How to Remove Wallpaper in 3 Steps

With all the projects we have done, removing wallpaper is a first. Weirdly enough, we’ve never had wall paper in these old homes, or if there was wallpaper we had replaced the wall so it didn’t matter. Now that we have taken on the Woodmont project, I’ve gotten lots of practice removing paper. Each day I do another room and each time I feel a little differently about it. When I first started, I didn’t really think removing paper was that bad. After day 4, I hated it and was trying to figure out ways to avoid doing more. Now, I’ve come to terms with it. Its in the same category as painting. I set a goal each day and I just work till I finish and then I’m done for the day. It’s monotonous, so you’ll need some good tunes to keep you sane and moving forward.

What you will need:

A scraper
Steamer
Piranha scoring tool
Ladder
Rags (to clean your hands and the scraper from glue)

Quick Tip before you get started: If you have a steamer that takes time to heat up, I would recommend filling it with water and turning it on now. That way you can work on a couple other things and not waste time waiting for the steamer to get ready.

Step 1:

Before you start with steaming (or while your steamer is heating up), I recommend going through and pulling any lose wallpaper off. Even if it leaves the backing, that is fine. It’s easier to remove less layers if possible.

Step 2:

Once you have removed as much of the lose paper as you can, take the Piranha scoring tool and roll this all over the wall. Scoring pokes little holes all throughout the wallpaper allowing the steam to penetrate into the paper. This *should* make it easier for the paper to come off.

Step 3:

Time to get out the steamer! If you have drywall you will want to be careful not to hold the steamer too long on the wall as it can damage the drywall. If you have plaster, these walls can take a beating so holding the steamer for a while will be fine.

What I like to do is start at the top, so that when you are pulling wet paper off its dropping to the floor versus starting at the bottom and the wet paper can re-stick to the wall you just cleaned.

Once you are on your ladder, take your steamer and hold it directly on the wall over the top section. Keep it here for about 30 seconds. Once you release the steamer, take your scraper and scrape the paper off. For me, while I am scraping the paper off, I like to move the steamer down to start steaming the next section so that I have little wait time. You will also want to clean the scraper periodically as it will get a glue buildup from the paper and not work as well.

As your steaming you will notice if you were able to get the top layer of paper off in Step 1, the backing comes off super easy. As the paper gets wet from the steamer, you will also be able to pull sections off. Again, I would recommend doing this so its less to have to steam.

You will continue to do this until you complete the room (or rooms!) Best of luck and hope this helps!