How much to have wallpaper stripped?

[crazycrazy]

Unfortunately we have wood-chip on the walls (and ceiling!) in our new house on the hall, stairs and landing. Any ideas how much I may have to pay to have this stripped (we cannot bear the thought of doing this ourselves!)

Thanks

Hire or buy a steamer. Without one it took me a whole day to strip a small wall covered in woodchip. With the steamer I did the remaining three walls in about 2 hours.

Just make sure you score the paper first if you have painted over it in order for the steam to penetrate.

Thanks Mia - we do have a steam but it still seems like so a pain, especially with the ceiling and the fact that it's stairs etc. I was thinking that if I could get it done at a reasonable price I'd be willing to pay instead

i have never heard of anyon who would do this....who would? a decorator?

I recently stripped the woodchip of ds's cell sized bedroom and it wasn't as hard or time consuming as i thought it would be. We also had lovely polystyrene tiles on the ceiling (we chose a lovely house to move to which aslo camre off very easily but stairs are a nuisance when the ceiling gets too high.

Threeblondeboys - I thought a decorator would? Maybe not, I don't know

Beasknees - yes a room is ok, we're going to do one of the bedrooms soon - it's just the stairs etc. that we're dreading

It is not something that requires special skills. So i guess you can pay a 'handy man', a young person, a student. I think many people would do it for £7-£8 ph. A decorator would charge a lot more.

It is very theraputic once you get going - you just need to leave the stripper on for a good amount of time, longer than normal wallpaper but because it's thick it's not too hard. Can you give a young relative some money to do it? (not too young, as it drips on you sometimes but....13 +?)

ASecret i agree. I enjoy it too.

OP ask if any mnetters in your area need some extra cash

Ha, me and DH squabbled over the 'good bits'. It's like popping bubble wrap. I love steaming a big section then getting the stripper knife (big fat thing, makes life alot easier) and trying to get a big chunk off without ripping Even the wood chip with about 5 layers of paint was lovely in the end. We fought our way in with the edge of the knife, and also scored it abit (but don't overscore as you will then have to take off tiny little cut up bits) then held the steamer on for a good 30 sec - min, got the knife in under the bit we tore into and slid it around the wall, taking it off. Ooooh, what I wouldn't give for abit of wallpaper to strip....

Ah, you see OP?
You could find someone like Asecret who will actually pay you for letting her playing with your steamer

Bought this great stuff online called Wallwik (we had anaglypta everywhere). If you google it you'll find it. Basically, you get these re-usable sheets which you dip into a solution and stick to the walls (pre-scored) then you sit down and have a cup of tea for half an hour, spraying the walls with the supplied spray every now and then. The whole lot just comes off! Actually, there isn't much time for tea; by the time you've used up all the sheets and stuck them to the walls one by one, then the first one is ready to come off, then you stick that sheet on the next section, and so on. Way easier than steaming.
The great thing is, because there's no dangerous steam around, you will find a small volunteer workforce queuing up to assist! We left our three to it and they stripped the hall wallpaper by themselves (ripping off wallpaper with mum's permission - wow!!!)

asecret - you sound like a bit of a stripping enthusiast

Thenextmrsdepp - that sounds interesting, have never heard of that. Will have a look

No young relatives unfortunately - I think I'll look up a handyman type instead, the type of adverts you get through the door etc. That would work out cheaper I guess

MrsDepptobe - my Mum thinks I should just put up some anaglypta and paint it, instead of getting my walls skimmed!! Needless to say I'm saying 'Hmm, yeah I could do that' (and trying not to add - if I wanted it to look like I'd stepped back in time!!)

Crazycrazy - I don't mind stripping wallpaper - I find it quite theraputic! (Which is actually bloody lucky considering how much needs doing!!). My next nightmare (or one of them) is getting the artex ceilings stripped back far enough to get them plastered over - at the moment the peaks are too sticky-outy and we'd need about 5 layers of plaster to cover them!! Builder just mentioned that I should get it tested for asbestos - brilliant...

In our local paper there are always loads of guys offering to remove artex - I'd start there if I were you.

Get a really decent scraper with a long handle and it is actually v therapeutic.Mind you I have been stripping out houses for years!

After stripping wood chip from every room of a three storey terrace ourselves, when we moved here (3 storey victoran semi-very high ceilings espcially up the stairs/hall) we paid a decorator/handy man.
Took him 4 days 9-3pm every day. Best £300 ever spent.

OMG TheNextMrsDepp that wallwik stuff looks amazing! I just watched the youtube video on their website. Is it really that good? am tempted to buy some so I can re-do our bedroom (have hated it for the last 4 years since we moved in but couldn't face stripping it and wallpaper too badly put on to paint over!

Please tell me its as good as it looks...