Wallpaper Removal: Tools, Techniques, and Wall Repair After

Identify What You Have

Strippable wallpaper peels off in full sheets when you pull from a corner. Most vinyl and vinyl-coated wallpapers installed after 2000 are strippable. Start at a bottom corner and pull upward at a low angle, roughly 15 degrees from the wall. If large sheets come off cleanly with minimal adhesive residue left behind, you got lucky. The entire room may take two to three hours including cleanup.

Peelable wallpaper has a top decorative layer that peels off but leaves a thin paper backing adhered to the wall. The backing needs to be soaked with warm water or stripper solution and scraped off separately. This is the most common type found in homes from the 1980s and 1990s. The good news is that peelable paper over primed walls usually comes off cleanly once the backing is soaked. Expect to spend four to six hours on a standard 12x12 bedroom.

Traditional pasted wallpaper does not separate into layers. Neither the face nor the backing peels away on its own. The entire sheet needs scoring, soaking, and scraping. This is the oldest type and the most labor-intensive to remove. It is common in homes built before 1980. Multiple coats of paint over the wallpaper (which previous owners sometimes applied instead of removing the paper) add another layer of difficulty.

Wallpaper over unprimed drywall is the worst-case scenario. When wallpaper adhesive is applied directly to unprimed drywall, it bonds to the paper face of the drywall itself. Removing the wallpaper pulls the drywall paper with it, leaving a rough, torn surface that needs extensive skim coating before painting. Test a small section (1 square foot) in an inconspicuous area before committing to removal. If the drywall paper tears, you may want to skim coat over the wallpaper instead of removing it, or in extreme cases, install new 1/4-inch drywall over the entire wall.

Prep the Room

Remove all switch plates and outlet covers with a screwdriver. Tape plastic sheeting over the outlets and switches with painter's tape to keep water out. You will be spraying stripper solution and possibly steaming within inches of electrical boxes. Water inside a live outlet is a shock hazard and a fire hazard.

Lay drop cloths or plastic sheeting on the floor along every wall you plan to strip. Wallpaper paste and stripper solution create a slippery film on hard floors that is a fall hazard. Overlap the floor covering 6 inches up the baseboard to catch runoff that drips down the wall. Tape the overlap to the baseboard with painter's tape so it stays in place.

Move all furniture to the center of the room and cover it with plastic. Even with careful work, water and dissolved paste splatter further than expected. A wallpaper steamer produces humid air that condensates on every surface in the room. Protect anything you do not want sticky paste residue on.

Turn off the circuit breakers for the room if you plan to use a steamer near outlets or if any of the outlet covers are located in the middle of a wallpapered wall. Water and 120-volt electricity are a dangerous combination. Use a non-contact voltage tester to confirm the circuits are dead before working near any electrical box.

Score the Surface

A scoring tool (Paper Tiger is the most common brand, available at any hardware store for about $10) punches small holes through the wallpaper surface without cutting into the drywall underneath. Roll the tool across the entire wall in overlapping passes. The small wheels on the tool create perforations in a random pattern.

The holes allow water or chemical stripper solution to soak through the wallpaper face and dissolve the adhesive on the back side. Without scoring, vinyl and coated wallpapers repel water. You will stand there spraying a waterproof surface while the water runs down the wall and puddles on your floor covering. Scoring is not optional for any coated or vinyl wallpaper.

Do not press too hard with the scoring tool and do not use a utility knife to score. Gouging the drywall creates divots that you will need to fill with joint compound later. Light, even pressure with the scoring tool creates enough perforations for the solution to penetrate. The goal is to perforate the wallpaper face, not to cut through to the wall behind it.

Removal Method 1: Chemical Stripper

Mix wallpaper stripper concentrate with hot water in a pump sprayer according to the label ratio. DIF (by Zinsser) and Piranha are the two most widely available brands at Home Depot and Lowe's. A 22-ounce bottle of DIF concentrate costs about $10 and makes enough solution for a full room. Hot water (not boiling, just hot from the tap) works significantly faster than room-temperature water because heat softens adhesive.

Spray a manageable section, roughly one wall or a 4x8-foot area, and let the solution soak for 5 to 15 minutes. Do not spray the entire room at once. The solution starts to dry before you can get to it, and you will need to re-spray areas that dried. Work in sections and keep each section wet.

Start scraping from a seam or a loosened corner with a wide (6-inch) putty knife or a dedicated wallpaper scraper. Hold the blade at a low angle, nearly flat against the wall, to avoid gouging. The paper should come off in strips with the adhesive attached. If the paper resists, spray more solution and wait another 5 minutes. Rushing the soak time means harder scraping and more wall damage.

Fabric softener mixed with hot water (one cup per gallon) works as a budget alternative to commercial strippers. The surfactants in the fabric softener dissolve wallpaper paste reasonably well. It costs about $3 per room versus $10 for commercial stripper. The tradeoff is that it works more slowly and may require a second application on stubborn adhesive.

Removal Method 2: Steamer

A wallpaper steamer uses an electric heating element to boil water in a tank, producing steam that is delivered through a hose to a flat plate you press against the wall. The steam softens the adhesive through heat and moisture simultaneously, which is more effective than chemical solution alone on heavy paper and multiple layers. Rent a steamer from a hardware store for about $30 per day. Wagner and Earlex are common rental brands. Buying one outright costs $50 to $80 if you have multiple rooms or plan to help friends with their wallpaper.

