Flowers and kittens or paisley and unicorns, everyone’s had an unfortunate wallpaper moment in their life. Or maybe you’ve simply grown a bit tired of your previous tastes and need a change.
If you’re curious about How to Remove Wallpaper quickly, it can be a relatively painless process. But don’t worry. we’ve got you covered with this easy guide on how do professionals remove wallpaper. We’ll walk you through each step of the process. You just need the right tools, prep work, and a little bit of luck. Keep reading to learn more!
Step 1: Prepare
This is going to be one sticky job!
Move whatever furniture you can out of the room and cover the floors and remaining furniture with sheets or drop cloths. Because you’re going to be working with water, consider shutting off the power to the room while you’re working.
And definitely cover all electrical outlets and switches with tape before starting to remove the wallpaper. You can often come back while working and add wallpaper to your outlet covers to ensure they blend into the walls. Make sure to pick a fun contrasting print so they will be highlighted, a wallpaper design tip. This step needs getting rid of the wall plates and cutting a piece of wallpaper about half an inch larger on all sides. Then glued the paper thoroughly while trimming the edges and adding openings for plugs with a razor knife. After that, just reattached the plates to the wall.
It’s going to be wet, so if you have carpet it would be a good idea to cover it with plastic as well as any sheeting so it absorbs the water properly.
Step 2: Figure Out What You’re Dealing With
Home makeover tasks are very time-consuming. However, the results are worth the effort, particularly in older homes if you’ll think about it. Say for instance, how do you remove a 20-year-old wallpaper? Well, this is perhaps one of the most challenging tasks. There is absolutely nothing like moving into an old house and realizing there is more work to do than you initially believed. This is typically the case if the previous owners had a horrible taste. Thus, you’ll end up with the idea of a wallpaper removal solution. Changing the wall colour to match your style with a coat of paint is the best answer. However, the old wallpapers have a lot of work to finish first.
Wallpaper was mainly aesthetic without much function and was typically used to cover plaster walls. As the paper and walls age, separating them is an issue. The wallpaper refuses to come off in clean strips, and the old plaster and lath tend to fall apart as you work. How do professionals remove wallpaper might come into your thoughts considering all these struggles you have to go through.
Wallpaper removal has always been a problem during renovation and typically takes longer than expected. You probably search on how to remove wallpaper without a steamer or maybe the natural way how to remove wallpaper with vinegar. But indeed, you’ll wish to find out first whether you have plaster walls or drywall before you begin peeling and utilizing ways to remove it.
While plaster walls can stand up to the rigours of a steam bath or scrubbing with hot water, drywall can easily start to fall apart with too much moisture, so more care has to be taken.
Determining which type of wall you have can be as easy as knocking in several places. If it sounds hollow, it’s probably drywall.
When you desire to know how to remove wallpaper from drywall, the initial thing you might want to do is to identify which type of wallpaper is on your walls. Try to peel an edge of the paper, and if it peels quickly, then it is dry-type. But if it tears, it’s probably porous.
If there is more than one layer of wallpaper, the second action is to check. Find out how to remove the wallpaper border, which is on the top of another layer of wallpaper.
Peel away a little section to see what is behind it. Find out if you can see the plaster wall or more paper. The more layers there are, the more complex the job is.
As soon as you figure out your wallpaper’s situation, it’s time to discover the best products to use, like how to remove wallpaper with a steamer. Having all the materials and products ready makes the wallpaper whole room or feature wall wallpaper removal go much faster.
Gather products such as a scraper, utility knife, steamer, putty knife, spray bottle, removal solution, bucket, and drop cloth before you start to remove wallpaper.
Clear the side of the room where you want to work, tape a newspaper or even cloth along the floor, and use painter’s tape to protect it to the baseboards. Always cover the outlet with tape to secure it from drips until you end the job.
Here’s where the luck comes in: if the wallpaper you’re removing is newer, it will be much easier to remove. A lot of newer wallpapers now are even designed to simply just peel away.
Step 3: How To Remove Wallpaper
Peelable Wallpaper
There are a couple of different types of peelable wallpaper. If it’s the super easy stuff, all you really have to do is find a corner and give it a pull.
Pull it gradually at an angle instead of holding it straight or suddenly removing it. There is no doubt that peelable wallpaper is easier to deal with than vinyl wallpaper. Maybe the one who puts the wallpaper up before properly evaluating the types of wallpaper will consider how to choose the wallpaper for a small living room or a small bedroom. Thus, the choice of removable wallpaper back then has rippled its effect to the present by making the painting project much easier. Its removable capabilities mean you can more quickly correct mistakes, and it’s likewise a breeze to eliminate. However, that doesn’t suggest you can slap it up on your wall with no preparation.
With a bit of patience, the wallpaper will peel right off, leaving only a bit of glue behind. Get the walls bare and proceed to Step Four.
Traditional wallpaper
If you test a corner and cannot remove the paper without any serious scraping, you have traditional wallpaper.
- First, score or sand the wallpaper you want to remove. This will allow the steam or stripping solution to penetrate the wallpaper and glue behind it more easily. If you don’t have a sander on hand, you can buy a wallpaper scorer.
- Next, mix up a wallpaper-stripping solution. While you can buy chemicals specifically designed for the task, a 70-30 solution of water and vinegar or fabric softener works just as well. Use the hottest water you can stand to handle.
- Using a sponge or spray bottle, apply the solution to the wall. Try to work in small sections, saturating only what you can get done in about 15 minutes before moving on to the next section. Give the solution several minutes to loosen the wallpaper glue before starting to peel and scrape it off. Use a plastic putty knife or a plastic spatula and try to peel upwards, keeping a low angle of incline. This process can get very sticky, and may require multiple applications of the stripping solution before you’re done.
- Alternatively, look into buying or renting a steamer from a hardware store. Lightly steam a small area of the wall, giving the steam several minutes to work away at the adhesive. Scrape it off with a putty knife or spatula, working in small sections.
Step 4: Clean Up
Finally, with wallpaper removal solution, soap, and hot water, wash any remaining glue or paper residue off the walls.
Clean up all of your scrapings from the ground as well and dispose of them.
Step 5: Decide On a New Design Plan
Now that your walls are bare, ready, and hopefully not sticky, you can get ready to prime and paint! What are you planning on doing next?
The interior painting possibilities are truly endless! The really cool thing about interior design is that you can play and just have fun with it. If you’re trying to decide in what direction you want to go in for 2024, check out these interior paint trends.
It might surprise you what’s coming up in terms of different design trends!
Moreover, if you’re having trouble deciding if you’re more classic or modern with your interior painting choices, check out this guide here!
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