For a faster, more profitable home sale
Removing wallpaper is not my favorite job-- in fact, it shares the bottom of my chore list with another most detested project, cleaning the oven.
Wallpaper may come off in big lovely strips or in little pieces that need to be painfully scraped or steamed off, bit by bit.
In my experience, it rarely comes off easily. In addition, if the walls were not primed before the wallpaper went up, you are in for a big job.
If you are prepping your house for sale and every room is a wallpapered calamity, be prepared to see home buyers walk away.
Very few buyers want to tackle a job like that-- most people just want a move-in ready home.
Not only will people walk away, a wallpapered disaster may also lower the value of your home.
A serious buyer will add the project to a list of other negative items to negotiate the price of your home down.
The last wallpaper stripping job I did was in my bathroom. The previous homeowners HAD NOT primed the walls before putting up the ghastly wallpaper. This caused the top layer of the underlying sheetrock to come off as well.
I spent many days scraping little bits off, before I gave up. In the end, it was easier to install panels of bead board and paint it white. The end result was an attractive beach cottage look.
The moral here? Know when you're beaten and find another solution.
If you have an older home with lath and plaster walls, removing wallpaper will most likely take down much of the old plaster, causing a horrible mess and requiring re-plastering or replacing with drywall.
Most often you will discover more than one layer of wallpaper. I once peeled my way through 4 eras in my 100 year-old house!
Some people approve of painting over wallpaper if it’s in good condition, but I think this is a big mistake.
From a distance it may look okay, but close up it just looks like painted wallpaper. Plus, the paint will make it even harder to remove the wallpaper in the future.
I also don’t recommended papering over old wallpaper either, as often the glue won’t stick to it, especially if the underlying wallpaper is textured, foiled or vinyl.
Wallpaper borders are also dated home decor features and should be removed before putting your house on the market. They usually aren't difficult to remove, but if you run into a problem, follow the same procedure for removing wallpaper.
What you will need:
The Zinsser 2966 Papertiger Scoring Tool is a helpful tool that you can buy at any home improvement store. You can purchase commercial wallpaper removal solutions in the same aisle, but I have found that fabric softener and hot water works well in a pinch.
If you find another layer of wallpaper underneath, you will have to remove it by the same method, one layer at a time. Otherwise, you may damage the underlying wall.
Watch the video demonstration below by Ron Hazelton on how to remove wallpaper quickly and easily.
In this video, the demonstrator uses a sprayer, which is handy if you have a lot of wallpaper to remove. You can also use a large sponge to apply the stripper as well.
When all else fails, go out and rent a wallpaper steamer! I've used the wallpaper steamer method twice. It was a lot of work, but it was an oversized steamer, much too heavy for me.
This can be a two-person job, as you must steam and strip at the same time. Rent a steamer from your local home supply or hardware store, but if you have wallpaper in every room that needs to come down, it might be worth buying your own steamer. Look for affordable steamers at Amazon.com.
Return from removing wallpaper to depersonalizing your home
Return to home page