Quick procedure for removing old wallpaper. How to quickly peel off old wallpaper - tips How to peel off old wallpaper quickly
Repair is a matter of life. In order for the result of this process to be of the highest quality and aesthetically attractive, the first step is to get rid of old decorative coatings. Therefore, in this article we will look at how to quickly remove old wallpaper and at the same time not leave a single piece of paper or glue on the walls. This will allow a new layer of paint or other coating to lie more evenly, which will positively affect not only the aesthetic data of the room, but also the service life of the coating. Now we will consider the main ways to dismantle the old decorative coating, which are recommended by experts in the field of repair.
Is it really so necessary to remove the old layer?
Before we talk about how easy it is to remove old wallpaper, let's take a closer look at why you need to do this at all. So, with the aesthetic side of the issue, we figured it out. And how are things from a purely technical point of view? Firstly, this is an additional and unnecessary layer. By gluing new ones on top of old paper wallpapers (it doesn’t matter if you have paper, cloth or bamboo in general), you make the walls heavier. Sooner or later, from this weighting, the paper will begin to crack, move away from the wall, and the appearance of the coating will be completely ruined. The second aspect is that, by soaking the new wallpaper with glue and, accordingly, the old ones, you superimpose various patterns on each other. Just imagine how ugly the result will be. Well, let's not forget the issue of hygiene. It is important not only to know how to properly remove old wallpaper, but also to be able to disinfect the walls. With the help of a primer and antiseptics, the walls must be cleaned of fungi (they love to accumulate under paper coverings) and mold, as well as other unnecessary "additives".
Preparing a set of tools
Before you remove the old paper wallpaper from all the walls that will be subject to new repairs, you need to prepare everything you need. First of all, we prepare two spatulas - wide and narrow. Both should be sharp, so sharpen them in advance and test them. The next thing you will definitely need is a paper wallpaper remover (that's what it's called). If there is no opportunity to buy one, then simply heat the water or use a steam generator. Do not forget to prepare buckets - for waste, for water and other materials, as well as a sponge, which will be needed at the beginning and at the end. Additional tools are a roller with needles, plastic wrap, a regular knife and masking tape.
Preparatory work
It is not enough just to know how to quickly remove old wallpaper from the walls, it is also important to be able to pre-prepare the room for this time-consuming process. Even at school, children are taught safety rules when carrying out various jobs, and in this case, it is this part of school knowledge that will be useful to us. Therefore, initially we cover the entire floor with plastic wrap. Using masking tape, we fix it on the skirting boards. We will also have to seal all the switches and sockets in the room, after which we turn off the electricity completely so that a short circuit does not happen, because we will work with water. Probably, we won’t mention that there shouldn’t be furniture in the room, so we’ll immediately move on to the next point.
Search for the Achilles' heel, or Recognize the structure of the wallpaper
To understand how to quickly remove old wallpaper, first you need to study what their structure is, what glue they were planted on. So, decorative coatings of this type can be divided into three categories: vinyl, non-woven and paper. Each of them has its own separate approach, which will be described below. As for the glue that was previously used in the previous repair, it will be great if you have it on hand again. In the water with which we will soak the walls, it must be added in very small quantities. So any coating and all bonding layers will come off the walls quickly, with minimal damage to the plaster or putty.
The simplest task - the dismantling of vinyl wallpaper
It happens that even the most modern and beautiful repair has to be updated. Wallpaper, which began to be released recently - vinyl, is the easiest to dismantle from the walls, so now we will tell you step-by-step instructions. They consist of two layers - vinyl and paper, so we need to first cut the top one. Now we spray the walls with water (or a solution that you prepared in advance based on glue) and wait literally 5-10 minutes. After that, slowly, with effort, we begin to pull the wallpaper over the top layer, in places of cuts. They will easily move away from the walls and will not leave a single trace behind them.
How to work with interlining
Another new type of wallpaper, non-woven, is characterized by the fact that it contains synthetic fibers. Due to this, such a coating adheres to the walls solely because of the binder component, that is, the glue, and if it is soaked, the coating will no longer hold. Therefore, if you have not yet understood how to quickly remove old wallpapers of this type, then we will explain everything very briefly: as in the previous case, we make cuts and moisten them with plenty of water. After the coating swells, pull it away from the wall. At the end, there will be no glue or pieces of old wallpaper left on the surface, and it will be completely ready for further new design.
