Pure Comedy
We love getting e-mails from you all guys, and not to play favorites or anything, but this note from MaryB in Richmond (entitled “Just Kill Me Now”) was pure e-mail gold. We just had to share.
Oh, sure. Everybody makes it look soooooo easy! So I’m hanging around your website, and looking at the cool stuff you do … and then I looked at my sons’ bathroom (see attached picture) and I thought “How hard could it be?” (Yeah, that’s three wallpapers: One above, one below, and a border in the middle. Blame the previous owners, and the decade it was hung.)
So I Googled “wallpaper removal” and I got some homebrew recipe made with vinegar and fabric softener. Ok, that’s a total disaster. So late (late!!) last night I’m wailing to someone who suggests “DIF,” so the wallpaper will just “fall off the wall!” Another trip to Lowe’s and I’m all set, right? Not. Four hours later I’ve cleared maybe a square yard! And my arms hurt, and my hands hurt, and my eyes are stinging and ….
…and I’ve decided your website should come with some kind of warning label: “Projects may be more difficult than they appear.”
Am I really this incompetent? I mean, dear god, how hard *could* this be?!?!?! Either harder than I thought it was, or … “Newly single homeowners may be less competent than they appear!”
Jiminy Cricket.
Beer. I need beer. And Aleve. And … well, maybe another beer. And what thought just flashed through my mind, as I pictured myself with that beer? Honest to pete I thought “Oh, I can catch up the last couple Young House Love posts!” Addictive.
So sad. :)
-MaryB, either your biggest fan or someone of whom you should be very afraid.
Thank you MaryB for the entertainment. Sorry for getting you into these messes. Can anyone help MaryB out with some words of encouragement (and maybe some wallpaper removal tips along the way?)
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The solution is really simple: rent a wallpaper steamer from a local business that rents backhoes, floor sanders, and all those sorts of tools. I’ve done this job many times when wallpaper wasn’t easy to remove… but only in Montana winters as the humidity makes the job quite toasty.
They might offer a few hand tools that then make the job even easier.
Good luck MaryB
This was a great e-mail to share!
I have some experience with taking down old wallpaper, but never 3 different layers of wallpaper, that’s got to be a real challenge.
Anyway, what worked best for me was a hot rag or a steam iron. Get the walls soaking with hot water or hold a steaming hot iron about 3-4 inches away from the walls. Let the water soak in for a couple of minutes, then start peeling, little by little. There will probably be two layers to the wall paper, first the vinyl-like layer then the paper and adhesive. Keep peeling and scrubbing with the water and eventually it will come down. The best is when you get the whole section down in pull! It will be messy and require lots of hard work, but good old hot water should do the trick!
I’ve also tried a perforated roller deal and a blue spray wash that we got at our local hardware store, it wasn’t worth it at all. Water worked better and the perforated roller just broke up the wallpaper making it harder to tear off in big chunks.
Hope this helps!
I would go with the wallpaper steamer. But it’s still going to take some time. Seeing things not go as fast you thought can be depressing. I would suggest marking off sections as a goal for each day you work on it, so things don’t get overwhelming. Good luck!
You can do it! :)
I’m wondering if she scored before using the fabric softener. That’s always worked for us!! The have a little scoring tool at Lowes or Home Depot called the tiger.
I feel your pain!! My parents’ house has a lot of wallpaper from the previous owners. I helped them remove some of it in a couple of rooms. I definitely recommend getting a perforated roller – it’s this round thing that has little teeth for breaking up the wallpaper. You need to get the chemicals into those holes, give it a chance to begin breaking down the glue, and then it’s much easier (not easy!, but easier) to start peeling away. I recommend using the steamer, perforated roller, scraper, and a pitcher of margaritas :)
Hi!
Your email is hilarious and sooooo familiar! We, too, tried everything for removing wallpaper in our new (older) house. Almost every room had some sort of wallpaper in it and we got it all removed with the Downy fabric softener (other brands didn’t work as well) and warm water. We scored the paper with a scoring tool that others mentioned and put one cap of downy to a spray bottle of warm water. (To further prove we went through what you did, the spray bottle we used was a previous (and worthless) bottle of DIF!!! LOL!!) Score it, spray it, and then start with a scraper. It will come off so easily and in some large pieces at times too. It works like a dream. Just make sure you wash down the walls afterwards to remove the fabric softener residue. That can ruin a good paint job!!
Good luck and to the awesome young house couple – great blog – I always enjoy reading it!
