OT Decorating

rubertoe

Well,

Its that time in a mans life when he has been asked by his OH (nee told) that the spare room needs decorating, so this evening I set to work removing the wall paper, I thought this would be easy. Boy was I wrong.

Anyone got any tips for removing wall paper? I am having an absolute 'mare.

After two hours of frustration, all i have achieved is about 2/3 sq mtrs of removal and a lot of huffing and puffing.

What are your top decorating tips before I give in and call a professional.

meanredspider

How are you trying to remove it? I recommend hiring a steamer - basically loosens the glue then it will pull of or scrape off pretty easily. It's usually a tedious job though :roll: Thank goodness for painted walls...

itboffin

Score the old paper well and soak it to death and if possible hire an industrial steamer. I had the pleasure of stripping every room in a 4 bedroom 1930s house which had never had any of the paint or wallpaper removed since it was built.

:evil:

Never again

meanredspider

Yeah - the last house I did the paper had been up 50 years and glued in place with industrial quantities of glue. Getting the paper off was only the first battle. Getting the excess adhesive off the wall was worse....

cyclingprop

sandblast it?

fill_uk

It really depends on the paper that's on there, the quality of the glue that was used and worst of all how many layers of paper are under it. I've lived in houses with about 6 lots of paper on top of each other before getting to any plaster. Score it heavily with a stanley knife and use a steamer to soften the old paste. it will come off eventually.

Unless it's woodchip in which case.. good luck.

danlikesbikes

meanredspider wrote:

How are you trying to remove it? I recommend hiring a steamer - basically loosens the glue then it will pull of or scrape off pretty easily. It's usually a tedious job though :roll: Thank goodness for painted walls...

I'd go one better and suggest buying a B&Q own brand as costs about the same as hiring one but no deposit payable and you can resell or reuse at a later date.

We bought ours about 3 years ago and still use it every now and then as we need to do a room up

fill_uk

fill_uk wrote:

I'd go one better and suggest buying a B&Q own brand as costs about the same as hiring one but no deposit payable and you can resell or reuse at a later date.

I can vouch for this, mine is about 10 years old and has had some serious hammer, cost me about 30 quid as i remember and its still going strong now.

veronese68

I too bought a steamer. Makes life a lot easier, it's paid for itself many times over and many people have borrowed it.
I would add that even with a steamer it can be difficult. Our house is Victorian and a lot of the original plaster was passed it's best. Having stripped the paper we've had a lot of rooms skimmed with plaster because the wall underneath was so bad.
I'll be spending Easter decorating my daughter's room. Pink is out, in with sky blue. Ho-hum.

negativelycra

OP,

IMO it's steamer all the way. I'm not wanting to call out those who say "score it", but be careful - if you score too deep it's time to replaster in some cases...

rjsterry

itboffin wrote:

Score the old paper well and soak it to death and if possible hire an industrial steamer. I had the pleasure of stripping every room in a 4 bedroom 1930s house which had never had any of the paint or wallpaper removed since it was built.

:evil:

Never again

AAARGH! Sorry, just had a flashback. Previous owner was a heavy smoker, so we had several layers of nicotine impregnated paper to remove. It was rank. If you can't get your hands on a steamer, you can wet the paper down with one of those general purpose spray bottles, set to a fine mist. Takes a bit longer to soak through to the glue, but otherwise OK. Watch out for crumbly old lime plaster behind old paper - steam can loosen this as well, so take it easy. Ditto with the stanley knife.

What you often find is that there is a reason why a wall is papered, rather than just painted. If that's what you find, you'll have to choose between skimming with a new coat of plaster (beyond DIY if you've not tried it before), or lining paper and painting. This is pretty straightforward with patience. As for painting, prep is important: make sure you've got all the old glue off, fill any blemishes and sand smooth. Most walls will need at least two full coats. Two thin coats are better than one thick coat; new plaster needs sealing with an additional mist (watered down) coat, otherwise it'll dry to quickly and peel off.

