May layers

[The Hunt]

I have a old house. It looks like the dining room has more that 3 layers of wall paper ( I have gotten at least that remove parcially) is there a trick to removing many layers?
Thanks

[mischa]

trick? TRICK? I wish there were :)
No, seriously: the only trick there is is patience. And lots of hot water mixed with a heavy dose of dishwater detergent, spray it on with a pump sprayer (like you use in the garden to spray crabgrass killer etc) Let it soak in, give it another spray, then maybe another .... and wait. WAIT. Patience. Let the solution do its work.

Michael K.
Phoenix

[mischa]

.... thought more about the job you have and realized that there is sort of a trick; its called a Papertiger (Home Depot, Lowe's etc). When used it makes a lot of tiny holes in the paper (the more the merrier) allowing your soap/hot water solution to more easily penetrate, get behind the paper and soften up the glue. Don't put too much pressure on the Tiger - you don't want to damage the drywall or whatever your walls are made of ..... this tool is especially useful if your paper, or one layer of it, has a vinyl film (the design/print face) on it. Without making these few million tiny holes you can spray all the water you want on the paper, it is just going to run off the face of it.
Are you going to repaper or paint?

Michael K.
Phoenix

[Bill Archibald]

What Michael says about patience and keeping the paper wet is correct. I would, however, caution about a "heavy dose of dishwater detergent". I find that the overabundance of suds caused by dish soap to be detrimental for finally rinsing, and doesn't really add that much to loosen the paste.

Many of the commercial paper stripping solutions are quite good. My favorite is one that is not so readily available, but you can order it on line from Safe and Simple (http://safeandsimple.com) (you will want their 603 product). If that is too much trouble for you, my next favorite is Strip+ by Roman Adhesives click here and scroll down to it (http://www.romandecoratingproducts.com/sundry.html), and then comes DIF and finally as a last resort Fast. Well actually, I use NON-sudsy ammonia before I'll use Fast.

If you use the PaperTiger PLEASE take seriously what Michael says about too much pressure.

OH, the garden type sprayer is an absolute necessity, but PLEASE do not use one that HAS been used for poisons.

And buy yourself a real wallpaper stripping knife, one of those ones that hold a 4" razor sharp blade, but be careful not to gouge the wall.

good luck, and remember PATIENCE. Let the solution do the work !!!

-Bill

[Chris Murphy]

If it's a *real old* house, you have plaster walls. If so, use Bill's advice about the razor scaper to get down to the first layer. Then use the sprayer, and the S&S.

[Bill Archibald]

Chris,

I assume you are talking about dry shaving (scraping) first.

Dawn, if this is what Chris is talking about, it is a technique that Mike Zekich of Safe and Simple highly promotes. Take as much off dry as possible and then soak and scrape the rest.

This is not for the faint hearted. It takes a lot of control of the razor scraper and a different motion than just pushing the business edge of the blade into the edge of the paper. The correct motion is sort of a sideway arcing slicing shaving motion. Very hard to describe via the written word. First make sure the blade is SHARP. With the handle of the scraping tool raised so that the blade is at the correct angle to shave and not gouge, sorta slide the blade sideway along the edge of the paper. It reminds me (sort of) carving a very thin piece of roast beef. You are slicing/shaving/carving the layers of paper away from the wall.

I hope that describes it well enough.

This is a tedious procedure, but the most experienced professional paper stripper I know, Mike Z, recommends it. For multiple coats of paper, I will have to agree.

-Bill