Monday, February 8, 2010

How do you remove wall paper that has been painted over?

Almost every room in my house has a wall paper trim, that the previous owners have painted over, I was wondering how to remove it.How do you remove wall paper that has been painted over?
This is so not a fun job!!!!!!





First, go to a wallpaper store, and get a perferation tool called a tiger claw. It has a roller in it that you just roll all over the exsisting wallpaper to perferate the paper!





Next, ask them for liquid wallpaper stripper. I'd get a few bottles( 3 or 4)!! You mix it with water. In your case, mix it 25% water to 75% stripper. Wear gloves and a mask. the stuff can be quite toxic.





You'll need a 6'; wide and 3'; wide putty knife.





OK...take one section at a time. Roll the tiger claw over the wallpaper, until you see a whole bunch of holes all over the paper! Now, take a spray bottle and spray the stripper mix onto the wal, making sure to soak it real good! The paint is going to act as a blocker, but if you put a TON of holes in the wallpaper, the stripper will find a way in!





Make sure you have lots of plastic on the floor, and tarps, because this is gonna be a bit messy!





After you spray an area, move to another area, and do the same thing!





Take the 3'; knife, and find an edge, and start working the knife under the wallpaper. Even if you can get the top layer of wallpaper off, you can respray the wallpaper left. It is totally going to soak up the stripper. AS it does, use the 6'; knife to scrape away the remaining paper.





Once you clear one wall, take another sprayer and spray the wall with plain water, and wipe it down with a sponge. ring out the sponge often. You want it damp, not sopping wet.





This will be a bit of a pain, because of the paint. It will aslo be kind of messy, but it will come off, and expose the wall underneath!!





good Luck!!How do you remove wall paper that has been painted over?
I'd like to know how this project worked out for you... I will be tackling several rooms that have painted wallpaper and it seems like it will be a nightmare!! Let me know if this method was effective! ;)

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steam will pull it right off and fast
a way my grandma told me to get wall paper off is by mixing dawn dish soap and hot water, and getting it on a rag and soaking the wall paper with it. the enzymes in the saop help break down the walpaper glue, making it easier to remove
Learn from them! Never paint over wallpaper.





Now we've got that out of the way. You can steam it off. Rent a wallpaper steamer, as it makes the job so much easier, even without the paint. As you take the wallpaper off, make sure that they primed the wall before they applied the paper. If they didn't, the job is going to be even harder. If they applied it directly to drywall, it may strip some of the drywall away also. Trust me: I've learned the hard way!
If you can get hold of a scoring tool they are worth every penny.


Take some hot water,add washing up liquid and apply. keep wetting the paper until it is easy to remove.This may take several soaks.But like my tutor told me, let the water do the work.
just get a spray bottle filled with water and wet the wallpaper ... use one of those scrapers to scrape the wallpaper off

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