There are a few widely available decent DIY guides, and it's worth reading them for extra guidance

daviesee

Score it with your scraper in criss cross pattern to the plaster but not into the plaster.
Liberally soak with warm soapy water using an old sponge. Try not to make too much of a mess though.
Make coffee. Drink coffee* at a relaxed pace.
Scrape off wallpaper.
When you get to a dry patch, repeat. * I could have suggested beer but too many repeats can be dangerous.

Steamers work but soak carpets and can water damage wooden/compressed cardboard flooring. In my limited experience.

rubertoe

Looks like i am off to get a wallpaper stripper,

Click and collect from B&Q £25.

This decorating lark is expensive and we (when i say we, i mean her) havent even chosen the paper yet and already she has decided that the other rooms need doing as well. :roll:

msmancunia

fill_uk wrote:

fill_uk wrote:

I'd go one better and suggest buying a B&Q own brand as costs about the same as hiring one but no deposit payable and you can resell or reuse at a later date.

I can vouch for this, mine is about 10 years old and has had some serious hammer, cost me about 30 quid as i remember and its still going strong now.

Ms Mancunia top tip - wallpaper steamers can also be used to defrost and steam clean freezers breath-takingly quickly

Sharkyssurfers

only thing with the steamer you have to remember is not to leave it on to long otherwise you will crack the plaster.

essex-commuter

rubertoe wrote:

This decorating lark is expensive and we (when i say we, i mean her) havent even chosen the paper yet and already she has decided that the other rooms need doing as well. :roll:

Have you considered just painting the plaster, assuming it's in good condition? If the condition is poor I would still get a quote for replastering if you are staying there for a while. I guess it's just a personal preference but plain unpapered walls do look nice. Every wall and ceiling in my house is plain plaster...painted white!

UndercoverElephant

essex-commuter wrote:

rubertoe wrote:

This decorating lark is expensive and we (when i say we, i mean her) havent even chosen the paper yet and already she has decided that the other rooms need doing as well. :roll:

Have you considered just painting the plaster, assuming it's in good condition? If the condition is poor I would still get a quote for replastering if you are staying there for a while. I guess it's just a personal preference but plain unpapered walls do look nice. Every wall and ceiling in my house is plain plaster...painted white!

Getting a wall that's been papered at any time to a state where paint looks decent is a very difficult task.

Our current house (built in the 60's) has never had a scrap of paper anywhere in it, we were amazed when we saw how good the walls looked.

rubertoe

Not sure what the walls are like, but the plaster wont be good enough to Paint. We only plan to stay here for another 12-18 months. So its more cosmetic than anything else.

Although we do have a plasterer coming in to do some ceilings for us (Brother-in-Law)

mudcow007

perforate the wall paper with a pricker

then steam, easy peasy...just dont get any molten wall paper on you it burns an sticks

we had most of the walls skimmed last year in our house as it basically looked like the house was made of cracks, now the walls are silky smooth

davis

msmancunia wrote:

fill_uk wrote:

fill_uk wrote:

I'd go one better and suggest buying a B&Q own brand as costs about the same as hiring one but no deposit payable and you can resell or reuse at a later date.

I can vouch for this, mine is about 10 years old and has had some serious hammer, cost me about 30 quid as i remember and its still going strong now.

Ms Mancunia top tip - wallpaper steamers can also be used to defrost and steam clean freezers breath-takingly quickly

Gas stoves and paint stripper combined do it even quicker-er

fill_uk

rubertoe wrote:

Not sure what the walls are like, but the plaster wont be good enough to Paint. We only plan to stay here for another 12-18 months. So its more cosmetic than anything else.

