stripping for repairs

[Bill Archibald]

The situation was a little funny, because no one got hurt.

Got a call from a GC who said while a 410 lb tub was being "carried" up some stairs, the crate broke and the thing got loose and punched a hole in the wallpapered wall. Actually in two walls. The visualizations had me amused.

Anyway, the wallpaper needs to be replaced an luckily the HO has two doubles - enough to repair.

There is damage in two areas.

The paper is a lightly acrylic coated Brit Pulp. Stripping solution will soak through OK.

Anyone have a clever way to protect the two good edges from being soaked with stripping solution? Tape will not work. My usual procedure is to use a ten inch trim guide as a spray shield, but the two seams needing protection are each 11 feet long. Using a ten inch trim guide will be a tad onerous.

I was thinking of carefully brushing sloppy 880 up to the seam and then covering with plastic.

Any clever ideas?

thanks

[B Blanchard]

The 880/brush combo sounds like a good idea, although you may want to use a paste that will give up moisture a little more quickly. If you have some cellulose mixed, that works well. And you don't have to go right up to the seam as the moisture will wick some.

You could try the wal-wick sheets ( I have some you can borrow if you want). You dunk them in a bucket of stripper solution, squeeze out the excess liquid and hang on the paper to be stripped. Just as with the paste above, you don't have to get right up to the edge.

Another thought - for either of these techniques you might have quicker and better results if you run some sandpaper over the paper at the the seam to aid in the wicking.

Hope you don't take a bath on this repair!:D

[HangingInThere]

Hope you don't take a bath on this repair!:DOr, get hosed... :rolleyes:

You might want to consider DIF gel...brush a border close to the edge, but not too close to create a dam. Or, just use the DIF gel in toto. Some creep, obviously, is going to be difficult one way or the other, but this may help to control.

[Bill Archibald]

Thanks guys.

Yes Barry, I was going to sand first - CAREFULLY with a shield.

I was wondering if cellulose in the 880 would help. Thanks.

I'll pass on the wall wick sheets. Again, thanks

I not worried about taking a bath, only a shower :roflmao:

It's going to be T&M :thumbup:



Glenn,

Never used the gel. I may see if my local carries it.....if I remember :coocoo:

[HangingInThere]

Pondering a bit more about the situation...

What about 1" tape or 3/4" placed slightly off the seam. Strip out the center of the sheet and then sneak up on the edge with your sanding technique and the DIF gel.

That's of course if they have it... ;)

The gel works well across the board when stripping. I oft times use it when stripping a soffit where the underside might be a popcorn texture that coud easily be damaged.

[Bill Archibald]

I hope you are talking about the tape on the piece to be stripped. I gotta assume you are.

I think I also pondered that approach (if I understand you correctly), and figured it would take longer than my "normal" approach. Which is to spray the sheet using a spray shield and then "sneak" up on the seam. My issue is that with the strip being 11 feet long, I want to reduce climbings and sprayings.

As I said it's T&M, so I want to be as efficient as possible. AND it's not being covered by insurance, it's gonna be out of pocket.

[master hanger]

Sounds like you have a, well, sound approach.
All your time is going to be in removing the sheets edges while protecting the undamaged sheets on either . At times removing solutions need to applied very wet or often to penetrate the surface. To minimize wetting close the the undamaged sheet edges, I would run 2"( or wider) duct tape on the edges of the damaged sheets before I wet anything. Pulling off the tape should take the face of the wall covering with it. Lightly cutting the paper to the inside of the tape will give you a nice clean edge, although not necessary.

Proceed as you intended as far as wetting/protecting. Now when it comes to removing that paper left after the tape removal, it should take very little moisture to loosen it up, since the tape pulled the first layer off. I usually use a blade to scrape up against the edge at the seam for control.

This works great for doing a patch repair to protect the surrounding areas. May work for you in this situation as well.

[Bill Archibald]

Thanks Dennis.


All your time is going to be in removing the sheets edges while protecting the undamaged sheets on either

Absolutely !

It's amazing that many of these ideas have crossed my mind and I wondered how they may work - like putting STICKY tape on the seam-to-be-removed and ripping the face off for better wetting. I appreciate the mentioning of it

And you are correct, "Lightly cutting the paper to the inside of the tape" will probably not be necessary. With enough time, enough moisture will wick UP TO the good seam.

And usually, if that "bad" seam is wet enough, it will pull off easily with no blade needed.

Luckily this was not hung with clay or on a liner.

I'll test the tape on a bad sheet. Thanks.