REMOVING WALLPAPER, GLUE AND PASTE RESIDUE

Almost every remodeling project will eventually have you, the re-modeler, removing some type of wallpaper or wallpaper glue and paste residue.

Or in some cases you may prefer to roll on a coat of paint right over the wallpaper itself.

Below you will find how to advice regarding the removal of wallpaper and the residue or glue that is left on the wall once the wallpaper has been removed.

Also, some of you, after doing your wallpaper removal may decide to go to the painting wallpaper page to help with painting over any wallpaper that you may not be able to remove.

Keep in mind that some types of glue may not be removable and will require power sanding and skim coating.

Skim coating uses a a wide drywall knife and drywall mud followed by more sanding.

REMOVE WALLPAPER OR PAINT IT

Whenever possible, it's a good idea to remove old wallpaper rather than painting over it. By removing old wallpaper along with the glue and paste residue, you will end up with the best surface to apply a paint coating onto.

Painting over wallpaper, can also cause problems that in some cases will give you more grief than removing the paper in the first place.

With that said, there are situations where painting your old ugly wallpaper is the only recourse that you may have.

Removing wallpaper is, in my opinion, always a gamble. Sometimes, old wallpaper can virtually slide right off a wall, at othertimes it's as if the wallpaper has been attached with somekind of wallpaper super glue.

If you have wallpaper that is virtually impossible to remove and the paper has little or no texture when you run your hand over the papers surface, then paint over the wallpaper as opposed to removing it.

Difficult to remove wallpaper on the otherhand, or drywall that ends up having excessive wallpaper glue or paste residue left behind after the wallpaper is removed, in most cases will need to be re mudded.

WALLPAPER REMOVING TOOLS

Before beginning a wallpaper removal project, talk to your local paint or wallpaper dealer regarding tools, products, materials and advice that would best work for the job at hand.

Roller cage (and a low to medium nap roller cover).
Extension pole.
Wallpaper scraper or wide drywall knife.
Large garbage can (with bags).
Drop cloths.
Sponge sander.
Sand paper (80, 100, 120 grit).
Pole sander.
Paintable caulking (and gun).
Drywall mud & knife (to fill holes).

Top quality primer & paint.

In a large paint tray, mix 1 cup of vinegar to 1 gallon of hot water, smaller trays would need proportionately less water and vineger.

TESTING & REMOVING WALLPAPER

First you will need to do a test to see how easy your wallpaper is going to come off. Start by finding the most inconspicuous (hidden) place for you to do your test.

Test areas, should be close to the floor if possible and next to a wallpaper seam. For those of you who have wallpaper in a closet, (on the shelves for instance), and the wallpaper is the same as that which is on your walls, then the closet of course, would be the best place to begin your test.

Once you have found a test spot, place a drop cloth or old bed sheets on the floor just below your testing area.

Bunch the cloth against the wall, the drop cloths purpose is to collect water that rolls down the wallpapers surface. Keep in mind, the better placed and more absorbent your drop cloth is, the less water you will have to clean up. Also, another drop cloth is necessary to go under your water filled paint tray so as to catch any roller splashes or drips.

Start by wetting the roller cover in your tray full of hot vinegar water. With the roller cover slightly damp, roll a small area of wallpaper close to a seam in the same fashion as you would if you where painting the wall. Let your wet paper sit for a few minutes then roll the wallpaper again.

You should now be able to see a change in the papers color (it usually gets darker). With a wide drywall knife (3" to 6") and starting at the seam, gently scrape off the old wet wallpaper.

Vinyl wallpapers will usually start to come off with the top vinyl layer first. As the top layer comes off pull the vinyl away then roll hot water onto the paper that's still stuck to the wall now let the water sit and soak in.

After the water has a chance to absorb into the paper scrape off the paper with a drywall knife. If the wallpaper isn't coming off very well you may need to apply more water, let the water sit then try scraping again.

When doing the test and you find the paper comes off easily, keep wetting the wall and scraping until all of the old wallpaper is removed. To do so, you will need a few more drop cloths along with a garbage can (and bags) for the stripped, wet, wallpaper.

As you proceed with your project be sure to add clean hot water to your tray or replace the water if it gets to cold or dirty. When removing wallpaper, it should scrape off the wall in somewhat of an easy fashion, if it doesn't you may want to consider painting over the wallpaper instead of trying to remove it.

REMOVING THE GLUE AND PASTE RESIDUE

Once the paper is removed, you will more than likely have residue from the old wallpaper still on the wall. To remove the residue apply a solution of warm water and TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate) or any other wall cleaning product that your paint store representative advises you to use.

If you would rather apply a home remedy to remove wallpaper glue or paste, then fill a hand sprayer with hot water and one heaping tablespoon of baking soda or four tablespoons of fabric softener.

I have found at times that the old glue residue can be more difficult to remove than the wallpaper itself. In such cases, fill any holes and cracks you see with drywall mud and paintable caulking then sand your repairs with a sponge sander.

After the repairs are sanded, fill them again if needed, let the repair dry, then sand again.

With the sponge sanding done, move onto the walls and dried glue, paste or residue using a pole sander and 100 grit sand paper. Areas of old glue that don't come off with the pole sander may need a little help from an electric palm sander and an application or three of mud (skim coating).

After the wall surface is smooth and has been sanded you are know ready to choose the paint sheen and color/s. Once you have selected your colors, you can begin the procedures that follow.

Apply a top quality primer.
Once the primer is dry, pole sand the walls.
Do repairs using mudd or caulking (leave to dry).
Sand, then spot prime your repairs (leave to dry).
Paint the walls with a top quality paint (leave to dry).
Make repairs again, sand, spot paint (if needed).
Pole sand the walls.

Paint on your final coat.

When mudding less is more, it's always easyer to add more mudd once each coat dries than to add a lot of mud and then try to level it out by sanding.

SUMMARY

When striping wallpaper the more water you use and the hotter the water is the easier it will be to remove the old paper. With the extra water comes a lot bigger mess to clean up and very hot water can burn you or discolor your floor so be carefull.

You can rent a wallpaper steamer, some of which work quite well to remove wallpaper, I myself prefer to save on the extra cost and have rented steamers in the past that did not work.

Devices designed specifically to scar the wallpaper for easier removal in most cases are a waste of money. Old wallpaper will either come off the wall or not.

Thick vinyl papers, might need scrubbing with a wire brush or palm sander (80 grit paper) to break the vinyl surface and let the water through, with that said it is best to try and remove the wallpaper without such drastic tools first as tools can easily scar the wall giving you extra unnecessary work.

Using a low nap cloth roller cover will cut down on the amount of water soaking your floors, even so, low nap or not wallpaper removal is a messy job.

In the end, the most important thing to remember is that not all wallpaper or wallpaper glue is removable if your wallpaper removal test proves to be more work than it's worth you might find painting over the wallpaper a better choice than removing it.

Keep in mind though, painted wallpaper in most cases will not look as good as a coated drywall surface. Repairs on wallpaper tend to stand out, especially if your wallpaper has a texture and when you try to fill wallpaper seams they tend to look worse than if you had not filled them in the first place.

There are other problems along with solutions for painting wallpaper that are discussed on the above mentioned, painting wallpaper page.

When scraping the wallpaper from your walls, try the Wolf wall shaver, it's easy on the walls, gets the job done fast and you'll be able to use a little less water for your wallpaper removal process.

HOME LINK

Looking for home improvement solutions other than removing wallpaper or glue and paste residue.

Click on the home link. You should be able to find an idea by reading the text.

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