How to remover or paint over old wall paper?
by
Cindy Rubin
+10
I moved in to my house about 20 yrs ago from a retired 'semi-professional' decorator. The wall paper in EVERY room was done very well; it was however, with paper in her taste -- not mine.Back then I thought, "I can live with it because it was so well done. I'll change it room by room when I have the time/money (raising 3 boys)". Twenty years later.... I have not done a single room.How do I get all this wall paper off the sheet rock without damaging it? Or, Can I paint over it? Some of it is textured paper.
Related Discussions
Suggested Project Book
Score the paper with a tool called paper tiger using light pressure. Peel as much as possible off. Mix warm water with fabric softener 50/50 in a spray bottle and saturate the paper, this will melt the adhesive. Using a plastic scraper remove paper. Clean with warm soapy water.
I have removed wallpaper of every kind with this method. Put down a towel to protect the flooring and catch over run from the spray bottle.
Ive heard you can use white vinegar instead of fabric softener but I haven’t tried it.
if!! and I mean if !! the wall was painted or primed before they added the wallpaper. if it went right on the drywall with nothing behind it removing paper will not be easy.
Kathy Gunter has the right way to remove wallpaper. removing depends on the coating if it is paper or vinyl coated.
To paint over wallpaper try Zinzer BIN. It’s a shellac based primer and dries fast. It’s expensive but the best (as far as I’m concerned) for this. Mine looked wrinkled for awhile but later was smooth as silk. I wallpapered over mine. Looked good. But, don’t get it on anything you don’t want it on-will not come off. Good luck!
Put cloth on the floor. Use a garden sprayer, a small hand sprayer is unnecessarily laborious, filled with warm water. Make sure you've wet the whole area. Give the water time to do the job for you, loosening the paste. The paper will come off in sheets. Note that if you paint over wallpaper, you'll still be able to see the lines where the paper joins and eventually you'll have to replace the drywall to get rid of the paint coated wallpaper!
We had a lot of luck with a steamer when nothing else worked! Good luck! https://www.justmeasuringup.com/diy-room-renovation/
You can also use cheap liquid fabric softner mixed with water (1 part softner to 3 parts water) score wallpaper with wallpaper scorer (can be found at big box store or hardware store) then spray with mixture let it set for a few minutes and then use a drywall putty knife to scrape off. Make sure to wash walls down with clean warm soapy water when finished. This will help remove any access paste left on the wall. This will only work if the wall has been painted/primed prior to the wallpaper being hung.