You love your house and want to change the old wallpaper of your rooms and refreshening it with new trendy wallpapers. Removing old wallpaper is a difficult and time-consuming process. But in this guide, we will explain to you the best way to remove wallpapers.
But before you begin follow these steps which can help in your project more efficiently without damaging the walls.
Step 1. Remove a small section of wallpaper from a corner to find out the layers of wallpaper to remove.
Step 2. Try peeling the paper away to check if it can be easily removed without tearing. If it can be removed easily, it will save your work and now you will only need to remove adhesive and the back sheet.
While removing the wallpaper you probably deal with different kinds of wallpaper like temporary, peelable, strippable, or vinyl wallpaper, you can manage easily if you follow these simple instructions.
Prep the Room: – Before you start remove decorative objects, electrical faceplates, picture hangers, and any other obstructions on the walls. Move furniture out of the room as much as you can and cover what’s left with plastic. Protect the floor and other surfaces in the room from the water and the soap by laying a drop cloth, place old towels along the baseboards. It can save us from getting messy scraps getting on the floors.
Clean and repair the wall: – The walls should feel clean and smooth for this you have to prepare a bucket of hot water and mix it with a small amount of Tri-Sodium Phosphate (TSP, cleaner solvent available at hardware stores) and take a sponge wet it in this solution and wipe down the walls to remove all traces of wallpaper adhesive. Be careful not to over-damp the walls, use spackle powder to repairs or hollow in either drywall or plaster. Mop the cleaning solution off the walls in a circular motion with a clean, damp rag. Unmoistened the wall with another clean cloth or towel.
Determine your wall type: – It’s important to figure out the type of walls you have before begin your work. By identifying the age of the wall one can find out whether it’s drywall or plaster. In plaster walls, wood lath is nailed to wood-framed walls and covered with two-three coats of wallpaper. Drywall is a layer of chalk-like material covered with lightweight cardboard. Plaster walls are more solid in comparison to drywalls so one has to be careful not to damage cardboard facing while using a wallpaper scraping tool.
Determine your wallpaper type: – It’s is another important point to determine that what kind of wallpaper you are working with, so by using a putty knife loose a corner of the paper and try to peel it off it comes easily down then you have strippable wallpaper which can be easily removed without any hassle but if the wallpaper peels away but leaves a paper backing then you’re dealing with peelable wallpaper which can be removed by water after peeling top coat and in case if the paper doesn’t move then you have traditional wallpaper which needs chemical stripper with water for the removal process. Indefinitely, every wallpaper has different instructions and different removal techniques, therefore before starting the work identify aptly.
Apply solution: – Apply wallpaper removal solution when you are done with the wallpaper removal process. Make sure the liquid is warm (not boiling), as this will help crack up the glue under the wallpaper. Let the wall absorb in the solution for about 10 minutes before tearing and peeling away.
Scrape off wallpaper: – Whether it’s strippable, peelable, or traditional paper underneath the wallpaper and backing there is always a sticky layer of glue that is used to paste the wallpaper. It has to be removed completely with the help of a putty knife or any patching tool, find the edge and try to scrape the glue splotches.
Washing, Smoothening, and Refreshening: – These are the most important steps in the whole process, so once the paper is gone it is time to wash the wall so you can remove any excess residue or paste, after this apply gel stripper to any stubborn patches of paste then fix it free of the wall to make sure the plaster is smooth as can be, On completion of all the hard work of removing outdated wallpaper, you finally get to enjoy your reward: choosing a stunning new design.
On the grounds
It’s a messy job we can’t make it pretty but we can make it quicker and easier and by following the above process you can end up with walls that are smooth and clean without any damages.