wallpaper

[chauncey]

Having one hell of a time removing old wallpaper!! There are four layers, we have tried a product called "Mr Stripper", that worked fine on one room but does not seem to do the job on this room. Any help would be fine. Thanks

[mrcaptainbob]

There's a neat tool that helps that MR. Stripper along. It's like a small paint roller with pins on it to poke small holes in the paper. That will allow the stripper to get behind the paper to soften the glue. Don't use a razor knife or any other scoring tool. Too much of a chance of scaring the wall beneath. Refinishing the scars is necessary before painting, then. You could also rent the steam wall paper remover. That works quite well on most wall paper except the foils. The downside to that is it's really messy.

[chauncey]

yeah I already bought and used the pussie scratcher but it still doesnt seem to work. We have been at it for three nights and barely have one wall done. It is getting to me.. thinking i may try my hand at skim coat. I was told by the paint and paper guy that because our house is so old (circa 1780) that some of the wall paper may be held in place with water and flour, which the Mr Stripper does not react with.

Well back to the grind

[mrcaptainbob]

1780!!????? Yikes! That's even before MY time! Our place is about 1860. But the entire inside's been refurbished. Still needs work, but nothing like what you're describing. Four layers of wall paper is bad in any situation. But if it's stuck like the paperman said, maybe the steam remover and wide blade putty knife is the only way!

[chauncey]

we are still having a no good time of things. We are gonna try our hand at skim coating, tries one wall with moderate success. Hop to improve as things progress. I think that may be our best bet as we move from room to room. I will start upstairs and hope to get good by the time we are in the main living area. I will keep you posted

[chauncey]

just a little side note. After the long strugle, we found a local place that rented a steam stripper and in 4 hours had two rooms done.
For 20 $ a night it was a sweet deal

thanks for any help
jonathan

[mrcaptainbob]

Two rooms in four hours is real good timing. And for only 20 bucks! We had a heck of a bad time with a steam remover at our last house. Either it wasn't working right, We didn't know how to operate it, or that was some dang tenacious paper! Took four hours just for the one wall in one room! Terrible experience. Glad you met with such success!