Although we do have a plasterer coming in to do some ceilings for us (Brother-in-Law)

I was in a similar situation a while ago. Didn't have much time or money to sort two bedrooms and we wanted to put the house up for sale looking presentable. The ancient plaster underneath was a mess so i papered with heavy duty lining paper (1000 grade iirc) and just painted that with a matt emulsion. You couldn't tell it wasn't painted plaster unless you looked closer. It needed a couple of coats of cheap white paint as a primer and then colour on top though as the paper literally sucks the paint in.

mudcow007

msmancunia wrote:

fill_uk wrote:

fill_uk wrote:

I'd go one better and suggest buying a B&Q own brand as costs about the same as hiring one but no deposit payable and you can resell or reuse at a later date.

I can vouch for this, mine is about 10 years old and has had some serious hammer, cost me about 30 quid as i remember and its still going strong now.

Ms Mancunia top tip - wallpaper steamers can also be used to defrost and steam clean freezers breath-takingly quickly

Mudcow top tip

put up a tent, run extension cable to tent plug in steamer add some olbas oil to said steamer an you the makings of a poor mans steam room

wgwarburton

fill_uk wrote:

rubertoe wrote:

Not sure what the walls are like, but the plaster wont be good enough to Paint. We only plan to stay here for another 12-18 months. So its more cosmetic than anything else.

Although we do have a plasterer coming in to do some ceilings for us (Brother-in-Law)

I was in a similar situation a while ago. Didn't have much time or money to sort two bedrooms and we wanted to put the house up for sale looking presentable. The ancient plaster underneath was a mess so i papered with heavy duty lining paper (1000 grade iirc) and just painted that with a matt emulsion. You couldn't tell it wasn't painted plaster unless you looked closer. It needed a couple of coats of cheap white paint as a primer and then colour on top though as the paper literally sucks the paint in.

+1 from me- Stripping will be time-consuming and hard work, if you're moving on you'll never reap the benefit.

If the paper that's there is in decent condition just paint over it or use lining paper to get a good surface. Good quality undercoat is better than lots of cheap paint. If it's torn or cracked use fine-grade filler to get a flat surface (yes, that's right- modern fillers can fill gaps in wallpaper- spread it on thinly, then sand it down: with quality paints on top you can't see the join).

In your situation I would only resort to stripping it if what's on there is too bad (bubbling, rippling etc) to act as a viable surface.

I wouldn't worry about choosing new paper- putting that up is only the last 10-15% of the job, all the time and hard work goes into prepping the surface ready for it!

Cheers,
W.

gtvlusso

itboffin wrote:

Score the old paper well and soak it to death and if possible hire an industrial steamer. I had the pleasure of stripping every room in a 4 bedroom 1930s house which had never had any of the paint or wallpaper removed since it was built.

:evil:

Never again

+1 (I seem to be agreeing with il principe on everything....!)

1904 Edwardian 4 bed terrace, every room had been covered with lining paper, a few layers over the years. The paper was damp, torn and a mess. After 1 room, I gave up trying to strip the paper, there was huge chunks of plaster coming off and I made more of a mess. Eventually, I had the whole place stripped professionally and had to have most rooms completely re-plastered.

And now the house is due to be repainted. The place is looking tired and junior has committed works of art at 3ft height everywhere.

So, I have sold the house!

edhornby

I know this feeling - if you have a preWW2 house it will invariably have old horsehair or other forms of plaster - if it is not in a great condition DO NOT have it just skimmed, smash all of it off back to the brick and get insulated plasterboard up and fresh plaster on this - if it's not too bad you can use polyfilla to fill, sand and repeat until smooth enough to look 'rustic' or 'patina' as filling skillz will attain

or just slap another layer on the top - this is only acceptable if the other half is happy with 'let's get it done' rather than 'I want it to look nice'

gtvlusso

We had one partition wall that was built from fibreboard....I kid you not! Had it replaced with a plasterboard stud wall and plastered.

Built in 1904, rebuilt in 2009!

rubertoe

Spare bedroom fully stripped, only took 7ish hours in the end, The steamer was a god send!

Now just gotta paint the ceiling and slap on the paper.