Hello, hello, hello! Our most recent home renovation project has been wallpaper removal. To be honest, this has been one of the most annoying projects so far. Up to this point, we have removed popcorn ceilings and removed tile floor. We thought for sure that removing wallpaper would be a breeze of a project compared to those, but it has surprisingly been a real pain in the boootaaayyy.
The main reason for the pain is because we found out we have about 6 layers of wallpaper on our walls lol. The previous owners of this house were not messing around and they put on the most durable wallpaper I have ever seen, along with 5 other layers of stuff underneath it. Now, I don’t know much about wallpaper and the different kinds, but this one was probably up there with the thickest.
Wallpaper Removal
Supplies you will need:
- Wallpaper Stripper
- Paper scraper or regular scraper
- Pump Sprayer
- Paint Roller And Tray
- Wallpaper Scoring Tool
Step 1 – Score Wallpaper
This wallpaper scoring tool punctures little holes into your wallpaper to loosen the glue. Roll it on the wall in a circular motion until you’ve scored the entire wall. Don’t press too hard as you don’t want to puncture the sheetrock.
Step 2 – Spray or roll on wallpaper stripper solution
Depending on the thickness of your wallpaper, you may be able to just spray on the solution and that will be enough. It is possible, however, that your wallpaper is as thick as the wall itself like ours was, and you will have to roll on the solution to saturate through the layers.
Step 3 – Let solution set a few minutes and then scrap off wallpaper
This is where you will find out if you saturated the wallpaper enough the first time. The solution will sink into the paper and allow you to scrape it off of the wall. Some areas may be stuck tighter onto the wall than other areas. Scrape through the layers and if you get stuck, you may need to spray more stripper solution or decide to roll on the solution.
I know wallpaper was super in a few decades ago and I know some people today even still love it, but I honestly don’t understand why anyone would put this thick of wallpaper on their walls. I can see if they use removable wallpaper or easy to remove wallpaper, but in our case, this wallpaper was put on because it was mean to stay on.
As you can see, we will need to go back over these walls and texture them before we paint because the sheetrock has been partially stripped along with this super tough wallpaper. I’m so excited to retexture and paint though! We’re getting there!
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