Will have to tinker a little
If you need to remove paper wallpaper that was hung, perhaps decades ago, you will have to spend much more time and effort. To begin with, we prepare a solution, in which it is desirable to include, as mentioned above, the glue on which the wallpaper was planted. We leave cuts on them, undermine them in some places so that they are easier to remove. It is best to wet such a coating in sections. For example, we pour several square meters with water, let it swell for 5 minutes, cut it off in pieces. Undoubtedly, pieces of paper will remain on the walls, so they will have to be removed with a narrow spatula or knife. At the end of this whole operation, it is recommended to walk along the walls with a wide spatula in order to completely remove all remnants of the old decorative coating.
Work at height
A question similar in structure is how to remove wallpaper from the ceiling. Most often, this surface is pasted over with paper coatings, because the dismantling process will be long and painstaking (keep in mind that you will constantly have to stand on the goats, and keep your head up all the time, that is, in an unnatural position). We also note that in this case, a roller with needles can come to the rescue. It will perfectly catch all the protruding ends and mechanically will allow you to quickly cope with such work. Then you just have to cut off the remnants and walk along the surface of the ceiling with a wide spatula so that nothing remains there - neither paper nor glue.
Non-standard way to remove wallpaper
It is even easier and faster to remove wallpaper of any type from the walls using a steam generator. There are a whole lot of methods here, so you can choose at your discretion which one you prefer. The first method is to first soak the old wallpaper with water (or mortar), and then heat it with the steam evaporated by this generator. Most of them under such influence will fall off on their own, and you only have to clean the walls. The second way is the opposite. First, we warm up the wallpaper with a steam generator, then we wet it in separate sections. In this case, it will be very easy to tear them off. It is only worth noting that some types of decorative wall coverings can exude unpleasant odors during the heating process. In particular, this applies to interlining and all similar coatings. Such wallpapers do not have toxicity, but it does not hurt to put on a regular bandage on your face.
Before proceeding with the decoration of the walls with new wallpaper, the question traditionally arises: Do I need to remove old wallpaper? If this is not done, then when gluing new canvases, the old glue will swell in places, which will lead to the appearance of bubbles. Also, if the new wallpaper is light in color, then translucent, the lower color layer of the wallpaper will be visible.
Folk recipes for removing old wallpaper
In order to save money, you can neglect modern tools and devices and remove the wallpaper with folk remedies: using water, a sponge, a spatula and other home remedies.
Folk recipe number 1:
- a bucket of hot water;
- roller or sponge;
- dishwashing liquid;
- putty knife;
- brush;
- iron or steamer.
- Peel off the wallpaper along the top edge if possible. Scratch the surface of the wallpaper with a wire brush for optimal impregnation.
- Dilute a small amount of detergent (Fairy, Sarma or other) in a bucket of hot water.
- Apply the mortar to the prepared wall with a sponge or roller. Wait 15 minutes and repeat the manipulation.
- After the wallpaper peel swells and softens, it should be removed with a metal scraper or spatula.
Folk recipe number 2:
- In a bucket, wallpaper glue of low concentration is bred (ideally, it should be glue of the same brand as on old wallpaper).
- The glue is applied to a small area of the wallpaper and left for 3 hours for good impregnation.
As you can see, in order to quickly and cost-effectively remove old wallpapers, there are quite simple folk remedies that are always at hand.
With any repair, the first point is getting rid of traces of the old, including boring wallpaper. It is extremely important to remove the old coating from the walls, because it is possible only on a completely cleaned and leveled surface, ready for a “new life”. And if it is not so difficult to remove heavy vinyl or voluminous interlining, then how to peel off old paper wallpaper is a more difficult task, and clear instructions are needed to solve it.
Those who have had to rip off a vinyl or non-woven coating from the walls know that it is not so difficult - you just need to wet the canvas using a special technology, and the wallpaper will be removed quickly and easily entirely.
There are many ways to clean the walls of the old coating for a new finish.
With paper coating, the situation is more complicated - it is very thin, easily torn, and it will take a lot of time, effort and nerves to remove the wallpaper from the walls. The main thing is not to succumb to the temptation and not leave pieces of the old coating - this can nullify all further repair efforts.
