Talk to me about STRIPPING?

[RapunzelsBuzzcut]

Hi all,

Is anyone able to give advice about wallpaper and paint stripping?

I need to remove all the wallpaper from three rooms, and also remove some old paint. I’m confused about the options. When I look at prices for wallpaper strippers, the price to buy a steam stripper isn’t that much more expensive than to rent a professional quality steam stripper for the day.

Do I need a professional quality stripper? Are the steam strippers you can buy for say £25 any good? Do steam strippers work on paint?

I have zero experience with this stuff but the quotes I’ve had to get people in are crazy. What’s the best, cheapest (but not arduously time consuming) way to remove wallpaper?

Thank you for any advice!

Just get a cheapish steam stripper for your wallpaper, and a decent stripping knife. You definitely don't need to hire a professional quality one. For your wood, you can use a hot air gun if you are sure there's no lead paint on the wood (how old is property?), or there's a product called peelaway on the market (other similar ones too) that works very well but is fairly messy and expensive.

The quotes will be expensive because it's a messy, tiring, time-consuming job. Very do-able though, and very satisfying once it's done.

You don't need a steam stripper, just hot water.

Peel back the paper where you can then brush on the hot water then scrape a couple of minutes later.

Those pressurised containers for painting are amazing, I got one for about a fiver from B&M, filled with water and sprayed it on the walls to completely soak the wallpaper. It looked like way too much water but the whole thing just peeled off easily when it soaked in for a bit.

It was better than the black and decker steamer we had.

That’s great, thanks!I started using a spray bottle of hot water mixed with stripper solution but it took a day to do half a wall, so I was looking for something to speed it up a bit.

Wilko are still open so I might see if they’ve got anything the next time I go in.

House is 60s, I think. Will look up Peelaway.

Steamers are amazing for speeding the job up- hot water works but is very time consuming. You should be able to get a good peeling knife in wilkos as well.

I’m jealous- this was one of my fave jobs when doing up our house! Very time consuming but SO satisfying

Get a steamer, you will never look back

Home Strip is brilliant to get paint off:

www.diy.com/departments/home-strip-paint-stripper-0-5l/254572_BQ.prd

Very little faffing and I don't even wear gloves to use it.

Oh btw, the soaking method doesn't work on vinyl wallpaper. The only thing I could do with that was peel it off bit by bit and weep

If it's not vinyl but the spray bottle wasn't working, have you tried really really soaking a section? It did look like I was using an utterly ridiculous amount of water when it was working best.

You can slash vinyl wallpaper to let the water through. Obviously not perfect, but better than nothing...

I tried Perking it didn't work on the mad stretchy stuff I had, it was like it was bonded to the wall by heat or something.

Nightmare!

I once had a friend boast they'd used PVA glue for their wallpaper. I shuddered quietly for the future owners.

If the paper has a vinyl coating then water wont penetrate you will need to score it all over first, then use warm soapy water, let it soak in and repeat a couple of times.

If it's still difficult in place score again and repeat. You need to get all the paste at the back of the wall paper damp so it softens.

Cheap steamers do speed things up but you will still need to score the paper first if it is plastic coated or has been painted over

Perhaps I bought their house PerkingFaintly our kitchen and bathroom tiles were cemented on and our ceilings and floors were nuke proof peach and cream gloss

Sorry for derailing your thread RapunzelsBuzzcut

Never wanted to spend money on a steamer plus my sister managed to steam off the plaster in her first house so that put me off too.

Our whole house was a woodchip and vinyl wallpaper nightmare (ceilings too in some rooms!) Just don't get me started on the paint which flaked and peeled like a skin underneath!

Woodchip is the absolute worst, no amount of hot water helps, it's actually easier to scrape dry (frustratingly small pieces at a time, need to use a a lot of force behind your scraper, don't do too much at once or prepare to have numb fingers, air will turn blue) and then soak and scrape the back paper and wash glue off.

Blown vinyl especially if painted easier to get top plasticy coat off dry, if painted you'll get some big satisfying bits come off with your scraper then soak and scrape off back paper etc.

If it's just normal wallpaper then you don't know you're born, just make sure you get it good and wet with hot soapy water, the type of sponge you'd use to wash a car is good for this and bring your kettle upstairs with you, wear rubber gloves etc. If it's not coming off, soak again let sit, repeat.

Happy stripping!

Thanks.

The wallpaper comes off fine, it’s just such a pain to have to spray-wait-scrape each tiny section by hand.

The bathroom had that 70s textured wallpaper with polystyrene sheets underneath. Quite fun to scrape off but my poor eyes!!

A steamer will as has been said speed things up a lot. I'm talking really quick.

They're handy to have.

Steam wallpaper strippers are ace. Just don't leave in one place for long or you risk blowing the plaster. You will also need to scrub remaining glue off after with sugar soap.

yy to @perkingfaintly's stripper - LOVE that stuff. Very effective, no odour, eco-friendly etc. Definitely recommend for removing paints and varnishes.

Cheap steamer is fine. But invest in a heavy duty scraper. We discovered it on the last room 🙈

www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-duty-scraper-4-/16530?tc=AT8&ds_kid=92700052136101755&ds_rl=1243321&ds_rl=1241687&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1245250&gclid=CjwKCAjwte71BRBCEiwAU_V9h_R72RpkHPNcpAsjwBQmtEagcffvmyfzkN2tOuq2hqYMMxH4Pe97OxoCKuwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Great advice here! DH has recently stripped all the woodchip off the hall, stairs and landing. It was a big job, but a cheap steamer did speed it up.

I love my steamer best £25 I've spent on the house.
YY to scoring / peeling off top layer of vinyl paper, then the stuff underneath comes off a treat. Mine is a 1907 house though, so many, many layers of paper.

I've used Peelaway on woodwork, cast iron fireplaces and the cast iron columns on my bay window to great effect. Just be sure to neutralise thoroughly afterwards.