Tips on installing wallpaper so it’s easier to remove?
5 years ago
Nantucket · More Info
I’m planning to install this wallpaper in my new powder room, above a wainscoting, and was wondering if there’s anything I can do now to make it easier to remove in the future, either by me or a future owner.
Last night I was reading This Old House and they said that it’s easier to remove wallpaper from plaster. They said that with sheetrock, it almost always goes badly because the wallpaper sticks to the paper on the sheetrock.
So....is there anything I can do now to prevent problems down the line? (Short of plastering the walls?)
Thanks in advance for your help
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Paintable wallpaper-love? hate? tips?
Comments (6)Thanks so much! I have no idea when the current paper was hung, or by whom, so there's no telling how difficult the old stuff will be to remove. There's a few loose seams, and it looks like I'll be able to just wet it and peel it down, but you know how that goes. I'll definitely use the Gardz on the wall. I see there's a ton of wallpaper posts on the paint forum, so I'll read through all of those, too. If the paper is a standard size, then I'll need just a hair over one roll, so I should have a lot of paper to play around with before it actually goes up. And about that paint color...when I picked up the chip, I thought "Ew!" It looked like a dark brown/pink in the store, but when I got it home...wow! Really, really pretty! The entry faces east, but also gets a lot of light in the afternoon from across the room, which faces west. I'm going to do a sample board, but so far, the chip looks really nice, all day....See MoreRemoving a lot of wallpaper from the 50's on plaster walls.
Comments (21)Most of the info you find online is from folks who are stripping modern wallpaper off of sheetrock, and stripping very old wallpaper off of plaster may take a different technique. Sheetrock has a paper layer on top, and if its painted before paper is applied, the wallpaper does not stick that tightly. However, wallpaper that has been applied to raw plaster really sticks to it. I tried perforating the paper withe paper tiger and spraying the wall with remover, but in most areas it didn't really break the old paper loose and I just got small strips to come off. Then I used a steamer and stripped off the larger pieces of wallpaper. Mine appeared to be patterned wallpaper on top of a white wallpaper-like finish that had been applied when the plaster was new. I first stripped off whatever I could using the steamer and paper tiger, but there was still a lot of small sections left on the wall. I then used the steamer and a razor blade (in a holder) held at a very slight angle to strip off all the remains. I am right handed, so I held the steamer on one section with my left hand while I scraped paper off with my right hand and continued to work from right to left. This was a slow process, but I did get it all off. I then hired a guy to strip my living room wall and his technique was different. He steamed it much more and was able to get both layers of paper to break loose fairly quickly. However, he used so much steam that the water dripped down between the baseboard and wall, and onto the concrete walls in the basement below, and he had to paint those walls to cover the streaks after he was done. My technique was slower, but his was much messier because of all the hot steam. Bruce...See MoreRemoving wallpaper from plaster walls?
Comments (12)Lots of good counsel about getting the wallpaper off. I would suggest, though, that you remove some wallpaper from an inconspicuous spot to start so you can see what the plaster is like beneath. A good many older houses never received a finish plaster coat. What that means is you might find a rough, sandy plaster that would have to be skim coated before painting if you want a decent finish.This would greatly complicate what you want to do. Skim coating demands a great deal of care and skill so you would want to go slowly doing one room at a time or hire someone with the expertise to do it for you. If there is a hard, smooth finish coat of plaster, you're all set to paint once the walls have been washed to eliminate any residue of wallpaper paste, minor dings have been filled and a primer coat, if needed, has been applied....See MoreWallpaper removal abyss
Comments (21)If the paper is bonded that well, leave it. The reason you remove it is to prevent it from coming down when you don't intend it to, but it obviously doesn't want to. We went through the same thing on a DIY powder room project and I was determined to "do it right." We steamed, sprayed, used fabric softener, some other product, tried a couple of different tools (don't bother with the Tiger things -- they do more damage than good-- awful!) . At some point you realize you are doing more damage to the sheetrock and getting very little paper removed. We were either going to have to redo the sheetrock and much more work than we intended or I was going to have to give up on what I was "supposed to do." I got the same advice from a painting store guy I trusted and a couple of pros -- so I went with it. To prep the wall with paper in place, you clean it and remove loose edges, float the edges with mud like you do drywall tape and prime it with a shellac primer (the original KILZ-- the stink stuff). If the walls are going to be textured, you can prime first to seal bond between the paper and the drywall, then float the seams and texture. The shellac will mean that paper will become glued to and a permanent part of the drywall -- but it works. I've done it in that powder room and one other room -- don't remember which now, but neither had any problems with the texture, paint or the paper bubbling or peeling....See MoreRelated Professionals
Shamong Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Casas Adobes General Contractors · Decatur General Contractors · Damascus Painters · Dunwoody Painters · Mastic Beach Painters · Mount Vernon Interior Designers & Decorators · Reedley Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Dunedin General Contractors · ‘Ewa Beach General Contractors · Fort Lee General Contractors · Prichard General Contractors · Morgan Hill Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · San Bernardino Glass & Shower Door Dealers · Huntington Beach Window Treatments
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