Have you scored it and are you using a professional steamer? The spray methods don't work well on some of the old papers (I know because it was all over my house). I was even able to get painted wallpaper off with a professinoal steamer (rent one for about $40 a day) :o)

I don't know. When we tried to remove wallpaper applied directly over unprepared sheetrock in our bathroom, the top (paper) layer of sheetrock came off with it.

My contractor says I'll probably have to replace the sheetrock. I'm going to have my plasterer look at it, just to see if it can be skim coated, but I don't think so.

If I had it to do over again, I think I would have applied a paintable wallpaper.

If the paper is really adhered to the sheetrock that well, you don't have to worry about it bubbling and peeling off -- which is the main reason for taking it off. It's good that you got the second layer off though.

We went through a similar problem with most of the walls at our last house. The sheetrock was coming with the paper and the sdvise from the pros (paint and wallpaper) was to make that paper part of the sheetrock and go forward. Obviously, this is for smooth wallpaper and isn't going to work for flocked, grass cloth, vinyl or heavily textured papers.

One person said to mud the seems first and the other said to shellac first -- I think we did both and I'm not sure that it matters. I kind of prefer having the mud under the shellac, ut can't say I saw any real difference in our rooms. So either before or after the primer, apply mud to smooth out the seams, let dry and sand lightly to get really smooth. Some areas may need a second application -- mainly where paper took part of the sheetrock with it or you scored it (you might want to sand those areas first to knock off the little rough bits of paper).

Either way, remove any areas of paper that are not secure to the wall. Use a pigmented shellac primer -- like the original KILZ and paint over all the surface. this will seep into the paper and help bind it to the sheetrock further to avoid bubbles or peeling and it will help seal it. If you wanted to paper over it, you would have a primed wall that would easily release the paper next time. Once it is sealed, you can apply texture and paint as desired.

We used this method for both papering and wallpapering over and had no problems at all -- other than the fumes from the KILZ. This house had even more wallpaper (all builder original), so I was prepared to do the same thing here -- we just didn't need to.

It's not that hard, and it works well.

My brother in law is a painter and he says the main thing is to get that paper as wet as you can via scoring and just soaking that paper. It's messy and tedious but it should come off. We used hot soapy water.

I had a similar problem in both my kitchen and bathroom. Wallpaper right over unprimed sheetrock. I pulled off the vinyl layer first then used a mixture of fabric softener and water. I sprayed, let it sit for a few minutes and it came right off. Then I textured the walls with the stuff that comes in the big pails, primed and painted. Looks good when it's all done.

Thanks everyone!
It looks like maybe we'll look into a professional steamer, but first, I'd like to try the fabric softener and water idea in a small area.

jstell2008....what amts did you use? equal? or percentage?

Score LIGHTLY (you don't want to break the paper skin of the sheetrock). Spray with water and do small sections. Use a broad putty blade and you'll eventually get it off.
When dry, sand using a drywall sander pole and then paint with Zinsser Gardz. It is a great product which smells horrible (have ventilation) but will penetrate the sheetrock and seal it down taking care of any loose paper etc. Then skim coat any imperfections and prime.
I went through this a couple of months ago. The Gardz was fantastic. My finish after priming was so perfect that I could have painted if I had wanted instead of rewallpapering.

I used about 2 parts water to 1 part fabric softener. I found this recipe in an old magazine. They say the wallpaper remover that is sold now does not work on old wallpaper because of the type of glue that was used years ago. This mixture of fabric softener and water works much better than plain water. Good luck!

We just took 4 layers of paper off our kitchen walls, with the bottom layer put directly on the wallboard when the house was built in 1963. We sprayed with Dif wallpaper stripper, then scraped with razorblade scrapers. We couldn't avoid some gouges, which DH fixed with drywall mud. We sanded, then primed with an extra thick primer. We did the same thing in the dining room 8 years ago, and it turned out very well. It's a pain, but probably easier and cheaper than replacing the wallboard.

Good luck!

I had to replace the sheetrock. My contractor said that it would end up costing almost as much to remove the wallpaper because of the labor involved.

We tried the wallpaper removers, water, soapy water, steam, scoring, fabric saoftener and everything we could think of or find to try (DIY -- couldn't have paid someone to do all that and still paid to have the job finished.

It really is possible that the paste has absorbed into the sheetrock and won't peel off without causing so much damage you would still have to replace the sheetrock. If you find that happening, give yourself a break and make that first layer of paper permanent and move on. However, only do that with the original layer of paper.

Hopefully I'm not too late-- I had a TERRIBLE problem with our bathroom wallpaper, and we tried absolutely everything listed above and more. We scored, used the DIF gel (or whatever that stuff is), a steamer, fabric softener, etc.... all to no avail. The only thing that finally worked is when my husband took an orbital sander to the wall in sheer frustration. Surprisingly, once we primed and painted, everything turned out nice and smooth. The top layer of drywall paper came off in more than one place, but with really good primer, you can't even tell there was minor drywall damage. It's always an option if you're really on a budget and nothing else works....