Wallpaper removal
Wallpaper removal is the job most homeowners start themselves and the job we get called into halfway through. Pulling the paper off is the easy part. What is left underneath, and what it takes to make that ready for paint, is the work. We price it as a room at a time inside our interior painting service, and we look at a corner before we quote.
Service family Interior painting
Scheduling Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Service area Six counties across Southeast Michigan
Phone (734) 540-0347
What removal actually involves
Furniture out or wrapped, floors covered and taped, the face layer scored or steamed off, the backing paper soaked and scraped, all the adhesive washed off the wall, the surface rinsed, dried and assessed, then whatever filling, skimming and priming the wall needs before paint. Four of those seven steps happen after the paper is on the floor.
The three layers you are dealing with
Most wallpaper is a decorative face, a paper backing and a layer of adhesive. Vinyl faced papers peel away and leave the backing stuck to the wall. Fabric backed vinyls come off in whole sheets if you are lucky. Old solid paper from before the sixties has no separate layers at all and has to be soaked and scraped in small sections.
Strippable, peelable and the ones that fight
Test one corner before you plan anything. If a lifted corner pulls away cleanly in a long strip, the paper is strippable and the room is a day. If the face peels and leaves grey backing behind, it is peelable and you have two jobs. If it tears into coin sized flakes and takes wall surface with it, stop and call somebody.
What gets tested first
- A corner lifted with a putty knife to see how it releases
- Whether there is more than one layer of paper
- Whether the wall behind is drywall or plaster
- Whether the drywall was primed before the paper went on
- Whether any layer has been painted over
Steam, solvent and scoring
Hot water with an enzyme stripper handles most papers and is the gentlest on the wall. A steamer is faster on stubborn multi layer work and riskier on drywall, because steam that soaks through softens the paper face of the board itself. Vinyl faces need scoring first so the water can reach the adhesive. We choose the method by what the corner test showed.
Wallpaper hung straight onto unprimed drywall
This is the worst case and it is common in houses papered in the seventies and eighties. With no primer between the paste and the paper face of the board, the adhesive has bonded to the board itself. Removing the paper tears the board face, and no amount of care avoids it entirely. Those walls need skimming afterwards as a matter of course rather than as an extra.
Adhesive left behind, the real problem
The stage everybody skips. Old paste dries clear and invisible and then rejects paint in patches, or stays slightly tacky under the film and blisters months later. Every square foot of wall gets washed, rinsed with clean water and checked by hand for drag before anything goes on it. If the wall squeaks under a wet sponge, there is still paste on it.
Border strips and the line they leave
The wallpaper border around the top of a nineties dining room comes off easily and leaves two things behind: a band of adhesive and a visible step where the wall was painted below it and papered above. Both need dealing with. The step gets filled and feathered, which is fine work over a long horizontal line and needs to be done well or it shows under side light.
Wallpaper over wallpaper
Two or three layers is normal in older houses, and each layer has its own adhesive and its own behaviour. They rarely come off together. The honest answer is that a three layer room takes about three times as long as a one layer room, and that a wall carrying three layers is often better skimmed than stripped.
Plaster walls and the paper holding them together
In prewar houses, paper has sometimes been hung over cracked plaster and is now the thing keeping the surface intact. Taking it off reveals the cracks and sometimes loose material. That is not a reason to leave the paper, but it is a reason to expect plaster repair afterwards. We say so before starting rather than discovering it with you.
Painted over wallpaper
Paint over wallpaper seals the paper against water, which is the one thing removal depends on. Scoring the surface lets stripper in, but progress is slow and patchy and damage to the wall is more likely. On painted paper in sound condition, skimming over the top is usually the better value answer, which is the next section.
What the wall needs after the paper is off
- Every trace of adhesive washed and rinsed off
- Torn board face filled and feathered rather than painted over
- A full skim coat where the paper took the board face with it
- A stain blocking or bonding primer over the whole wall
- Sanding and a raking light check before the first coat
Skim coating instead of stripping
Where paper is painted, stuck to unprimed board or three layers deep, a skim coat over the top gives a flat wall with less damage and often less cost. The paper edges get cut back, the seams are bedded and the whole wall is skimmed and sanded. That is drywall finishing work and it is the same method described on our drywall installation and finishing page.
Bathrooms, kitchens and steam damage
Paper in a bathroom has usually lifted at the seams above the shower already, and the wall behind it may have taken moisture for years. Kitchens have grease in the paste. Both rooms need the wall assessed rather than just stripped, and both are where we most often find that drywall patch repair is part of the job.
The rest of the room while the walls are bare
A stripped room is the cheapest moment to deal with everything else. Ceiling repair, texture matching, trim, window casing and a popcorn ceiling all cost less done now than in a finished room.
How long a room takes
A strippable single layer in a bedroom is a day to strip and wash, then paint. A peelable paper on unprimed board is two days plus skimming plus paint. Three layers over plaster is a week for a dining room and worth every day of it. Landlords schedule it under rental turnover repairs and sellers under pre listing home repairs.
Doing it yourself, and where people get stuck
Plenty of homeowners strip a room successfully and we would rather tell you how than talk you out of it. Score vinyl faces, work with hot water and an enzyme stripper rather than a steamer, do a three foot square section at a time, and keep the wall wet rather than scraping dry. The place people get stuck is the adhesive stage, because the wall looks finished and is not. If your stripped wall drags under a wet sponge, or paint later blisters in patches the size of a hand, that is paste you left behind rather than bad paint.
Book wallpaper removal with our crew
Lift one corner with a knife before you call and tell us what happened, because that single test decides the whole quote. New owners usually book it in the first month under a new homeowner package, across Dexter and our wider area. An annual home check can stage it room by room. View our Portfolio, then contact us now for a free quote.
