Try a little fabric softener in the hot water it loosens the wallpaper paste.
If you can score the paper with a paper tiger so the water/softener can get underneath the paint and into the paper it might make it easier.

4 inch razor blade scrapper and a bunch of spare blades.
When you hit the right angle of the scraper it will split the last layer of wallpaper and everything else comes off in long strips. The hardest partis getting an edge to start working from.
The paint will crumble as the paper curls.
It is so much of a pig job it is very hard to find anyone to do it.

As brickeye so aptly stated this is a pig of a job. Sometimes people come and ask if it's OK to paint over their wallpaper as a quick fix. I usually advise them they're storing up extreme amounts of bad house karma if they do. (By removing painted wallpaper you are doing the reverse, I'm sure!)

However, I may be able save you one of the steps you listed. I don't think you will need to sand as the first step in your list. You may have to wash the walls, but shouldn't have to sand until you've done any necessary patching.

And as a previous poster noted you don't have to scrape the paint before stripping the paper just get a tool that perforates the whole mess and then remove paint and paper at once.

If you happen to have one, you might try using one of those cleaning steamers like a LadyBug or TidyVap. I have found them quite useful for cleaming up the remnants of paper that remain, if not the main stripping job.

HTH,

Molly

The easiest way: hire someone else to do it! Every wall and ceiling in the first and second floors of our big 1910 Craftsman house had multiple layers of wallpaper and paint. Probably about 4 each. There was no way we could have done that much on our own. After our contractor removed everything he discovered that the plaster was a mess and repaired it. What a mess that was! But the end result was lovely. (I did most of the interior painting.)

I agree w/prev poster, do a small single room first and see what shape your wall are in. Not worth stripping if you'll have to replace or skim coat anyways.

Re stripping, here's what worked for me:

Get on of these scrapers...

http://ace.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pACE2-960411reg.jpg

Get some FAST wallpaper remover (I like better than DIF)...

http://www.cornerhardware.com/images/18/18151.jpg

Mix the FAST w/hot water in a good heavy duty spray bottle. Mix it a little on the strong side. Let the spray penetrate for a few seconds, then scrape.

When you have all the old wallpaper off, you can wash the walls with a mild FAST solution to get all the glue off. Then wash again with something like Dirtex...

http://www.cornerhardware.com/images/20/20293.jpg

Because of the paint you may have use a paper tiger to score the paint and wallpaper to allow solutions to penetrate...

http://www.homeandbeyond.com/dynamic/prod-0074110-prod.jpg

Or if it's real bad, maybe a rent a steamer.

my first job in this old house was to remove the painted over 4 layers of wallpaper in my son's room. i did the whole dif, paper tiger, scrape thing. got sick of always running out so i experimented w/ hot water and vinegar. this cheap ever ubiquitous mixture poured into a spray bottle worked better then the blue stuff.

now i am working on the same problem in the master bedroom only i stumbled upon a neat trick. scoring is a nasty job w/ the paint dust and that horrific sound. instead i took duct tape and randomly placed strips on the walls. next day, i yanked them off thus revealing old wallpaper that easily soaked up the hot vinegar mixture. this room has been less dusty and much easier.

I like that duct tape trick! Thanks for sharing!

I removed wallpaper from a small bathroom with a steamer - worked great. When I looked at the walls in preparation for paint I noticed what looks like torn paper. Evidently a previous owner also removed wallpaper but couldn't get all of the paper backing off so decided to prime over it. Anyone have any recommendations for removing this?

I didn't remove the paint first. Perhaps I was lucky (sure was messy), but I scored the paper through the paint and most of it lifted off. The paint crumbled like mad, but it was better than scraping. Did you try that?

Good luck. It's a messy job!

I moved into a 1945 Cape. In the entry, living room, and stairwell to the second floor was wallpaper. We scored the whole thing, then put on the gel. It would not come off. We tried vinegar. Nothing. Hot water. Nothing. We rented a steamer. It took 3 people an entire day and some serious hand pain to remove ONE wall. A small wall. They must have used superglue to put it up. We didn't have the time or energy to face the impossible job in the rest of the area, so we painted over it in desperation. I know it's terrible. Of course, we can see the score marks through the paint. I don't think removal is an option. It was a fool's errand before we painted over it. Can I skim coat over this? Any other suggestions (other than papering over it) for how to hide the score marks? They are on every square inch. Thanks.