I broke my promise to myself and removed the wallpaper again. The only reason I did this is for a profit of $ 100,000. My family and I did not have time to wait for professional help. We sold our investment property before the work was done and needed the house ready for appraisal.
While removing the wallpaper, I realized that many housewives get the wrong advice for this horrendous task. After years of experience in more than 30 houses, I offer my best and tried advice:
1. Use a clothes steamer or rent a professional steamer
2. Soak a large part of the wall.
3. Run a “Paper Tiger” scoring tool across the wet section
4. Re-vaporize the section
5. Spray the section with fabric softener and hot water.
6. Re-mark the section with the paper tiger.
7. Steam again
8. Remove curling edges (sometimes large areas peel off)
9. Scrape with a six-inch sheet of drywall
10. Repeat the previous steps in the section until most are easily scraped off.
11. Scrub with hot water, TSP, and a sponge with a rough surface.
Cautions: Use the Paper Tiger with caution so as not to scratch or puncture the walls. Wear gloves with the strong chemical TSP.
Don’t live with ugly wallpaper anymore!
PS: Please email me if you have any additional tips on how to remove wallpaper that might help others.
Copyright © 2005 Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved. (You can publish this article in its entirety with the following author information with live links only.)