How can I strip my wallpaper easily without a steamer?

Answer 1

The other responses are correct, a bucket of hot water will do the trick. The only additional thing I would suggest is scoring the wallpaper before you soak it. You can by a scorer at Home Depot or Lowes for a couple of bucks. All it is is a handheld blade-wheel device thar perforates the wallpaper as you swipe it across. These tiny holes will help get the hot water back into the glue portion of the paper and will greatly accelerate the removal process.

Answer 2

The key word is "easily". ha ha The wallpaper paste/adhesive is usually what determines the level of difficulty to remove the wallpaper. I've seen advertised a small plastic hand-held device called a "paper tiger" to be used to make small scratches in the wallpaper to allow water to loosen the paste's strength.

Sometimes the wallpaper was "pre-pasted", so it would have a minimun amount of adhesive. In this case the paper could be slowly and carefully pulled off the walls without any liquid solution applied.

The condition of the wall behind the paper is often a consideration, too. Perhaps there is another layer of wallpaper, or sizing, or paint. See?

A steamer helps greatly to remove the wallpaper with the heated moisture. I would certainly first try removing the paper without using anything but S L O W L Y pulling from a corner toward a 45 degree angle down before using the paper tiger or very rough sandpaper lightly plus water. If more than just the paper, (or if the paper tears too easily) then the steamer might be the most easy way to remove the wallpaper.

Good luck.

Answer 3

some wallpapers come off with water only, use a roller or large brush. leave for 10 minutes to soak. If the paper is really stuck to wall or painted over you will need a steamer and maybe a perferator as well. Another thing to remember is the long handled scraper with razor edge, these can be hard work and can be the fastest method too.

Answer 4

Use a cloth/sponge to soak the wallpaper and then leave for a few minutes to allow the water to soak in. The paper should be much easier to peel off then (basically the same job as a steamer). Good luck, I'm doing something similar too.

Answer 5

With a sponge and water thoroughly wet the wallpaper, leave it to soak into the paper. Then begin scraping it off with a hand held scrapper. It should come away easily. Continue wetting and scraping in this way.

Answer 6

I took a lg. bucket of hot water and lg. bath towels. I got the towels soaking wet, and hung them with tacks to the wall. After 5-10 minutes, I took them down, and the wallpaper came of pretty easy.
There were a few spots that were quite stubborn. With these, after hanging the towels on the wall-I took my iron and went over the area a few times. This totally worked, and this wallpaper had been on there for years.
Good luck to you, and Happy Holidays.

Answer 7

I agree with the second answer. That is the way I stripped the wallpaper out of 3 rooms in my house. It may be a little smelly, but goes away quickly and is not toxic. Good Luck.

Answer 8

When our family stripped the wallpaper, we found it is best to use a spray bottle with water in it and spray the wallpaper to get it loose then scrape it off with a scraper.

Answer 9

Just do what they say but add a little fabric softener into the water this seems to make it work better and smells nicer than old soggy paper,if this doesn't work very well you can buy a roller with little spikes on it from DIY shops,this makes tiny holes which allow the water to soak through painted or vinyl paper!

Good exercise for your arms to,good luck!

Answer 10

I saw this trick on one of those renovating programs. They used liquid fabric softener. They had a thing that put small holes in the wall paper, you could use an old hair brush, then wet the wall paper with the fabric softener, I don't know how it works but it did. Maybe the oils in the softner do it. Good luck