Wallpaper removal

Protecting the room during removal

Stripping is wet, messy work. Floors are covered with absorbent sheets over a waterproof layer, skirting boards and frames are protected from scrapers, and soaked paper is bagged as it comes off rather than left to be trodden through the house. Rooms are ventilated so steam and moisture can escape, and walls are left to dry before any filling or priming begins, which avoids trapping damp beneath the new finish.

Why strip rather than paint over

Painting over wallpaper can look acceptable at first, but water-based paint can soften the paste and lift seams or create bubbles. Textured, vinyl and embossed papers show through any new finish. Where paper is already loose at the joints, damp or stained, wallpaper stripping is the more reliable route to a finish that lasts.

Some walls are better left papered. Lining paper over poor plaster may be holding a fragile surface together. If removing it would damage the wall more than it helps, a sound lining can be repaired and painted instead. Assessing the paper and the wall first avoids making extra plaster work.

How wallpaper stripping is done

Furniture is moved or covered, floors protected and sockets and switches isolated where water and steam are used. Vinyl papers often have a plastic face that peels away dry, leaving a backing layer to soak and scrape. Other papers are scored lightly and soaked or steamed so the paste softens and the paper lifts with a scraper.

Painted-over paper and several layers built up over decades take longest, because water struggles to get through. Steam must be used carefully on plasterboard, which is easily damaged if the paper face gets too wet. Each wall is worked in sections so the paste is softened without saturating the plaster.

What is often found underneath

Wallpaper can hide cracks, blown plaster, old filler, previous damp or bare plasterboard joints that were never properly finished. Once the walls are stripped they are washed to remove paste residue, which would otherwise interfere with paint and cause cracking or poor adhesion.

Minor cracks and dents are filled and sanded. Loose or hollow plaster needs cutting back and repair. Bare plaster and plasterboard are sealed with a suitable primer. On walls that remain uneven, lining paper can give a smoother base before painting or repapering.

Domestic and commercial strip-out

In homes, wallpaper removal is commonly part of a room or whole-house redecoration, where old patterns, stained papers or tired woodchip are being replaced. In commercial interiors, such as offices, hotel rooms and retail spaces, it is often part of a refurbishment or tenant change, and the strip-out may need phasing so areas remain in use, with waste removed daily.

Commercial wallcoverings are frequently heavy-duty vinyls hung on strong adhesive. They can be quicker to peel than domestic papers, but the backing and adhesive left behind still need removing and the wall preparing before the new finish goes on.

Time, cost and planning the next finish

Time depends on the type of paper, the number of layers, whether it has been painted over and the condition of the plaster revealed. A single room with one layer of easy-strip paper is a very different job from a stairwell with several painted layers. Scaffolding or towers may be needed for stairwells and high walls.

Decide on the finish before stripping starts. Walls that are being repapered can tolerate slightly different preparation to walls that will be painted in a flat emulsion, which shows every flaw. If new paper is planned, the removal and hanging can be programmed together so the walls are prepared once.