I'm not sure if the OP is reading this anymore, but I did want to offer advice. I've been scraping (and scraping and scraping, you get the idea) wallpaper for so long. We're in the process of redoing my daughter's room and there were many many layers of wallpaper on the walls. I assumed the layers started in the 1930's, but on one wall, they put sheetrock over the plasterwall. It's some bizarre cardboard-like substance, so I guess in the 1950's- late 60's they just redecorated a lot. Anyway, long story shortened, when I got to the last layer on that cardbaord wall, it's stuck like glue over it. I got off all I could, scrubbed it, and my husband put a layer of plaster over the whole thing and it's now smooth as glass. I don't think this would work with many many layers, but my father in law has done this in the past, and after 20 years all is still good. I wouldn't recommend doing this in the more public areas of the home, but in the bedrooms it might work for you. It sounds like from your post that you are a thoughtful remodeler. I, like so many on this forum, cringe when thinking of "flippers" and the lack of care for history that many have. However, there are people who remodel who do a great job and do it not only to make money, but to improve their community. Those people are to be commended, because their vision helps create a longer history for that house in that community. I hope that you are able to bring that home to its former glory and find a family to love it.

The house is 100 years old. So, 1. Make sure walls are indeed plaster. (peek behind outlet cover?) 2. See if vinyl wallpaper can be pulled off (I'm sure it's decades old). If not, do I go to steps 3. scoring the paper, using gel stripper, etc. 3. Best case scenario, how much time are we talking? Remember that it's a rental, and rental time is only one year. I'm scared that I start and then reach the point of no return... and end up with a wall that needs skim coating. Now, my impression is that it's very thick vinyl wallpaper, probably installed in the 70s, 80s. It feels plasticky, with a texture, and definitely scrubbable. Because it's heavier than normal wallpaper, I'd assume that it's been attached with a heavier paste. Is that going to be a problem regarding removal? How can I figure out what paste was used?

Do a test area and see what happens. We bought a house with wallpaper over a layer of skim coat over a layer of wallpaper (didn't know it was like that). removing it was horrible. we removed all layers completely from one wall. the others we ripped off what we could, then painted it with a sealer product. anything that lifted up I tore away and re-sealed. then had the room re-textured (all our ceilings were being re-done at the same time so we were trying to for their schedule). Waited for texture to dry thoroughly then prime and paint. Most of walls are fine but there were a few bubbled areas that dried. Not the best approach but it will work for us. we just didn't have time to get all the wallpaper down properly.

If I don’t wish to remove the current multiple layers of wallpaper on my plaster walls would using paintable wallpaper over them make it any easier to remove later than simply painting over them? There are parts of the old paper that would need repaired before we could do either. If you want to know the why to this question read on, its long, but I have very strong feelings about why I don’t wish to try to remove this paper. The full situation: We’ve been slowly remodeling our early 20th century house. Most of the walls are plaster except for the back half of our upstairs which was added later and is wood paneling. Every inch of the house is covered in wallpaper. The original plan was to eventually drywall the paneled rooms upstairs and to remove the wallpaper to the original plaster downstairs. Re-doing walls however is much further down our current to-do list so in the interim I’ve painted over the wallpapered-paneled bedroom walls. I’ve learned from this that if the wall and paper is in good shape you can barely tell there is even wallpaper under it, but if they are not every imperfection will show. Here is the before and after of my daughter’s room. Even knowing it’s painted wallpapered I always have to look very hard to find the seams. In our bedroom however I see the creases in the paper the minute I walk in (it’s still a 1000x better than the old wallpaper was!) I have also now experienced removing wallpaper from old plaster walls and I don’t wish to go through it again. We removed the wallpaper from my son’s bedroom in the old part of the house. The paper removal was itself was fine, but the walls were in terrible condition and covered in lead paint. Dealing with these issues took about 10 weeks. Those walls are beautiful now, but I am in no hurry to repeat the disruption and stress this caused. I am now considering what I want to do with the walls in our main living space downstairs. These have many, many layers of wallpaper on them. We saw evidence of this when taking down some crown trim and from some “helpful” wallpaper removal by our 6 month old pup. We’ve been dealing with the wallpaper, most of which, while dated is at least somewhat neutral in tone. However, we are talking about removing a fake beam in order to be able to place our TV on that wall and the current wallpaper only goes up to it. My husband has talked of putting drywall over the plaster. This not only seems weird to me but problematic in that much of our original trim would likely be damaged in the effort and we would never be able to match it exactly. At this point I feel like our best option would be either to paint the current wallpaper, or to put paintable wallpaper over it and paint that. Would it likely be easier to remove paintable wallpaper in order to restore the walls at some point if that is what is wanted or would it equally hard? I’m almost considering this more for someone who comes after us because frankly the only way I foresee us re-doing these walls the “correct” way would be if we had enough money after my children grow up and leave home to have a professional come in and do them all at once. Honestly, that seems unlikely to me, we’re older, with young kids trying to save for retirement, and college and remodel this house. We’ll be lucky to have enough for retirement and I don’t know that I’d want to stay in such a large house when the children are gone anyway. I know nothing about hanging wallpaper, but I do know how to paint it, so I think that would “easier” for me, and I also can’t imagine texture on every wall, I’d really have to find something super subtle. Anyway, I’m simply not up for removing the paper and dealing with what’s underneath, so what’s the next best thing?