Hi there.
I'm Jeff with Home Repair Tutor.
And in this video, I'm going to share with you the best way to remove wallpaper.
So there are a tone of different methods out there.
You can either use steam, you can use DIF, you can use vinegar and water, hot water,
and a number of different chemicals.
So today, I'm going to share with you the method that I use that has helped me out with
removing whole rooms of wallpaper and without chemicals.
So let's get to it.
Before you know it, you're going to be on your way to removing that ugly wallpaper that
just looks terrible and you'll have a new room to work with.
So let's get started.
So as you can see here, I've only got a small section of wallpaper that was hidden by the
vanity.
Now even though I'm only removing the wallpaper from a small area in the bathroom, you can
use the same method for entire rooms.
So the first step is to tear as much of the wallpaper off the wall as you can.
So here we go.
And in my case, I also have a little bit of caulk on the wall from the old vanity.
So you want to get that off, too.
The reason why you want to get the top portion or the vinyl portion off the wall is when
you're left with this soft paper underneath, this is way easier to remove once it's saturated
with steam or water or whatever you're going to be using.
In my case today, I'm going to be using steam.
If you still have some of the top layer of the wallpaper on the wall, you should score
lightly with a scoring tool like this one here.
When you score the paper, the small holes allow the steam to penetrate it.
And when the steam penetrates behind the paper, it allows the lift off the wall a lot easier.
Again, you don't need to press very hard on this scoring tool because you'll leave little
indentations in the drywall.
Chances are though, if you're removing the wallpaper from the wall, you may have to do
a skin coat over it using joint compound anyway.
If you have trouble peeling the wallpaper off the wall, you can also use a putty knife
or a joint compound knife to help you with that process.
Removing wallpaper gets messy.
So I highly recommend throwing down a drop cloth.
This helps prevent your floor from getting saturated with the water from the steamer.
So here's the deal, here's the tool of choice that I use to remove wallpaper.
It's a Wagner Power Steamer.
This is model 705.
And my wife bought this for about $50 at our local home store.
That was about 7 years ago.
But you can still get this on Amazon.com for about $50.
And it's way cool because it works.
And it's super simple.
You get 2 attachments.
You get a big one here, like this.
And you get a smaller one for tighter spaces.
Because you are working with steam, I highly recommend that you plug the steamer into a
DFCI outlet like this one here.
After you fill up the steamer with water, you have to let it heat up.
All right, you know your steamer's ready when it starts to produce steam.
Woohoo!
With your steamer in one hand and a joint compound knife in the other—so here's my
trusty 6" joint compound knife—what you do is you put the steamer on the section of
the wallpaper for about 10-15 seconds or until the paper starts to get moist enough whereby
you can scrape it off with your putty knife.
Now water is going to run down the wall, but no worries.
That's why you have the drop cloth.
So see how easy it is to remove this?
What I like to do is scrape with one hand—now this is a tight space—while I steam with
the other hand.
So I'll try to scrape with my left hand, steam with the other.
You just move across the wall.
Here's a tip.
You can see the glue that's on the wall here?
Try to remove as much of that glue as possible.
After scraping your walls, your putty knife is going to get gunkafied, which means there's
going to be glue and all sorts of stuff on there.
So you just want to take a paper towel and wipe it off.
So make sure you have some paper towels with you.
And since you are working with steam, please be careful.
Be super safe.
This can burn you, okay?
You don't want to look like Darth Vader in Episode III.
Once you're done removing the paper, take it all and throw it into a garbage bag.
And I recommend doing this while the paper's still slightly wet.
That way it won't stick to the floor or to your drop cloth, etc.
As you can tell, like I said before, it gets pretty darn messy.
So use this drop cloth.
Please use the drop cloth!
You don't want to ruin your floors.
Your wall may not look as bad as mine.
I've got holes in it, and there's some tears in the latex paint.
So I'm obviously going to have to apply a skin coat of joint compound.
But if you don't have a bad looking wall like me and you can salvage it with just prime
and paint right over it, you may want to take one extra step.
And that step is this: to wash it down with 1 gallon of warm water with 1 teaspoon of
Dawn dishwashing soap added to it.
I also like to use a grout sponge because the one side is rough and the other side is
soft.
So what you can do is dunk your sponge into the bucket, wring it out, and wipe down the
wall the best that you can with the rough side of the sponge.
And what this will do is remove any of the gunky glue that's still hanging out on the
wall.
Hey, it may not look perfect but I'm sure it'll be a lot better than if you didn't do
this step at all.
Try to scrub in a circular motion because that will help eliminate the glue more than
just a back-and- forth motion.
So again, circular motion.
Hey, Mr. Miyagi was onto something!
Wipe on, wipe off!
Well that's it.
In my opinion, that's the best way to remove wallpaper.
So let me know what you think in the comments.
You might have your own suggestion, your own tips that have worked for you.
And please share them because we want to learn from you not just from me.
I don't have all the answers.
And I'm sure that you've got some really great ideas.
So please share this down in the comments.
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and that you get a lot of great ideas that you can use on your own projects.
So until the next video, have a great day.
Thank you so much for joining me.
I really appreciate it.
And take care!