We had tons of wallpaper in our first house (including a master bath that looks a lot like the one you pictured). My husband and I decided that there were two kinds of wallpaper. The kind that was hard to get off, and the kind that was impossible to get off. While this may not be encouraging, we had one room with just a border, and it probably took us over 80 hours just to get it *mostly* off. That being said, we used a scorer and the DIF Gel (blue) in most of our rooms, and after awhile we decided that the secret was to make lots of holes, put lots of gel on, make sure you wait, add more gel to make sure the paper is still wet, and then hope that when you start peeling it will come! Oh, and having a buddy to complain to about all of this is also good :). Good luck!
They make really thin dry wall now. LOL. Our kitchen is a horror with three layers all over, 20′s, 50′s and 80′s and beneath that are plaster walls which will just crumble to bits. Drywall is probably going to be our decision.
I think the scoring tool is the missing component to this success story. Like some others have said, I also was able to remove wallpaper using a scoring tool and a 50/50 mixture of fabric softener and water. And how addictive is it, by the way, to pull off huge chunks at once? It was my own little game to see if my pieces could get bigger and bigger. C’mon, I know I’m not alone here. MaryB, you’ll know what this feels like very soon, I just know it!
Wow, I’m glad to know we aren’t the only ones who have projects that take longer than anticipated! My hubby is still working on finishing our 8ft fence and we’ve been stuck mid-way in our bedroom makeover for MONTHS.
If this is “scrubbable” vinyl wallpaper you’re in for a fight. (I could tell you the story of removing the kelly green gingham *waterproof* paper from my kitchen walls, but you’d never sleep again).
Things that help, regardless of if you’re using vinger, fabric softener, Dif (our choice), etc.
- Definitely try a scoring tool (we used the “Paper Tiger”)
- Use the absolutely hottest water you can. Boil water, if your tap water isn’t uncomfortably hot.
- After spraying, let it permeate for 15 minutes (or the length of time the directions say, if it’s a commercial product) before even attempting to scrape. If it still hasn’t loosened, spray a second time (still with super-hot liquid) and allow to sit another 15 minutes. Spritz one last time, so you’re removing damp/wet paper.
- Consider if it will come off in layers. Sometimes there’s a “decorative” layer that comes off, then you have to spray the remaining thin-paper-and-glue layer and take that off separately.
- Use a flat drywall knife to slide under the edge of the paper; that will pull it away from the wall better than just tugging alone.
- Most importantly: Beer and Aleve are vital components of the process, anyone who says otherwise has never removed wallpaper.
I have been down that road in a number of rooms in our house and one of them was the bathroom. I agree the steamer removes the wallpaper well. BUT, note to self, do not leave the steamer on in the porclein bathtub while you go run to do something else for a minute because it will leave a mark. I did this and was faced with yet another home improvement project — re-finishing the bathtub! ;)
Ditto the fabric softener. It works like a dream. Good luck!
Wow — y’all are terrific! I was using the Paper Tiger (sorry I failed to mention it) but I think I wasn’t using it with enough enthusiasm, so I’m going to go over it again first. I didn’t know about using HOT water (helloooo, microwave!) and I’m going to give it another go with all these great ideas tonight.
I’m literally afraid of the steamer — I can’t tell you all how bad I am with anything remotely mechanical, and I just have this mental image of me at the emergency room…
Thank you, Sherry and John, and I promise an update later tonight or tomorrow! Woo-hooo!
John, Sherry & Mary, thank you for the entertainment. Too much fun!
I found a metal scraper & a bottle of hot water worked best for me. I removed an entire dining room full of 1980′s blue & white teacup wallpaper from my walls with this method. Oh and a hideous ballerina border too.
You can do it Mary! :)
My husband and I had to drywall OVER the THREE layers of wallpaper in our bathroom. One layer right on top of another, THREE TIMES. It took me half an hour to get about 2 square feet semi-cleared off the wall, and that’s when our buddy (who does finsih carpentry) told us to slap drywall up over everything.
I suppose this is only a solution if you’ve almost completely gutted the bathroom like we did. Good luck.
I’m so glad to read that I was not the only one struggling with the same thing! I really thought I was doing something wrong! Now on to hanging the new wallpaper…
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
(I’m really late…just found this blog today!) I learned the hard way nothing works unless you take the top layer of wallpaper off first. I got a steamer and it just burned my hands and got the floor and walls all wet. Straying diff on the top of the wallpaper did nothing. So I ripped off the top layer (The plasticy decorative stuff) off and then there is a layer underneath it that you spray the gel Diff (Easiest and less mess) and that takes the rest of the paper right off. Find the seams and start ripping.
hmmmmm… wondering if she ever got the wallpaper off… or if she just got drunk on beer! lol!
Good news! Mary updated us and she did- with the help of a steamer. So glad!
xo,
s