Did you already try renting a steamer?
Scoring the paper, drenching it, and then leaving it soak?

If you are like me you get impatient and put too much muscle into it and then gouge the walls.

duplicate, sorry.

This post was edited by jamies on Tue, Mar 26, 13 at 13:53

Love the red!!

How are you stripping it? Have you tried a removal product like Dif? It worked great over here.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Tue, Mar 26, 13 at 14:00

A paintable beadboard wallpaper could work. I've never actually used it over wallpaper, but don't know why it wouldn't work. ;o)

Here is a link that might be useful: wallpaper

What has worked for me in the past is half warm water half cheap fabric softner. I took a wall paper class from a wall paper store and that is what they taught us. Score it spray let soak for a few minutes. It should come right off. Good Luck

The previous owner painted over wallpaper in my dining room and I really wish they hadn't. I doubt they even tried to remove the paper because all the paper in the rest of the house came off and now we can't do anything but paint over the paint or replace all the drywall. We tried.

In our last house, we tried all of the mentioned methods (maybe more), and that paper would not come off without taking drywall with it. Period. I don't know what they were using with wallpaper then, but it stuck better than some super glue I've used. We researched and kept trying. We really wanted to "do it right" but we were staring to think we would have to replace all the drywall in half the house just because it had wallpaper. Finally, one of the guys at a paint store said "if the paper is stuck on that well, it has become part of your wall." He pointed out that it probably isn't going to lift or peel with paint over it if no water, steam or other product could get it to lift even with it sitting on there. That's what you worry about, and though it isn't ideal, we gave up. On his advise, we used a shellac primer (Kilz original -- not the water based product) with the idea that the shellac would penetrate the paper and seal it to make sure that paint didn't seep in and lift the paper from the wall.

Those areas where you have peeled paper as well as the seams will need to be mudded -- that is smoothed out with joint compound. That typically requires two or three rounds with light sanding in between. I would do that before you use the primer so that the joint compound gets sealed as well. Without sealing it, water will soften or even remove it. Once the wall is smoothed and sealed, treat it like new drywall. Texture as desired, then paint.

If the paper is coming off slowly, be patient. If you can't find any method that works, even slowly, to remove the paper and you find yourself damaging the drywall, I would take that route again. It has been 15 years since we started projects in that house and DH was recently there talking with the new owner. No wall problems.

I always try to peel first and to be patient but there is a point at which you can't do things the ideal way. Know that you are creating potential future issues and why you are doing it, and don't do it without patiently trying to remove the paper, but sometimes you have to know when to say when.

I've carefully done as lascatx suggests several times and it always turned out great. It's not as difficult as it might sound and saved my sanity more than once. I always mudded the seams, too, and you would never know that old wallpaper was under the nice smooth paint.

Thanks all. I'm not going to mess with it for a week or so. I'm making great progress on the flooring and want to finish that (and thus let the cabinet paint begin to cure before dripping wet all over it).

The floors, which are a crazy cheap diy experiment, are turning out, so far, wonderful. I can't wait to share. I estimate that the three rooms (kitchen, pantry & family room - which all kind of run together) are going to run less than $250, maybe $275, when I'm done.

I will tackle the paper again after the floors are dry and safe to drip on.

My sister will be home by then and she has a steamer. I've used the fabric softener method before as well and will give it another go.

The problem is, most wallpaper will "strip" off the outer layer easily (the vinyl part) allowing the "paper" and adhesive part to be worked on. This stuff is stuck down so tight, the vinyl part will not separate from the paper/adhesive part. I guess I'll have to get one of those little scoring tools and go nuts on it.

I love the red but I have to tell you, that wallpaper really bothers me. It takes away, and clashes, so bad with the barn red paint. I think it looks brighter in the pic than it is. It's called Heritage Red, and is more of an "old red" but not too old, kwim?

Forgot to mention another alternative - wallpaper liner paper. In a previous house, the backsplash plaster/drywall was pretty torn up after removing the glued on formica the POs had there . I patched and tried to smooth as best I could but result was not smooth enough for new paint. Then installed wallpaper liner (easy peasy) and put new neutral paper over that. Worked like a charm. love your red cabinets and can't wait to see how this all turns out.

Try wetting the wall with a wet rag then run a hot iron over it. Watch out for hot water spitting out the sides.

Do a small area at a time, about 2 ft square and see if that does the trick.

Rent an industrial steamer meant for wallpaper removal. I rented one from Home Depot and it didn't do as good of a job as the one I rented from a tool rental place. We had layers and layers of wallpaper in multiple rooms. I used the scorer and diff and the fabric softener, and it was tedious. The steamer made the job so much easier and I ended up only needing to rent it for one day.

