In order to save some money onWhen carrying out repairs, many apartment and house owners prefer to do some types of work themselves, without involving builders. One of these jobs is cleaning the walls from old wallpaper before covering them with new finishing material. A simple, at first glance, process can cause a lot of problems for non-professionals. To prevent this from happening, you need to figure out how to remove old wallpaper correctly.
Removing old wallpaper using a spatula (a) or a drilling machine (b).
The need to clean the walls of old wallpaper
Removing the old paper covering isis a very important stage in carrying out repairs, because the future appearance of the renovated rooms largely depends on it. Some home craftsmen do not bother to clean the walls from the wallpaper that has become unusable and stick new paper sheets on top of them. However, this should never be done, because:
- dilapidated wallpaper in some places may not fit snugly to the surfaces, and under the weight of the new wall cover they will finally peel off;
- Between the layers of old and new paper cloths, the likelihood of wrinkles and air bubbles, spoiling the appearance of the wall, is great;
- grease stains and other contaminants that are present on the old wall cover, eventually pass to the wallpaper pasted over it.
As you can see, you cannot avoid removing old wallpaper from the walls. To make this process easier and faster, you need to listen to the advice of professionals.
Wallpaper removal tools and products.Before , the room needs to be prepared for work. Considering that a lot of debris and dust is generated during the cleaning of surfaces, it is recommended to cover the entire floor with polyethylene film, gluing its edges to the baseboards with masking tape. In the room where you plan to remove wallpaper from the walls, you should turn off the electricity, and close the sockets with special plugs or seal them with masking tape to prevent dust and moisture from getting in. If there are light fixtures on the walls, they must be removed. Before removing old paper wallpaper, the master will need to prepare all the necessary devices and tools for this task. Do not forget about the stepladder, which will be needed when you have to remove wallpaper from the ceiling. After careful preparation, you can start working. Usually, removing old wallpaper from the walls does not cause difficulties even for those people who have never done this before. But if the paper sheets were glued with super-strong glue, then removing them from the surface may be quite difficult. In order for cleaning walls from worn-out wallpaper not to become a problem, it is necessary to consider several ways of carrying out this process. Return to the table of contents</a>
Removing wallpaper by hand and wet
Old paper canvases, which in manyin some places have come unstuck and do not adhere well to the wall, you can remove them with your hands, and from auxiliary means you can use only a spatula. To clean the surface, you need to pry the upper section of the canvas with your hands or a tool and after it comes off the wall, pull it from top to bottom. If the wallpaper is held on by a word of honor, it will be very easy to remove it this way. If some areas are firmly glued, they will have to be additionally scraped off with a spatula. The worn-out paper covering should be removed until the walls are completely cleared of it.
Scheme for removing old wallpaper.How to remove old wallpaper if it is firmly glued to the walls? In this case, it will be impossible to tear it off the wall with bare hands. There are several ways to clean surfaces from wallpaper that has become unusable. The most accessible and easiest of them is to remove the wall covering using a wet method (using water). Before starting the process, you need to prepare:
- large capacity with water;
- sponge or roller with foam nozzle;
- spatula or scraper.
So that they are firmly attached to the wall,their surfaces are wiped with a wet roller or sponge. Some people prefer to spray them with water from a spray bottle. After waiting 5 minutes (during this time the water will be absorbed into the paper coating), the wallpaper begins to be slowly removed from the surface with a spatula. Wallpaper soaked in water will easily peel off. There is no need to cover all the walls with water at the same time, as the paper dries quite quickly. It is recommended to wet the sheets one by one: soak each subsequent one only after the previous one has been removed from the wall. When cleaning walls from wallpaper using the wet method, remember: the hotter the water, the better it will soak the old sheets. You cannot remove old washable wallpaper this way. Before starting work, you need to remove the water-repellent film from their surface and only then soak them with water. If it is difficult to remove the film, then each sheet of waterproof wall covering is cut in several places with a sharp knife, and then a wet foam sponge is run over its surface.
Scheme of removing old wallpaper with"tigra". Water will penetrate under the washable wallpaper through the cuts and soften its base. After allowing the water to soak in, the wall covering is slowly torn off the walls, lifting the poorly peeling off areas with a sharp scraper or spatula. Recently, a new type of wall covering has appeared on the finishing materials market - liquid wallpaper. Not everyone knows how to remove it from the wall, but it is very easy to do. To remove such a coating, it must first be moistened with water and then removed from the wall with a spatula. Return to contents</a>
How can I remove paper sheets with special solutions?
It happens that the wall covering is wet with waterdifficult to remove from the surface. How to easily remove old wallpaper in this case? To avoid problems when removing paper from the walls, experts recommend using the cheapest deep penetration primer, sold in any hardware store. Some types of primers should be diluted with water before use, others can be used immediately. If the craftsman purchased the first type of primer, then he should dilute it with cold water in a ratio of 1:10 (regardless of what is indicated in the instructions). If the composition is not intended for dilution, you will still have to pour a little liquid into it (1 part primer to 2-3 parts cold water). A foam roller is moistened in the resulting solution and run over the canvas. Then proceed in exactly the same way as when removing wall coverings with water. The primer soaks the wallpaper much faster and better than water, due to which they will quickly come off the walls. If paper sheets are glued to a plasterboard base, then they cannot be soaked with water, since this material does not like excess moisture.
Scheme for removing old thin wallpaper.You can remove old wallpaper from plasterboard walls using a special liquid, which is purchased ready-made. It is made from non-toxic components that easily penetrate the base of the wall covering, reduce the adhesion of the paper to the surface and dissolve dried glue. Wallpaper remover is applied to the walls with a roller. The sheets soaked in it are easily scraped off in the usual way (with a spatula or scraper). Return to contents</a>
Steam method of removing the wall cover
When removing old wallpaper, you can usesteam. The power of steam can soften even the thickest wallpaper. There is even a special device for removing wall coverings using steam - a stripper. A steam iron or a household steam generator, which can be found in many homes, will cope with steaming just as well as a professional stripper. Removing wall coverings using steam is very simple: the steam unit is brought close to the wall for half a minute, after which the soaked paper is immediately removed with a scraper or spatula. Work should begin from the bottom of the wall, as the steam will rise up and soften other areas of the wall covering. When working with hot steam, you need to remember about safety precautions: in order not to get burned, the master needs to hide the body under clothing with long sleeves and trousers, and put on gloves on his hands. Having decided to remove wallpaper in this way, it should be taken into account that all steam devices operate from the mains, and the room in which the work on cleaning the walls is carried out must be de-energized for safety reasons. In order to connect the device, you will have to use an extension cord. Having familiarized yourself with how to quickly remove old wallpaper, you can begin working. The most difficult thing is to remove the coating from the walls that was glued using PVA glue or other water-insoluble compounds. If the paper web does not lend itself to soaking and firmly adheres to the surface, then you will have to scrape it off with a sharp scraper. In difficult cases, you can resort to the help of a grinding machine, processing the fragments of wallpaper that cannot be removed. Walls cleaned of old coating must be wiped with a damp cloth or sponge, and then allowed to dry completely. Before you start pasting the walls with new material, they need to be lightly tapped. If areas are found where the plaster does not adhere tightly to the wall, it is removed and the areas cleared of it are plastered again. Only after this should you begin pasting the walls with wallpaper.
