What is the best way to remove wallpaper that is directly pasted onto drywall or drywall type?

Question

I'm wanting to remove wallpaper that looks to be directly pasted onto the drywall. I'm wanting to take the wallpaper down and paint the walls. Thanks!

Answer 1

Very unfortunate that the wall was not primed be for the wall paper. Use a garden sprayer (pump up bottle not the little trigger kind) with hot water and fabric softener. Don't' bother with wall paper removal products they are no better an cost 10 times more. Get a scoring tool (wallpaper tiger) score the wallpaper very, very gently, no primer again, then spray wait a while and spray again, make sure the paper is very saturated before you try to start peeling, use a plastic scraper and spray any areas again that weren't saturated.
You will likely end up with areas you are going to need to patch, because of the no priming. I don't think there is any way to get it off with no damage, just try and be gentle.
Good Luck.

Answer 2

White vinegar will remove wall paper easily with less mess than a steamer.
Place a good drop cloth at the bottom of the wall to absorb any excess vinegar. With a spray bottle wet the paper throughly and allow to sit for 15 to 10 minutes. It will start pull away at the top. You can then curl it out toward you and spray more vinegar at the top where the paper is leaving the wall. A little patience and you can remove the strips without tearing. Then take a sponge and wash the glue residue from the wall and let dry. Patch any holes, prime and paint. Violla. Smile.
Take your time.

Answer 3

Before you spend any money on useless smelly and messy products to remove wallpaper try this. Get a spray bottle fill it with hot water spray from top and get it really wet especially the seams. Then peel top layer off slowly. The bottom layer is mostly paper and can be removed with a plastic scraper and again hot water from spray bottle. Tip Let it soak for a few minutes. Good luck.

Answer 4

Are you sure it is wall paper? Manufactured homes often use decorated panels. Sort of like paneling. I am taking the paper off my lviningroom walls this weekend. Her is a fast easy way. Get a tool called a paper tiger. It is a round thing with a toothywheel under it. Genrally you get them at places tha tcarry wall paper or places like Lowe and Home Depot. YOu run it over the wall paper and it puts a bunch of holes in the paper. It just pireces the paper not the walls under it. Then you get a spray bottle of plain old water. One sectiion of the wall at a time you wet wall with the spray bottle then take a section of newspaper put in on the wet wall and spray the news paper till it is wet enough to stick to the wall. Use sheet after sheet of news paper keep them wet while they are on the wall. Do one section Then do the second sectoin of wall with newpaper and water. By the time you get the newspaper up on the second section it is time to take the previous section down. You should be able to climb up to the top of the wall paper, get a hold of it and pull a whole section of wall paper off the wall at a time. The paper tiger put little holes in the paper, the water soaks in the little holes causes the wallpaper glue to release, the newspaper holds in the moisture and keeps it wet till the glue has softened and you can pull the secotion down. You really can't spackle a whole wall well enough to make it smooth! But you could put texutre on them. You can buy spackle made specailly for textuing walls. Most places that carry paint carry the spackle and brochures on how to use it. You can do some really exciting things with the wall spackle stuff. Go the the lbirary and look at home decorating books for ideas. Give me an email if you have any questions on taking the wall paper down. By the way if the wall under the wall paper is good all you have to do is wash it down to get the left over paste off. It is really no big deal. I have done it severl times before. If the wall under is bad you can put up more wall paper. You can even get paintable wall paper which is what I am getting ready to use in my living room. Trust me a skim coat of mud is not that easy and the dust!!!! But if you find yourself in a postion that you have to sand dry wall mud, spackle, what ever you want to call it, use a mask!!! The dust when you sand is so fine it will even get into a closed dishwasher!

Answer 5

I would use a steamer, they have always worked the best for me, if you don't want to do that, you can buy a tool called a tiger claw, score your wall with that, then spray a product called DEF, it's blue and a gel, let it sit a bit, and it should be able to pill off. Hope this helps!

Answer 6

Go to Home Depot and they have several items you can choose from to remove wallpaper. They will also help you decide what is best for you, all you have to do is ask.

Answer 7

Buy wallpaper stripper from the DIY store. It's messy, but it works.