How to remove old wallpapers easily and easily

Redecorating rooms in an apartment almost always involves replacing the coating on the walls. And most often, people choose wallpaper as a building material, especially since today's market offers dozens of different options. But before you give the room a completely new look, you need to correctly resolve the issue of how to remove old wallpapers, and is there a need for their complete removal.

The process of removing old wallpaper with a spatula

Why is it necessary to delete old wallpapers

How the new wallpaper will look on the walls of the room depends on how well you spend the preparatory phase before the main repair. If you want that the coating of your walls and ceiling looked perfect and did not require removal after two or three years, then the most important thing to do is to remove the layer of old wallpaper. This is necessary for several reasons:

  • Sticking new wallpapers on top of old ones will lead to the fact that in some places bubbles and irregularities will inevitably appear.
  • Perhaps the appearance of old spots from the walls and ceiling on a new coating.
  • Dust and various pathogens always accumulate in the old finishing material. Repair on the one hand is not only an improvement in the appearance of the home, but also getting rid of pathogens.

Be sure to remove the coating from the ceiling and walls is necessary when mold begins to multiply on the surfaces. In such situations, in addition to simple cleaning, a special disinfection will be required aimed at the complete destruction of the spores of the fungus.

In the event that repairs are planned throughout the apartment, it is best to first remove all layers of wallpaper and only then proceed with gluing new material. A lot of methods are used to clean the walls of wallpaper and among them there are those that, without extra effort and professional skills, will decide how to remove old paper wallpapers. The choice of method depends on which wallpaper was pasted on the surface - non-woven, washable, vinyl or the simplest paper. It is also necessary to consider why you have to remove the old finishing material - from concrete, wooden walls or from drywall.

Removing old wallpaper with a narrow spatula

What tools will be needed when deleting wallpaper

If you are thinking about how to quickly remove the old wallpaper, then you should prepare everything that may be required before the main work. The process of removing old finishing material will be simplified using:

  • Spatulas. It is best to take a narrow one for hard-to-reach places, and a wide one for removing large pieces of old material at once.
  • Needle roller. With the help of such a device, perforated holes are applied to dense vinyl or non-woven wallpaper, which facilitates the ingress of water and their unlocking.
  • Warm water. In some stores you can meet a special tool designed to soften paper material. But it’s easier and cheaper to use ordinary water with soap or a small amount of powder.
  • Sponge, roller or spray gun.
  • Steam generator.
  • Knives, metal sponges, with their help, effortlessly remove wallpaper from those places on the ceiling and walls where the material is glued very firmly.
  • Polyethylene or newspapers.
  • Stairs or stepladders.

If you want to do everything right and quickly, first of all, the renovated room needs to be fully prepared. To do this, furniture, floors, windows are covered with film or newspapers, which will reduce the amount of dust on them and facilitate cleaning. It is better to seal the sockets with masking tape, this will reduce the risk of water entering, which can drain from the ceiling or walls during their wetting.

In the process of preparation, you need to think not only about how easy it is to remove old wallpapers, but also about personal safety. It is good if you normally tolerate dust and inhalation of various chemical solutions. But some people may react to dust and smell with a coughing fit or shortness of breath. This will not happen if you use special respirators and periodically ventilate the room. Before you start to moisten and remove the finishing material, the apartment must be de-energized for a while.

Wallpaper sponge

Remove Vinyl Wallpaper

It is believed that the easiest way to remove vinyl wallpaper from surfaces. Their top layer is firmly adhered to the substrate and therefore, if everything is prepared correctly for their removal, the material from the walls or ceiling will immediately descend in large pieces. Vinyl wallpapers are removed in compliance with several rules:

  • First, you need to go over the entire surface with wallpaper with a needle roller. If it is not at hand, then a lot of cuts and notches are made on the material with a knife.
  • Then the vinyl wallpaper is well wetted with a sponge or paint roller.
  • After 20-30 minutes, you can proceed directly to the removal of wallpaper.
  • Vinyl wallpapers are easily removed if you cut them near the ceiling with a knife and then pull the canvas down.
  • Most often, only the top vinyl layer is immediately removed, so the remaining paper material is wetted and scraped off after it is soaked.

Sometimes vinyl wallpapers consist of several layers, in such cases they will have to be removed in stages. If the bottom paper base holds firmly, does not lag behind the walls, and the surfaces themselves are all flat and have no signs of fungus, then you can not touch the last layer. Naturally, vinyl or any other wallpaper will have to be completely removed if you plan to plaster or paint the surfaces.

Wallpaper Roller

Remove non-woven wallpaper

Non-woven wallpaper is characterized by increased strength, so it is not always possible to remove them from the walls with just ordinary water and a spatula. The surface of the non-woven roll material is represented by a synthetic material through which moisture does not penetrate. So that water gets into the lower layers, it is necessary to process the surface of the wallpaper with a needle roller. For applying water to non-woven wallpaper, it is best to use a spray gun - under pressure, the liquid penetrates to the base more easily.

If necessary, special washes are used, they can also be applied both to walls and to the ceiling. Washings quickly destroy the glue, and the finishing material easily moves away from the surface. Non-woven wallpaper has one important advantage - their lower layer strengthens the plaster well, so if it is well preserved, then you can not remove it.

The steam generator facilitates the process of removing old wallpapers from the places where they are glued especially firmly. If with this appliance or steam iron to treat the most tenacious connection, the material will easily soften and it can be removed without problems.

Removing non-woven wallpaper using a steam generator

Remove washable wallpaper

Washable wallpapers were originally designed with moisture resistance in mind. Therefore, the usual treatment of walls with water when removing washable wallpaper may not give a result. You can use chemicals or pre-apply perforation to the material. It is necessary to ensure that water or a special liquid gets into the base of the material and then the washing wallpaper can be easily removed with a spatula.

How to clean drywall

How to quickly remove old wallpaper from drywall? Cleaning this material is no easy task.This is due to the fact that the top layer of drywall when soaking the wallpaper can also swell and come off. To avoid this, you should use only special washes that dissolve only the adhesive base, without affecting the main material of the walls.

Carefully, when cleaning drywall, you should also use a putty knife, as with careless movements you can damage the material, and this is fraught with the appearance of noticeable defects. Before stickering new wallpapers, it is desirable to plaster drywall, this will allow us to use water safely during the next repair in the future.

Removing old wallpaper with a narrow spatula

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