottle handy in case the paper starts to dry.)