Why can't you leave old wallpaper on the walls?
If you glue a fresh coating without removing the old one and without cleaning the surface, the wall will be covered with ugly bumps and pits. Especially strongly such a dubious relief will appear under a thin paper sheet, plain non-woven or vinyl “for painting”, silk-screen printing.
Important!
When you stick new wallpaper over the old ones, the weight of the coating increases, the old glue dissolves under the influence of moisture, and there is a big risk that the beautiful wallpaper will come off the wall along with everything that was on it, including plaster. The risk is especially great if during the previous repair the logic of the owners was similar, and several layers of paper have already settled on the walls.
When pasting wallpaper over existing ones, under the influence of wet glue, fungi and mold can form under the old paper. Not only are they seriously harmful to health, but they can also significantly spoil the appearance of the wall.
What you need to remove old wallpaper
Before clearing the wall of paper wallpaper, some preparation is needed. For "destructive" work you will need:
- a bucket of warm water or ready-made store-bought liquid to get rid of old wallpaper;
- a rag, sponge or foam roller (from 20 cm wide);
- a pair of spatulas of different sizes, always with sharp edges, or a special scraper;
- construction needle roller or wallpaper tiger - for perforating (piercing) a paper surface;
- steam generator, steam mop or powerful iron with hot steam function;
- masking tape and a large piece of polyethylene.
The process of peeling off the already obsolete paper coating is very dirty, so you need to protect the floor and sockets from pieces of wet paper and plaster. To do this, it is necessary to attach the film with adhesive tape to the skirting boards around the perimeter, seal the sockets with masking tape, and ideally also de-energize the room so that water does not accidentally splash onto the bare wires.
After all the preparations, you can proceed directly to peeling the wallpaper. There are several basic techniques, depending on the condition of the walls, your time, and the resources available.
You can remove old wallpaper with a spatula
Method One: Manual
To do this, simply take the corner of the old piece from below with your hand and remove the entire wallpaper. Remove the remaining pieces on the walls with a spatula or scraper. With this technology, there is one danger: the old canvas can be torn off along with the plaster, so cover your head with a cap or scarf and protect your nose and mouth from building dust with a mask.
Method two: plain water
Plain warm water is the most popular and effective way to remove old paper wallpaper in an apartment. To enhance the effect, you can add vinegar, the cheapest fabric softener or liquid dishwashing detergent to a bucket of water.
Then, with a roller, rag or sponge, we apply the liquid to small sections of the wall, wait 5-10 minutes for everything to be absorbed, and scrape off the paper with a spatula (scraper). Do not immediately pour water over the entire piece of the old roll - while you peel off one section, the thin paper will dry out and you will have to start all over again. If separate (small!) areas do not absorb liquid, you can try ironing them through a damp cloth with a hot iron - this will enhance the effect.
You should not overdo it either - if you flood the wall with water, this can soften the plaster and putty, and then the surface will have to be leveled and cleaned for a long time.
Method three: chemicals
If you want to know how to peel off old paper wallpaper the fastest and easiest way, you can take the advice of repair specialists and purchase a special liquid for removing old paper covering from walls.
Half a liter of such a product, depending on the brand, will cost about 200-300 rubles, and enough for 2-3 rooms, depending on the area. It is very simple to use: dilute in accordance with the instructions (for a greater effect, you can pour wallpaper glue), apply it to the walls and wait until it dries. Wallpaper liquid penetrates the paper and dissolves the glue, while the canvas itself remains intact. After drying, the pieces of the old roll move away from the surface entirely.
The use of such a tool will significantly save time - it will be possible to clean paper wallpaper from the walls with a scraper and a spatula in just a couple of hours. The only drawback is an unpleasant chemical smell, but it quickly disappears, and the “drug” itself is harmless to both people and pets.
On sale there are many chemicals that will facilitate the process of removing old wallpaper from the walls.
Method four: hot steam
If you don’t want to spend money on a cleaning agent, but you have a steam generator or a powerful iron at home, it will be much easier to tear off the wallpaper.
First, provide access to the outlet: if you have de-energized the room and closed the sockets, you can bring an extension cord from the next room. Then we process the wallpaper pieces one by one with hot steam and wait 3-5 minutes. Paper and old glue swell quickly when exposed to hot, moist air, and it is not difficult to remove the old coating.
