How To Remove Painted Over WallpaperRemoving Painted Over Wallpaper

The trouble with buy a home is that sometimes you find things that are just…well…troublesome. Here is a perfect example…in the “green room”while prepping for painting,we removed the crown molding to find that the original owner had painted over the wallpaper border. We figured that since it was already bubbling in areas,it was a good idea to remove the wallpaper and repaint it.

After looking online,I found many tips on how to remove wallpaper that had been painted over. However,after trying some of these suggestions,we found that many of them didn’t actually work very well. So,I figured I would write up a tutorial on how I went about removing it.

NOTE:I want to make one thing clear…this will make a pretty good size mess. You may want to cover any flooring that may be damaged by scraps of wallpaper with paste on it. Also,this does have a possible risk of damage to the wall plaster…while there wasn’t any damage to our walls,every wall is different.

How We Removed Painted Over Wallpaper

THE SUPPLIES:

Most of the supplies and tools I mention here can be found at many local home improvement stores. The tools that we used were purchased at LOWES because it was near us.

1. This is the wallpaper scoring tool. It puts tiny cuts all over the wallpaper so the spray stripper can work it’s magic on the glue.
2. The wallpaper removal spray comes in both a liquid and a gel. I used the liquid stuff…you will use A LOT of this stuff. 
3.  The wallpaper scraper. Any scraper should work,but ours had a wheel on the back to roll against the wall…

THE STEPS:Time to get to work!

1. Get the wallpaper scoring tool and start scoring in a circular motion. You will want to push down pretty hard…Not so hard that they little wheels stop spinning,but hard enough that you get through the layer of paint. You may see little marks in your drywall,but that’s ok…the primer will cover most,if not all the marks.
2. Next we are going to spray on the wallpaper remover. Give everything a pretty good soak. Remember,you have to try to get under the paint and wallpaper to the paste. Read the instructions on your spray to see how long you need to let it do it’s job. The first attempt,we didn’t wait long enough and it was a pain. The second attempt we waited the 15min and it worked much better!
3. After waiting,it’s time to grab the scraper and get to work. This is where my technique differs from others. Try to scrap/peel the TOP layer of the paint/wallpaper off. Don’t worry if you don’t get it all off…All we really want to do is peel off the paint and maybe the color layer of the wallpaper. If it does all come off easy,then that’s great too!
4. Now,pick up the scoring too again and go back over everything you didn’t get off the first time. This time however,you may notice that when scoring,bits of the stuff you couldn’t get off before start to flake off. You may need to CAREFULLY clean the scoring wheels from time to time. Once again,don’t worry too much about putting marks in the drywall because the primer should cover it up.
5.  Just like in Step 2,we are going to spray the wallpaper remover again. Like before,give it a nice soak…and then wait. While you wait,it might be a good idea to get a trash back and clean up some of the larger chunks of wallpaper.
6. Once again,grab the scraper and go at it. You should notice that most,if not all of the wallpaper coming off this time with very little effort. However,there may be little areas here and there that still stick…but should be fairly easy to remove. If after this step,you still have large sections of wallpaper sticking to the wall,repeat the above steps.
7. This might be considered an optional step…but it doesn’t hurt. With a sanding block,quickly sand that areas that were covered in wallpaper.
8. Clean Up –Take a sponge and clean,warm water and wash the walls. This will help remove the wallpaper paste that was left on the walls.
9. Prime! Before you put your final coat of paint on,it’s best to prime all the walls. This will make a BIG difference,and is actually cheaper then having to use 2 coats of your colored paint.

It will take some time and some work,but the results are pretty good. We have primed the green room and should be putting on the color coat of paint this weekend. I’ll post pictures when the paint goes on. If anyone has other tips and suggestions on wallpaper removal,please put them in the comments below.