They did it wrong without proper priming or sizing of the drywall before installation. So it's paper pasted to paper.

Thanks! It makes me feel better that it wasn't my fault, but what should I do?

What worked for me, may not work for you.

I soaked the wall paper - really soak - the paper sorta delaminated - there was a top layer that came off, then I soaked the under layer, and got it to peel off.

Then you need to Spackle / Joint Compound on all the dings. Finally I used Gardz to prime the wall.

ditto what Geoffrey said. You have to saturate the paper maybe for hours so it disintegrates kinda like toilet paper would when excessively moist It is a long process, not like they insinuate in the home decorating shows, Then use spackle to correct dings, they will happen no matter how careful.

Most modern wallpaper has a protective top surface that must be peeled off with the help of a 3" paper scraper or perforated with a special tool before wetting with a chemical mixed with water. Keeping the paper wet for very long can be difficult. A large spray bottle is helpful but it can cause stress on your hands. Steaming can work after the top surface is removed or perforated.

I removed that kind of paper from unprimed drywall in a small room and it took a week and the scraper tool permanently damaged my right forefinger knuckle. After a year I still have to wear a brace for certain activities. I now hire people do do this kind of work.

Joint compound is easy to apply and easy to sand but it takes multiple coats and overnight to dry. Spackling will work for small dings but if you need to do extensive repair it must be sanded and few fast drying ones can be sanded although they all say they can be. The brand I like is Dap DryDex. It goes on pink and turns white when dry which takes about an hour or so.

Good luck.

Well, I don't want to spend a week getting this wallpaper off. And, I'm not confident that I could use all that water without getting water in the drywall. Since I first posted, the drywall guy was here to talk about removing popcorn from my ceilings. I had him look at the bathroom and he suggested just painting over the wallpaper. He said that he would paint it with an oil-based paint, mud, sand, and then prime it. He said that he's done that before with good results. He will fix my entire bathroom for $600 including popcorn removal, fixing the walls and ceiling, and all priming and painting including the final coats. Is painting over the wallpaper a good idea? Does that price sound like a good deal?

If the wallpaper will take paint well (vinyl coated wallpaper might not absorb paint well) then it probably won't separate from the wall because of painting. Use an oil based primer.

How old are the walls in your house?

The house was built in 1972.

Oil prime, skim where needed, sand ,clean, oil prime skimmed areas, paint. At that price, I would let the drywall guy do it.

when I've run into wallpaper on unprimed drywall I've found it to be much faster and easier and to have a better outcome to just pull the drywall down and replace it. You can fool with trying to get the paper off nicely and with repairing the damage for a long time, way too much effort to save a few $10 sheets of drywall, and chances are good you'll still be able to see evidence of the repairs.

I thought of replacing the drywall, but I don't have the skills to do it myself. It would cost several hundred dollars more to have the drywall guy replace it than fix it. This morning I'm having second thoughts about painting over the wallpaper. I think that I'll work some more on getting it off. If I really screw up, replacing the drywall is an option. I appreciate all the comments.

Two things:

1. Don't paint over wallpaper...I've never seen it look very satisfactory.

2. Are your ceilings just textured, or are they actually sprayed on popcorn-type material? If the latter, are you aware that popcorn ceilings of that era often contain asbestos and you should have a small sample tested before anyone touches it? If there's no asbestos, fine. If there is asbestos, you should either leave it in place, undisturbed, or have a professional abatement firm remove it (not cheap) instead of contaminating your whole house.

Use a wallpaper scoring tool first to allow moisture to soak into the wallpaper.

Apply something stronger than plain water.

Use a 4 inch soft grip scraper. Turn it over occasionally to keep it sharp.

Use a 5 or 6 ft. ladder to avoid working above your head.

To repair damage to the wallboard use Dap DryDex spackling (with color time indicator) instead of other spackling or drywall compound.

Last night I finished removing all the wallpaper. I scored it, sprayed with water and a little dish detergent, scraped, and pulled. I don't think that this stuff would ever have disintegrated. If I sprayed and came back 5 minutes later, it was dry. I could not see any way to saturate it, but I kept spraying as I worked on it. Most of it came off OK, but there are a lot of places where the top layer of drywall came with it. The drywall guy is coming tomorrow and I'm hopeful that he can fix it. I am glad that I removed it, especially since I found a small spot of mold.

I also took a ceiling sample for asbestos testing even though the guys working on my house didn't think it was necessary. I hope they are right, but $95.00 is a small price for peace of mind.

I'll give another update after the next step. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Often. It is much easier to just tear out the drywall and replace it.

The problem I have with tearing out drywall is that, if you are going to do all of it, and do it properly, you also have to remove, reinstall, and paint the baseboard molding.

As someone who has removed tons of wallpaper, I can say that the repeated soaking tactic does work. Like you said even though the wallpaper was dry five minutes later the moisture was still able to get through there and start releasing the back of the paper. I never use wall scoring tools. I just get out my garden sprayer and saturate many times.

Different types of paper require different techniques. In particular, certain coated papers may need scoring for the water to penetrate to the adhesive.

Even though the wallpaper was installed incorrectly, it seemed to be high quality waterproof wallpaper. I don't think that it would have been possible to get it off without scoring. The drywall guy is finally coming next Monday, so we'll see what he can do. I think that it will be fine. I will post an update when the project is done.

Aren't u glad it's done? Fixing wall dings will b no biggie for drywall guy. After my experience removíng paper, there's NO WAY I'd ever use wp again. I wasn't clear about my removal in that I didn't say I scored the paper,. Then when spraying water, it seeped through scores rather that dripping down the wall. When your guy is done w/your bathroom you will b so happy w/outcome and thst u didn't paint over it