Method five: special tools
If several layers of paper have accumulated on your walls or a two-layer wallpaper coating (duplex) was pasted during the last repair, it will be very problematic to remove the wallpaper. Too old wallpaper glue, PVA or bustilat can complicate the process even more. Dissolving such a mixture is quite difficult, and you will probably have to scrape everything by hand.
For these works, you will need a roller with needles or a more gentle tool - wallpaper tiger. The tool must be walked over the entire surface to make holes, moisten the wallpaper with hot water: in this case, the liquid quickly penetrates under the paper. Pieces of the old canvas are torn off with a sharp spatula or scraper, but you have to be careful: the sharp edges of the tool easily leave grooves and dents on the wall, and then you have to further level it.
If liquid and perforating tools are powerless against the wall covering, you can use more serious equipment: a drill with a wallpaper stripping nozzle (round brush) or a grinder with a coarse-grained brush. Such work is very dusty, and the wall can be significantly damaged - leveling the surface with putty is inevitable.
You can clean the walls of the old coating with a drill with a special nozzle
How to get rid of paper wallpaper on drywall
If you need to remove the paper coating not from an ordinary wall, but from drywall, you need to go to business delicately. Drywall is covered with a thin paper layer that cannot be torn or scratched.
The best option in this case is to use a chemical tool to remove old wallpaper pieces or hot steam. Experts do not recommend using water here. If the old wallpaper is very thin, smooth and stuck to the drywall tightly, you can prime and glue new ones on top. It is better to use embossed foam vinyl for this, which will hide possible irregularities.
There are a lot of ways to peel off old paper wallpapers from the walls, and choosing the right one will not be difficult. But if you got a very problematic apartment, and the old coating just merged with the wall, you can use the services of professionals. Today, craftsmen have many special tools, and they can easily remove all the former beauty from the walls without damaging the surface.
Removing old wallpaper is a task that can be done by a non-professional, however, it always requires a significant amount of time and quite a lot of effort. Of course, it all depends on what kind of wallpaper we are dealing with and how "in good faith" they were pasted.
Easy removal of the entire wallpaper
We simply need to remove old wallpaper from the walls if we want to get a high-quality result from gluing new paintings. You should not rely on chance and glue the canvases on top, it is not known how the old wallpaper will behave, it is better to just remove them.
Features of removing old canvases
In fact, it is easy to remove old paper wallpaper from almost all surfaces, only if they have been glued in one layer and not on super glue. Another thing is paper wallpaper, fixed on the wall in several layers. Here you will already have to work hard to peel off this multilayer coating.
If the wallpaper has been glued correctly, it is not difficult to tear them off the walls.
This incident occurs because many people are very fond of gluing a new layer of wallpaper without removing the old one. This is how human laziness leads to a not very good effect. For example, the uneven surface of the walls. The fact is that the previous layer could not have been made quite qualitatively, because of which tubercles were formed, these were old wallpapers rearing up. As a result, it will look extremely unaesthetic and sloppy.
In addition, the probability of peeling off freshly pasted wallpaper in this case increases, and hygiene decreases. As a rule, old wallpaper can hide a layer of mold underneath, which it would be desirable to get rid of before carrying out repairs by quickly peeling everything off the walls.
Therefore, it is best not to be lazy, spend your time, remove the wallpaper from the walls, and it is guaranteed to get an excellent result. If you decide to carry out cosmetic repairs, we advise you to get rid of old wallpaper as efficiently as possible - this is the very first and important step. To facilitate this process, they can be moistened with plenty of hot water and detergent. Apply best with a sponge or cloth. Old wallpaper will actively absorb moisture, swell, after which it will be easier to remove them.
Rollers with a fur and velor coat are able to absorb moisture more
Here it is worth clarifying: it is better to wet the layer one by one, so as not to let them dry again. Take one fragment, process it and leave it for 10 minutes. But it’s also better not to overdo it with water, because excess moisture can disrupt the structure of the plaster or putty layer.
