As I prep my father's house for painting, in anticipation of its sale, I have had the "pleasure" of removing the wallpaper from three rooms. Naturally, Mom and Dad had chosen the most complicated rooms in a house for wallpaper: bathrooms. Two of the three rooms are in the master bath and the third is the guest bath. Bathrooms are "fun" because there are things to work around (tubs, toilets, sinks) and usually there are things attached to the walls (toilet roll holders, shelves, towel bars) that you have to take down,
For anyone who has taken down wallpaper, you know what drudgery it is.
I am never. Never. NEVER. putting up wallpaper. It's like a bridesmaid dress - no matter how "classic" the design, no matter what the bride tells you, you are never wearing that thing again. Eventually, the wall paper will be out of style and it's a pain in the ass to take down. Paint is so much more manageable.
Nevertheless, I'm taking this stuff down at Mom and Dad's place because today's buyer prefers neutral walls. And, the wallpaper was showing its age, with obvious seams and dinginess. The ability to take down wallpaper "easily" or not completely depends on how it was put up. Likely, if you're taking down wallpaper, you had no say in how it was put up in the first place. Cross your fingers!
Here's how I did it, and I got professional results with very clean walls. Accordingly, minimal prep for painting was needed. I wish I could tell you it was magic, but it's mostly hard work.
1. Pull off the top layer.
The paper will split and leave a layer of paper stuck to the wall. The design part will come off. Hopefully, it will come off in big pieces, making your job easier.
I did not need to use the "paper tiger" and any solvent (water or other) to get my paper off. Mostly it came off in big sheets. Depending how the paper was hung, you might have to use these tools.
2. Soak the paper briefly.
Use a small household garden sprayer - yes, silly, clean it out first before spraying your wall! Or go to Walmart and buy a cheapie. Trust me, this really helps.
Solution: 1/2 gallon of water with about 1 TBSP of Downey (free and clear) mixed in. I don't know if the Downey is necessary. I read about it somewhere on the Internet and it seemed like a good idea. Relatively cheap. It was working well for me, so I stuck with it.
Only soak one strip of paper at a time, or roughly as much paper as you think you can peel off in about 15 minutes. You don't want the paper to get too saturated, and you don't want too much water on the walls. Putting a lot of water on the wall really isn't good for drywall. You don't want to wet it, then it dries, so you have to wet it again.
3. Wait 5-7 minutes, then peel off the paper.
Hopefully, the paper will come off in large sheets, also. Makes your job easier.
You can use a putty knife scraper if you want to. I found it helpful to run the scraper under the paper strip as I pulled. I bought a cheapie plastic set of scrapers at Walmart, that had three putty knives in different widths. The problem with metal is that it can easily gouge the wall, it usually has pointy-sharp corners (more gouge risk), and it will rust if left wet. You don't want rust stains added to your clean up project. It was nice to have a skinny one, a medium one, and a wide one.
You only wait 5-7 minutes because if the paper gets too saturated, it falls apart too easily. You can't get the nice large sheets off in one pull. If you don't wait enough, the paste under the paper doesn't loosen enough to let go. You will find the "sweet spot" for your project.
4. Scrape off the paste from the wall.
Before you scrape, you might need to spray the wall lightly with the Downey-water solution and give it a minute to loosen up the paste. Wallpaper paste is remarkably hydrophilic.
Use the putty knife scraper and scrape carefully but use some pressure. This process is messy. I used lots of paper towels to wipe off the scraper (putty knife) between passes. Be careful in corners, at edges, or holes in the wall (like from a drywall fastener). You don't want to gouge the wall or rip the paper on your drywall, if you can avoid it. Some will happen, and that's life. You'll have to patch it before you paint, that's all.
5. Wet a few plastic pot scrubbers and lightly scrub the wall to loosen the remaining paste on the wall.
You thought you got all the paste up with the scraping, right? Wrong.
The pot scrubbers I'm referring to are those green rectangles sold by the sponges in the supermarket. I found a three-pack worked nicely. It doesn't have to be name-brand; store brand works just fine.
You want several of them because they quickly become saturated with paste. Once a side is saturated, turn it over and use the other side, then pick up a new one. When both sides are saturated, drop it in a bucket of water. The paste will dissolve, and you can rinse it out and use it again.
6. Scrape again.
This will get up almost all of the remaining paste. The glop you're scraping this time is more liquid-y than the previous scrape, so be ready with paper towels or rags to wipe off the scraper and your hands. I used the wide putty knife here - fewer passes!
Notice I said "almost all of the remaining paste." The putty knife can only get so close to the wall, even with pressure. There's a thin layer of paste left. And, walls are rarely perfectly flat.
7. Wring out a wet sponge and wipe over the cleaned area.
The sponge can get saturated with paste, too, so be sure to check and flip it over when the surface is white-ish with paste.
Two sponges were enough to wipe down the area of a strip of wallpaper (9 foot ceilings).
And finally, your wall is clean. Let it dry thoroughly before painting. I would still suggest a light sanding before painting.
Have fun with your project! I'm glad it's not me doing it any more!