Hold the steam plate against one section of wall for 15 to 30 seconds, then slide it to the adjacent section while you scrape the softened area with your other hand. Develop a rhythm: steam, move, scrape, steam, move, scrape. The key is to keep moving. Over-steaming one area saturates the drywall with moisture, which softens the gypsum core and can cause the drywall paper to delaminate.

Steamers work faster than chemical strippers on heavy, multi-layer wallpaper and on traditional pasted paper that resists chemical soaking. The downsides: the steam plate is hot enough to cause burns if it contacts skin, the moisture saturates drywall faster than spray solution does, and the room becomes uncomfortably humid within 20 minutes of steaming. Open windows or run a fan for ventilation.

Steamers are the better choice for plaster walls (common in pre-1950s homes), which handle moisture much better than drywall. For drywall, chemical strippers are generally gentler on the wall surface. Use a steamer on drywall only when chemical stripping is not getting the paper off, and move the steam plate frequently to avoid over-saturating any single area.

Cleaning the Walls After Removal

After all wallpaper is off, adhesive residue remains on the wall. It looks slightly shiny or feels tacky when you run your hand across the surface. This residue is invisible under certain lighting but will cause paint to peel within months if not removed. Do not skip this step.

Wash the walls with hot water and a large sponge, wringing frequently into a bucket. Change the water in the bucket when it gets cloudy with dissolved paste. For stubborn adhesive that does not wash off with water alone, spray more stripper solution onto the residue and scrub with a nylon scrubbing pad (not a metal one, which will gouge the drywall). Rinse with clean water after scrubbing.

Let the walls dry completely before any repairs or priming. At minimum, wait 24 to 48 hours in a well-ventilated room. If you used a steamer, the walls absorbed significant moisture and may need 48 to 72 hours to dry fully. Run a dehumidifier or box fans to speed the drying process. Applying primer or joint compound to a damp wall traps moisture and causes bubbling and adhesion failure.

Repairing the Wall for Paint

Inspect every wall for gouges, torn drywall paper, and lifted seams at drywall joints. Wallpaper removal exposes every imperfection in the wall surface, many of which were hidden by the paper for years. Apply premixed lightweight joint compound (a box of USG Plus 3 or DAP DryDex costs $8 to $15 at any home center) with a 6-inch joint compound knife. Spread thin coats and feather the edges. Two thin coats with light sanding between coats produce a smoother result than one thick coat, which shrinks and cracks as it dries.

If large areas of drywall face paper are torn (which happens with wallpaper removed from unprimed walls), apply a coat of oil-based primer such as Zinsser BIN or Kilz Original before skim coating. The primer seals the torn paper fibers and prevents the joint compound from bubbling and lifting the damaged paper further. Water-based primers do not seal damaged drywall paper effectively because the water reactivates the torn fibers. Oil-based primer costs $15 to $25 per quart and is worth every dollar on damaged walls.

Sand all repaired areas with 150-grit sandpaper or a sanding sponge. A sanding sponge conforms to slight wall contours and reduces the risk of sanding through the repair into the surrounding surface. Prime the entire wall with a quality latex primer (Benjamin Moore Fresh Start or Sherwin-Williams PrimeRx are solid choices) before painting. The wall texture after wallpaper removal will never be perfectly smooth in side-lighting, but the primer and paint fill minor imperfections and create a uniform surface for the finish coat.

Tools for Wallpaper Removal

The scoring and removal tools: a Paper Tiger scoring tool ($8 to $12), a pump sprayer for stripper solution ($10 to $15), and a 6-inch broad knife or dedicated wallpaper scraper with a flexible blade (a flexible blade works better than a stiff putty knife for this task because it follows the wall contour without gouging). Drop cloths, plastic sheeting, and painter's tape protect the room. A bucket and large sponges handle paste cleanup. A spray bottle of warm water is useful for keeping small sections wet while scraping.

For wall repair after removal: a 6-inch and a 10-inch joint compound knife, premixed lightweight joint compound, 150-grit sandpaper or a sanding sponge, and oil-based primer for any areas where the drywall paper is torn. If you are repairing more than a few small areas, a drywall repair kit with mesh tape and setting compound may also be needed for cracked joints exposed during removal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Paint Over Wallpaper Instead of Removing It?

Technically yes, but the results show. Seams, texture patterns, and bubbles telegraph through paint. The seams are especially visible in rooms with side-lighting from windows. If you cannot remove the wallpaper (typically because it is glued to unprimed drywall and removal will destroy the surface), the better approach is to skim coat over the wallpaper with joint compound, sand smooth, prime with oil-based primer, and then paint. This is more work than removal from primed walls but preserves the drywall underneath.

How Long Does Wallpaper Removal Take?

A 12x12 room with strippable vinyl wallpaper: 2 to 3 hours including cleanup. The same room with peelable paper (top layer peels, backing needs soaking): 4 to 6 hours. The same room with traditional pasted paper over primed walls: 6 to 8 hours. The same room with paper glued to unprimed drywall: 8 or more hours including wall repair. Multiple layers of wallpaper multiply the time for each layer. A room with three layers of paper can take two full days.

What if There Are Multiple Layers of Wallpaper?

Remove one layer at a time, starting from the outermost (topmost) layer. Each layer needs separate scoring, soaking, and scraping. Resist the urge to rip through all layers at once because the lower layers anchor the upper layers, and forcing them off together tears the wall surface. Two layers roughly doubles the time. Three layers or more and you should seriously consider either skim coating over the wallpaper or replacing the drywall entirely, both of which may be faster and produce a better surface than painstaking multi-layer removal.

Related Reading

• Drywall Repair Guide
• First-Time Homeowner Toolkit
• Painting a Room Tools
• Sanding Grit Progression