What can I do to fix my wall papered plaster walls. Help!
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My cat scratched up my wallpaper. What can I do? No extra paper to use
What can u do with the walls when someone paints over wallpaper?
I bought a house and just noticed that someone had painted over the wallpaper. What can I do to get the wallpaper down?
What do you want to do? strip the paper? or repair a lifting edge?
Ok when I strip wall paper, I use two methods. First I add plastic tarps all over the floor taped to the top of the baseboards. Then go down to the Dollar Tree and buy a bunch of fabric softner, a car sponge, a paint wide-blade scraper, kitchen rubber gloves, a wash basin, and a plastic spray bottle. Go to hardware store and buy a wall paper scoring tool.
Take the scoring tool and make big circles all over the paper so it can absorb the water/softner solution. Add a thick layer of newspapers around the edges of the wall to absorb any dripping fluid.
Then mix the fabric softner, 50% hot water, 50% softner, you can put some in the spray bottle and leave rest in wash basin. I like to apply mine with the car sponge dipping it in the wash basin, and then hold the basin up to the wall, and wipe the sponge across the section I'm working on.... usually a 4'=5' section. I will score the 8' section, apply the solution first to the 4' section, let it sit, while I move on to wet the next section. Go back to the first 4' section, and try scraping the paper off using long strokes, if it isn't coming off easily. soak again and wait 20 mins. I hold the scraper at 30-40 degree angle to the wall.
If thats not working, rent a steamer at an equipment rental place.
I have never had a problem stripping a plaster wall, there maybe some old cracks underneath, but you just have to brush the loose plaster out, and fill it with joint compound, and sand before priming and painting.
Remove any areas of loose paper first. Then apply joint compound to all seams, nail holes, bumps, or other damaged spots. After the walls are thoroughly dry, sand smooth. The more time spent filling holes, patching, smoothing, and sanding, the better the end result.
It depends on what you want to do. If the wallpaper is tight to the wall, you can paint over it. If not, rent a steamer and remove it. Then you can paint, stencil, etc.