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It is more work than the average homeowner thinks, I have been hired many times into the middle of a half done wallpaper removal job in which the owner started and decided it wasn't something he really wanted to do after all
Know what you are getting into.
I usually don't give exact firm bid prices on wallpaper removal, I will charge time and material on the removal just in case there is a surprise waiting for me. What kind of surprises? I hear you ask.
Wallpaper Removal part 1
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The surprises that sometimes lurk behind the paper
The two most common surprises are: 1) the wall damage surprise, in which you a) can't remove the wallpaper without damaging the drywall underneath because the walls were not sealed properly before hanging the wallpaper (always prime with a wallpaper primer prior to hanging wallpaper), or b) the wallpaper was hung over a badly prepared wall or to cover up a bad looking wall which you will now have to skim coat in total. The other surprise is when the wallpaper is not going to come off easily or at all because a) it was glued on with the wrong glue - vinyl on vinyl, or the wall was not sealed and the paper is permanently attached to the flat latex paint it was applied to. Here you just might have to leave it on the wall.
Dry stripping first
Many wallcoverings will dry strip off the wall leaving behind a paper (or sometimes cloth) backing that will soak off readily. Try to dry strip first before you soak anything or perforate anything. If your wallcovering dry strips, pull off all the outer vinyl and then move on to the gel remover for the backing.
If it doesn't dry strip then move on to the next step and we will soak the whole thing off.
Application: of gel remover
Gel removers are applied with a short or medium nap roller and brush. You basically roll it on as you would paint a wall. The gel is easier to control than the liquid type removers (which I seldom use anymore), this will help to keep it off the floor and your drop cloth on the floor, and if you are careful out of the electrical outlets and other items which you don't want to soak.
Start on a small test patch area first
Pick out a 4' x 4' sample area first to test out your removal on first - don't commit yourself yet to a whole wall until you know what you are up against.
Soak the test area, let it soak for approximately fifteen minutes, then re-soak. After wailing five minutes, test the removal with a 6' spackle knife, carefully push it underneath the wallpaper to remove it. If it is still a bit stiff and resistant. Soak it once more and wait another ten minutes and try again. Probably the most common problem I have when removing wallpaper is being patient and letting the remover do it's job - so really give your test patch time. Once you do remove your test patch area, you will have the routine down for the whole room i.e. how many times you will need to soak and for how long you need to soak, and the best timing for lifting the wallpaper off after the last soak.
Perforating with a perforating tool
If you find that the gel is not penetrating the wallpaper you may have to perforate it in get it to penetrate. Don't just jump to perforating without trying to remove the paper without perforating. If you don't need to perforate, it is a lot of unnecessary work for no reason and there is going to be some wall perforation here and there that will need to be skimmed with spackle. There are jobs that I have had to perforate every room and it does take a lot of extra time, so perforate only if you need to.
Steaming
Steam removal is pretty sure, most wallpaper will steam off even without perforating. Steaming is slow, and will sometimes soften the latex paint under the wallpaper enough that it becomes easy to scratch and damage. Having said that, you can usually remove most vinyl wallcoverings with the steamer. If it comes to perforating I will do a new test patch with perforation and another test patch with the steamer and go with the faster of the two. I will go into steaming off wallpaper in another article.
Steaming off wallpaper
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I will deal with the surprises and how to handle them on another day. Most of the time you won't have to deal with the above problems, and when you know what you are doing, removing wallpaper is really not too big a chore. So let's get started.
Covering Up
Even with the gel type of remover, which is what I use and recommend, there is some mess with soaking off wallpaper. I use plastic backed paper drops for the floor and I secure it with duct tape with is more waterproof than painter's masking tape. I use plastic on everything else with duct tape. Be sure to mask off all electrical outlets with the duct tape including switches, plugs, phone jacks, light fixtures etc... and turn off the electricity to the room.
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