Stripping Old Wallpaper?

Question

I'm moving into my fiance's apartment and the building it's in is about 80 years old. The wallpaper is original to the apartment and the wall underneath is horsehair plaster. He's stripped the wallpaper in his room and his roommate's room, but the wallpaper in the rest of the apartment has to go (it is HIDEOUS). He said that when he was stripping his wallpaper it was a nightmare, ripping off in shreds, damaging the wall, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to strip the wallpaper off of these very old walls?

As a sidenote - if anyone could give me some suggestions on how to hang things on walls, that would be great too. He says that ordinary nails break the plaster and won't stay. I haven't tried a 3M product yet, but I don't know if it'll even work.

Thanks so much for your answers!

Answer 1

Paint stores sell a wallpaper scorer which will score the paper enough to allow your solvent ( hot soapy water ) to penetrate, yet not harm the plaster.

Answer 2

I have personal experience with this!  I found that if you sprayed the wallpaper with water (like a mist-sprayer), let it soak in, then spray again and scrape - it came off the plaster "pretty easily". It is TEDIOUS. Get some good music and an elbow brace. Seriously...

As far as hanging things - take some scotch tape - make an "X" on the spot with two pieces of tape. Take a drill, and drill right where you want the s***w. DO NOT NAIL...always use a s***w or drill.

Answer 3

get a sprayer and put water and fabric softner in it and make the water hot spray on and the paper will just peel off, i didnt believe it at first but then i said what the h**l i would try it, i wish i would have done it alot sooner, and besides it smells so good

Answer 4

always try to remove the top layer dry first complete strip top layer then wet the back layer with washing up water

if the front layer does not strip off then soak the whole room with hot soapy water wait 15 minutes then wet it all again giving it time to soak and then it should come off a piece of pee don't wet Little bits and try to get it off it will not work.

try not to get tempted to using a steam stripper as the heat will damage the old walls.

Answer 5

I "scored" one small area at a time, then sprayed water mixed with fabric softener. I pressed in the water unto the paper with a rag. Waited about 15 minutes, peeled of the largest pieces, and wet again. had to use a hair drier for some areas, applying heat seemed to work a little better.

This was definitively not a rush job. If you don't want to damage wall you need to be careful, because all that water will melt the walls of Jericho, but not the wall paper.

Honestly, this was the hardest, well, at least the most tedious job I've ever done, and your arm will feel like Elastic Man's arm...far, far reaching. Get the music going, perhaps a little bit of wine, and some Ben-g*y for your aching arm, but hey, other than that, you'll be fine!

Once you are done, rest assure you will be complimenting yourself for a job well done.