I watered the wallpaper with a pressure sprayer (hope you know what I mean, I have no idea what that thing is even in Finnish) and the top wallpaper, the rosy one, almost slide off. I was able to rip it out in whole sheets. It was amazing.
Then I watered the old wallpaper, the stripy one. I watered and tried to rip the wallpaper off, but it was very stuck. Then I watered some more and tried to scrape it off, that didn't work. I even borrowed a steamer meant for removing wallpaper from A's parents'. That didn't work either. After one evening of work and messing around with the steamer, this is all that I had done.
That looks just pathetic.
Then I started to think that I need to change my plan. According to Benita you can paint over wallpaper and eventhough I trust her to tell the truth I still hesitate. So since the rosy wallpaper comes out so easily I will remove only that and leave the stripy one be. I will spackle the edges and some holes and then paint. I know I could just paint right over, but I'm still afraid that since the top wallpaper can be removed so easily that it will start to remove on it's own once I wet it with paint.
So that's the new plan.
If you would still like to try and remove it--try scoring the stripey paper so that the water can penetrate underneath the paper. As well, there are products especially designed for removing wallpaper--stronger than water--you could try that, with the scoring--too.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, if the paper is stuck down that well--then there's no harm in painting it!
Good luck. I hope it turns out.
ReplyDeleteAlana - I'm fairly certain it was completely soaked. I think the problem is that the wall itself is not finished in any way and the wallpaper is maybe glued on with something else than wallpaper paste. I might need some type of solvent to remove the glue and that does not sound easy or environment friendly. I think I would drive myself mad if I would try to remove it :) so painting over is the way to go.
ReplyDeleteMegan - Thanks