How to Strip Wallpaper

• Stripping Wallpaper
• Removing textured wall covering

Stripping wallpaper is a job that cannot be rushed. If you need some help to strip wallpaper, call a Painter/ Decorator.

The most important thing when stripping wall paper is to make sure the paper is wet enough. If it is not wet enough, it will be difficult to strip wallpaper off the wall. You can use a scraper and water or a steam stripper to strip wall paper. In either case, it’s a good idea to perforate the paper first using an orbital wall paper scorer. This lets water or steam penetrates the surface and softens the paste to allow you to strip wallpaper.

Tools you will need: Bucket, sponge or old paintbrush, dust sheets, wide stripping knife, wall paper scorer (serrated scraper or orbital scorer)

Materials needed: Water: wall paper paste, washing up liquid.

Note: According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) The Home Safety Book Ref: HS 178, Over ambition and lack of knowledge are two of the biggest factors in causing death and injury related DIY accidents

Start to strip standard wall paper

1. Before starting to strip wall paper you should protect your surfaces (floors and furniture) if you have anything in the room. This is because the place can get quite wet. Use a polythene dust sheet wherever possible. You can buy these at Building Merchants such as Screwfix.
2. Go over the surface of the paper with a scoring tool.
3. Fill a bucket with warm water. Add about a handful of wallpaper paste and add a squirt of washing up liquid. This paste will help to hold the water on the wall and the detergent acts wetting agent which speeds up the saturation of the water into the paper to strip wallpaper off.
Advice and Tips:
If you want to make things easier for yourself wet the wall with a hand held garden spray gun which will be quicker to get the wall soaked than using a brush or sponge.
4. Wet an entire wall by liberally wetting it with a large sponge or an old paintbrush.
5. To help the process just leave the water to soak into the surface of the wall for at least five minutes
6. Then you can test it to see if the wall paper is ready to be stripped. Slide the edge of a wide stripping knife under the wet wall paper at the base of the length or at a seam..
7. Grip the knife and place it at about an angle of 30 degrees to the wall and push it away from you, up the wall to strip the wallpaper. Try not to let the blade gash the plaster. If the paper hasn’t wrinkled and is hard to lift when trying to lift it, it needs to soak for longer.
8. If necessary sponge on more water leave for a few minutes and try again. If the paper wrinkle, pull it away from the wall upwards. It should come off in a reasonably large strip.
9. Continue to peel the paper off by easing the stripper under the wet covering again. If the paper doesn’t bug from the walll despite a soaking a few times, use a steam wallpaper stripper.

Safety tip

You will need to think safety first if you need to strip wallpaper out from behind a light switch or socket. Firstly switch off electricity at the consumer unit or fuse box prior to loosening the faceplate screws.

Removing Textured Wall Covering

Removing thick textured coatings from the wall is a messy job and even more so if it is a ceiling you will be removing the textured coating from. You can use a textured paint remover or a steam wallpaper striper. Before you start, clear all furniture and protect the floor with newspaper, which can be thrown away as it becomes covered with stripped compound. Wear a cap, gloves and goggles.

Removing the coating:

• If using paint remover, apply thickly with a large paintbrush and leave it to penetrate for the time given on the container. When the surface has softened, strip it off with a wide-bladed wallpaper scraper. Wash the surface with water and washing up liquid before redecorating.
• If using a steam wall paper stripper, allow the steam to break thorough the paint barrier and soften the material underneath. Then scrape it off with a stripping knife.
Another option is to cover textured coating with a thin skim of plaster, or by attaching battens to the wall and putting up sheets of plaster board, but these are both expensive options. For a quicker and cheaper DIY solution, a smoothing compound is now available, which can be applied to an entire wall of ceiling with a wide flexible knife.