No advice, but good luck! When we moved here, our home was pretty slathered in wallpaper. Most of it came off with super-hot water, vinegar, and fabric softener, but there was one accent wall behind out bed that was torture. It took us forever to do that one wall. We borrowed a steamer, and it kind of worked, but it was incredibly slow going. I had to do a lot of joint compound repairs on that wall afterward, which at least this house has made me pretty competent at. : )

Just got home from putting the finishing touch on the floor color. I still have to varnish, but it's going to need a day or so to dry.

I stained it grey barnwood and then whitewashed over it. It wasn't enough so I put a second layer of whitewash on, but then when it was dry, it looked too white.

I ended up basically doing a "dry brush" kind of motion with one more extremely light pass of the barnwood stain and BAM, it's gorgeous!! I can't wait to get it varnished and see the end result. Unfortunately the stain over the white, even though it's very thin, will take awhile to dry.

I am looking forward to seeing pictures of your DIY floor!

We are on the home stretch of a commercial office remodel, and were painted completely about a month ago. All three bathrooms were papered, as was a small waiting area below the chair rail, and one smallish room had a wallpaper border that was yellowed and cracked. (The room was never used.). A team of painters/ strippers came in on a Friday at 6 pm to do the job over a weekend, as we could not close it during the week. They stripped, sanded, primed and painted every inch of that place, including miles of heavy trim, in two and a half days. Most of the wallpaper came off easily, but the border, which must have been adhered by something unbelievably strong, took one man 8 straight hours to scrape it off. Then he sanded and mudded before they could paint. That one area consumed more man hours than any other. The crew leader kept shaking his head and saying very bad things about wallpaper under his breath in Spanish.

I have no love for wallpaper. True, I've seen it in certain homes and thought it was beautiful, but removing it, which eventually needs to happen due to either taste change, updating, or eventual aging/damage is not a nice job.

My previous house had wallpaper like you are describing I used the fabric softener method. It was awful and it normally works. I ended up peeling off the top layer first (it was painful too) then soaking again with the fabric softener itty bitty bit at a time it was painful. But so worth taking it off rather than painting over. Good Luck ..............PS I never had access to a steamer so waiting for your sister sounds like a plan.

This post was edited by CLBlakey on Thu, Mar 28, 13 at 18:52

Just posted a preview of the floors

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/decor/msg031857283703.html

Not done yet, but getting quite close

Here is a link that might be useful: Floor Post

I discussed this on the forum years ago and you would have thought I had murdered someone when I mentioned leaving the wallpaper. I had some in a bathroom that I could not get off. I took the guys' advice at BM paint store, and painted it with something like Kilz (their brand) and painted over it. It has been there 22 years and painted 18 years, and no one would ever guess there is wallpaper there and I forgot it one day last week, thinking about maybe someday wallpapering that bath and then I remembered ... oops, it already is papered. I best just paint it. It has 4 coats of paint over that wallpaper and it is fine. In a bathroom, if it has not come down in this many years, it has become a part of the dry wall.

There are other threads on here where we have discussed this problem in detail. I have been hanging and removing wallpaper for 30 years.

1. Properly applied wallpaper comes off with NO problem.
2. Is your paper vinyl or PAPER?
3. It is NO problem to paint over the paper. And it is no problem to later, paper over the painted paper, lol.
4. I have seen a steamer cause more problems than it solved when used on drywall. It is THE cure if you have plaster.
5. I have seen walls ruined by paper tigers.

The key words there are "properly prepared." I have yet to see a builder properly prepare walls, much less a typical DIYer. If there is a shortcut, they are likely to take it, especially in our area where people get relocated every few years and don't have to live with the consequences of anything they do to a home.

I have not been on this forum for a long time but I had to comment. I just finished taking down a powder room full of wallpaper. I wanted to comment on a product called Gardz, it is made by Zinsser (sp?) It is wonderful for helping fix dry wall. If you get the paper down and have places that need mud and sanding, put this product on the spots before mudding. It seals everything, then mud, sand, and cover the spots again with Gardz. I just totally rolled the whole room with it. It is oil based, so I just threw the roller away. It is thin and milky looking and a little goes a long way. It really helps prepare your walls for paint or wallpaper.

When I took down a whole foyer of wallpaper, the walls were so damaged that I had a drywaller skim coat them again. The painter I hired asked what I put on the walls, I told him that I rolled them with Gardz to prepare the new drywall and he said he really likes the product.

No I do not sell this product, it is actually hard to find, just trying to help a fellow person taking down that dreaded wallpaper!

Why would you seal before mud? The mud would adhere better to unsealed walls.

Gardz is just Rustoleum's version of BIN, which is made by Zinsser. The BIN has been around much longer I think. Sealing the walls with either of these products is the absolute BEST way to prepare for any new wall finish. Wallpaper can be removed with EASE if it was applied over this sealer. Paint goes on MUCH nicer and you need much less of it, if you have the sealer on the wall.

You seal just the really bad areas, it makes them not crumble when you try to mud the areas. If you go to you tube they have videos on how to do it. It worked for me.