Related article: Curtains in a marine style - all the nuances and subtleties of this type
Most often, after applying an abundant amount of water, old paper wallpapers, as a rule, move away from the walls themselves, however, it will not be possible to do without improvised tools. For even more effective removal of material, it is necessary to use a construction spatula - in this case, the process will go much faster. If hot water did not help much, we will use another excellent advice from experts: steaming the material with an iron through a damp cloth. As a rule, after all these procedures, it turns out to remove all the old wallpaper, and the walls are completely cleaned.
It is better to use a spatula with sharp edges, choose the width yourself
It's another matter if we work with special wallpaper on a rough paper base. In this case, it is worth resorting to the perforation method - making cuts on paper (use a spatula or a special knife). For the same purpose, manufacturers offer rollers with nails, however, you need to be extremely careful with them, because you can easily damage the bottom layer of putty. After working with such a tool, all that remains is to moisten the old wallpaper and remove it from the wall after 10 minutes.
Pay attention to special liquids for wallpaper removal. These materials are safe for human health and are very effective because they speed up the process of moisture penetration and remove strong adhesive solutions. The liquid is very easy to apply and quite economically consumed. It is best to use a brush for this, distribute the material evenly over the wallpaper, leaving it for 2-3 hours. After that, arm yourself with a spatula and simply clean the wall in layers without difficulty.
The most unclaimed of all possible options is the use of glue with the addition of PVA. If the old paper wallpaper was pasted in this way, then it will be extremely difficult to remove them. This is because they cannot be steamed or soaked, even sandpaper is unlikely to overcome them. Under such conditions, you can use an additional nozzle in the form of a brush for a drill.
In this case, it will not work without minuses, because the nozzle will most likely damage the main layer of putty, and the wall will have to be leveled again. Sometimes damage reaches the concrete layer, which is not very pleasant, but easily fixable.
Be very careful when using these types of nozzles.
The final step will be drying the walls. After all the manipulations to remove the wallpaper have been carried out, the walls have already managed to absorb the necessary level of humidity, there is no need to quickly carry out further work. If you do not want it to turn into moldiness and dampness later, and the new wallpaper was glued with high quality, dry the wall and apply an additional layer of primer.
Related article: Do-it-yourself wooden staircase installation technology
Another important recommendation is that a new layer of wallpaper must be applied in the absence of a draft and only with the windows closed. A draft can harm a freshly renovated renovation and lead to the fact that you have to redo everything. After a day, you can fill the room with air.
Removing the paper canvas
The first step is to turn off the power in the room. The reason is that during all the activities you will be dealing with water, so you risk injury. In addition, as we have already understood, it is unlikely that it will be possible to remove wallpaper from the walls without a copious amount of liquid.
Removing paper sheets that have been glued correctly
If necessary, carefully tape all available sockets and switches with tape. In this way, no liquid will enter these hazardous areas. To make the cleaning process simple, you need to attach a plastic film to the baseboard. For these purposes, scotch tape or adhesive tape is also suitable. Now you can proceed to the direct work of removing old wallpaper.
The sequence of actions is as follows:
- Thoroughly soak the sheets with warm water. Before this, add a small amount of liquid soap or another similar agent to the water.
- Wait 15 minutes, yes, it will not work quickly, and then repeat all the steps again. You do not need to simultaneously process the entire surface of the wall, because while you apply the soap solution on one side, the other will already dry.
- If the canvases to be removed have a thick structure, then for high-quality penetration of water into their lowest layer, it is necessary to make scratches in several areas with a knife.
- When the old wallpaper began to swell, it is worth taking a spatula and starting to clean the surface of the old finish. This method is advisable to apply when paper sheets of small thickness are located on the wall surface.
- When you have thicker wallpaper pasted, it will not be possible to remove them from the surface of the walls in this way. For these purposes, you will have to use special chemical components. They are specially designed to remove old wallpapers.
- To perform such activities, you need to pour the selected product into the water in the required proportion. The required amount of chemical composition is determined by the instructions that are included with the main product.
- Apply a special composition, you need with a sprayer. You can also use a foam sponge. In addition, take care of the safety of your hands by wearing rubber gloves.
- The composition of the presented products contains special components that have a high penetrating power. After the product has been absorbed into the wallpaper glue, it begins to destroy it and the wallpaper can be torn off the wall.
- When you have applied the product, and it is perfectly absorbed, you can remove the old wallpaper without much effort. In this case, you do not even need to use a spatula, just one movement of your hand will allow you to tear the canvas off the wall.
