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OT- Need Help with removing wallpaper border in daughters bedroom

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YEMTrey
YEMTrey Posts: 6,829
in Off Topic
I'm redoing my daughters bedroom and there's a wall border that needs to be removed.  The walls are plaster and this wallpaper border goes all the way around the room.
Anybody have any tips or easier ways they have removed these borders from walls.  This thing has been a PITA.

Thanks.
Steve 
XL, Mini Max, and a 22" Blackstone in Cincinnati, Ohio
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  • theyolksonyou
    theyolksonyou Posts: 18,458
    edited January 2016
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    We have scored and wet and scored and steamed. If the glue will let go, steam is better. However, always on drywall, not plaster. 

    Edit: it's still a lot of elbow grease and a total PITA
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  • Wolfpack
    Wolfpack Posts: 3,551
    edited January 2016
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    Get garden sprayer- hot water and score boarder.  Get very wet. 

    Sounds like overkill but it works. 
    Greensboro, NC
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  • LRW
    LRW Posts: 198
    edited January 2016
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    I use Trisodium Phosphate its a cleaner you can buy it at Home Depot. I wet the paper with a mild solution of it. If the border is vinyl then you will need to score it to get the solution behind it to loosen the glue. Make sure you protect your wood work I have discolored  trim with it before. I have done whole rooms with it in record time.
    Volant, PA 1 LBGE ,Smokeware Cap, igrill2
    My Foodtography


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  • Tjcoley
    Tjcoley Posts: 3,551
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    Best thing I've found (and when we moved in every wall in the house had been papered, many then painted over.  Two rooms also had a print paper on the ceiling) is to score the paper then spray with equal parts very hot water and fabric softener (like Downy).  Keep it wet - you may need to spray a couple of times til the glue dissolves.  Then peel or scrape off.  Let the solution do the work.  If the paper doesn't come off easily, spray again.  I've tried steaming and every commercial solution out there, and nothing works as well.  Smells good and non toxic too. 
    __________________________________________
    It's not a science, it's an art. And it's flawed.
    - Camp Hill, PA
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  • YEMTrey
    YEMTrey Posts: 6,829
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    Thanks guys.  I'm willing to try anything and everything on this.
    Steve 
    XL, Mini Max, and a 22" Blackstone in Cincinnati, Ohio
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  • Eggcelsior
    Eggcelsior Posts: 14,414
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    pgprescott said:
    Sell the house and move! Much less hassle. 
    Burn the house down. No one deserves that pain.
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  • bgebrent
    bgebrent Posts: 19,636
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    Brother, demolish the walls but only while your better half is shopping.  Seriously.
    Sandy Springs & Dawsonville Ga
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  • YukonRon
    YukonRon Posts: 16,989
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    Tjcoley said:
    Best thing I've found (and when we moved in every wall in the house had been papered, many then painted over.  Two rooms also had a print paper on the ceiling) is to score the paper then spray with equal parts very hot water and fabric softener (like Downy).  Keep it wet - you may need to spray a couple of times til the glue dissolves.  Then peel or scrape off.  Let the solution do the work.  If the paper doesn't come off easily, spray again.  I've tried steaming and every commercial solution out there, and nothing works as well.  Smells good and non toxic too
    This is the best. +1000.
    "Knowledge is Good" - Emil Faber

    XL and MM
    Louisville, Kentucky
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  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817
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    Get set up for indirect at 300* Cook for seven hours.

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

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  • Darby_Crenshaw
    Darby_Crenshaw Posts: 2,657
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    Tjcoley said:
    Best thing I've found (and when we moved in every wall in the house had been papered, many then painted over.  Two rooms also had a print paper on the ceiling) is to score the paper then spray with equal parts very hot water and fabric softener (like Downy).  Keep it wet - you may need to spray a couple of times til the glue dissolves.  Then peel or scrape off.  Let the solution do the work.  If the paper doesn't come off easily, spray again.  I've tried steaming and every commercial solution out there, and nothing works as well.  Smells good and non toxic too. 
    what he says.

    i redid a house where every room had been papered, with as many as four layers over plaster.

    roughen the surface of the paper, and use the water and fabric softener spray.  simple.

    i used a paint scraper to get it off after that.

    if it is truly plaster, it should go easily, especially if it was painted or primed at some point prior to papering
    [social media disclaimer: irony and sarcasm may be used in some or all of user's posts; emoticon usage is intended to indicate moderately jocular social interaction; the comments toward users, their usernames, and the real people (living or dead) that they refer to are not intended to be adversarial in nature; those replying to this user are entering into a tacit agreement that they are real-life or social-media acquaintances and/or have agreed to or tacitly agreed to perpetrate occasional good-natured ribbing between and among themselves and others]

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  • stevesails
    stevesails Posts: 990
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    I either rented or eventuslly bought a steamer
    XL   Walled Lake, MI

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  • Botch
    Botch Posts: 15,467
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    When I moved to utard I told the realtor, "I will NOT consider any house to buy that has wallpaper in it", and I stuck to that.  It is Evil, Pure Evil.  
    :anguished: 
    _____________

    Remember when teachers used to say 'You won't have a calculator everywhere you go'?  Well, we showed them.


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  • Cashfan
    Cashfan Posts: 416
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    All wallpaper has two layers. The decoration layer and adhesive layer. The decoration layer can usually (90% of the time) be peeled off without getting wet. Often it comes off really well in a certain direction (up/down, right/left). 

    Then use hot water and soak the adhesive layer for several minutes, often rewetting it. I usually use a garden sprayer, paint roller or sponge to apply a LOT of water. Getting to the adhesive layer and soaking is they key.

    Most borders come off with hot water only, but CHOMP works really well and DIFF (dilatable formula not gel) works ok.

    The rolling and scoring can work but is too easy to damage to the wall, then you might have to hire a drywall guy(me) to repair it. I have fixed a LOT of walls ruined by these rollers. 
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  • DaveRichardson
    DaveRichardson Posts: 2,324
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    I've had the best luck with the wet technique, but it's been on drywall. 

    Otherwise, some drywall, mud, and tape will work wonders.....  And make it soundproof!!!! 

    LBGE #19 from North GA Eggfest, 2014

    Stockbridge, GA - just south of Atlanta where we are covered up in Zombies!  #TheWalkingDead films practically next door!

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  • blasting
    blasting Posts: 6,262
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    Pour a drink first, then a second.  Keep going until the wallpaper looks like something you'd like to keep.

    I feel for you - removing wallpaper is my most hated project.  Good luck.

    Phoenix 
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  • YEMTrey
    YEMTrey Posts: 6,829
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    Thanks for all the input.  I love this forum.
    Steve 
    XL, Mini Max, and a 22" Blackstone in Cincinnati, Ohio
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