Removing Wallpaper in your Franklin Home

If you’re like most families in the Milwaukee area, you probably have a few rooms in the house still covered in wallpaper. While wallpaper was once the prime choice for decorating the walls of your Franklin home, paint has become the new favorite. Here are some helpful Milwaukee Handyman tips on how to remove that out-dated wallpaper hanging in your Franklin Wisconsin house.

• Clear the room! Temporarily remove all wall hangings and outlet covers and move all furniture to another room. If removing furniture completely is not feasible, at least move it to the center of the room, to give yourself room to work. Be sure to cover remaining furniture and floors with drop cloths to keep them from getting wet or dirty.
• Know the kind of wallpaper you’re up against. Newer wallpaper is being made “dry strippable”, meaning it should peel off the wall without any additional effort. Just loosen the wallpaper at the corners and peel back at a 10-15 degree angle. Peelable paper is meant to peel leaving a small amount of adhesive behind on the wall, allowing you to hang new wallpaper right on top (if it’s still in good shape).

The rest of the wallpaper out there will need to be removed with tools, solution, and some hard work.  Follow the steps below to remove the more difficult wallpapers.

• Get some wallpaper removal help! Many hardware stores sell a wallpaper-scoring tool that will make the job easier. You can also use a razor knife or putty knife, but be careful you don’t cut through the paper and into the drywall. Begin by scoring the surface of the wallpaper with the tool of your choice. The wallpaper-scoring tool sold by hardware stores are designed to only score wallpaper, reducing the risk of cutting too deeply.
• Use the right solution. There are a few different liquid solutions that can be used to remove your wallpaper. Start with just warm water; if that doesn’t work, you can try a mixture of warm water and wallpaper removal solvent. Others have also found mixing fabric softener with warm water works great too.
• Wet the walls. The holes you made in the wallpaper during the scoring process will be used to help the paper and glue absorb water. Wet the wallpaper with a spray bottle or the old fashioned bucket and sponge. Wet the wall in small portions, as drywall exposed to water for more than 15 minutes will begin to absorb the moisture, causing unnecessary damage.
• Peel away! Begin scraping off the wet wallpaper with a wide putty knife or wallpaper scraper.  Pull wallpaper back slowly at about a 45 degree angle to reduce rips or tears.
• Before moving on. The walls will need to be scrubbed with a solution of warm water and TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate) to remove any excess glue. Make sure to rinse the walls with clean, warm water before calling it complete. Additionally, any small holes created in the drywall need to be filled before painting. Use spackling compound and once dry, sand until smooth. Congratulations, your walls are now ready for a fresh coat of paint – but remember, always start with a primer!

Some wallpaper may be extremely tough to remove. In this case, you may need to rent a steamer.

Sound like too much work for you?  Don’t want to get your hands dirty?  No worries – call the experts at Milwaukee Handyman 262.439.8620 for help removing wallpaper in your Franklin home or any where in Southeastern Wisconsin!