Removing Wallpaper

GreeBo

Hey,
Im removing wallpaper in my kitchen/dining room at the moment.
It was all going quite well for a while, mostly coming off very easily, the odd bit of skimcoat coming away but then we met a different beast.
Its literally coming off in dribs and drabs, either leaving half of itself or taking away skim and the plasterboard cover...and thats with a steamer...
Whats the story?
Was the wall not primed maybe?
What can I do about it?
The wall is seriously uneven now...bumpy and plasterboard paper peeling everywhere....I dont think I can repaper over it...does it need to be skimmed?

Thanks!

muffler

I had the same problem several years ago and I was using the steamer too. I think the steamer is the problem in these situations.

I was half way through with the stripping when I realised that I was going to have to get parts of the wall skimmed again anyhow so I just went at the rest of it like a bull in a china shop.

You are going to have to get someone to skim it for you now in any event so you may as well plough on.

dubtom

I find it's best to use warm soapy water for removing wallpaper, scour the wall and soak well,leave for 5 minutes or so and soak again. It should peel off no problem, if the wall has several layers soak well for every layer.If the wall isn't too bad in the parts you have done you can stick lining paper horizontally across the wall before papering.If you are going to repaper I think it's wasted money to skim, apply pollifilla to bad area's.

GreeBo

chunks out of the wall I dont mind, I can fill them no bother
We are ending up with a messy, pealing plasterboard surface that Im pretty sure will need a skim to cover it up.
Even lining paper has to show up the difference in levels....
Any ideas why some walls are easy and some are a nightmare, in the same damn room!

At this point Im nearly thinking feck, it rip it out and put in new plasterboard sheets, they arent that expensive!

Wertz

Are you having problems on exterior walls or internal walls (ie stud partitions or similar dividing walls)?

What age is the house?

I never use steamers for the reasons given above....scoring tool and either cold water with a little detergent or DIF enzyme if it's welded on...

Builderwoman!

Make up a packet of wallpaper paste but make it really really watery..running consistency and paint it on over the stubborn bits. Leave to soak for a while and then come back with a good wide paint scraper and it should lift off no problem! Try it and let us know what happens. Worked for us in an old house!

GreeBo

Wertz wrote:

Are you having problems on exterior walls or internal walls (ie stud partitions or similar dividing walls)?

What age is the house?

I never use steamers for the reasons given above....scoring tool and either cold water with a little detergent or DIF enzyme if it's welded on...

Well we started on an exterior wall and it came off fine, literally once you lifted it it all peeled away, however on the adjoining external wall its a knightmare...
House is ~ 15 years old, though I think it was "redocorated" about 3 years ago, but I dunno if they just painted the paper or what.

There was a leak in the bathroom above this wall and it looks like a fair amount of water was leaking down this wall, could that cause these problems?

As I said earlier, I dont think polyfilla can fix this, its needs a skim coat as far as I can see, I'll take a pic later when I get home.

Wertz

I'm stumped....I don't know of any reason why there'd be a difference if both walls are external.
Would the paper have been applied directly onto either raw plaster board or un-sized skimcoat? Is there a radiator on that wall?
The paperer may have had adhesion problmes with the wall and used a mixture of PVA and paste to make the paper stick....this can be a bugger to shift.

The leak MAY have something to do with it....perhaps the moisture may have leeched lime from the scratchcoat out through the skim and destablised it, meaning the skim would come awayeasier especially with steam applied.

I'd strongly suggest zinsser DIF enzyme and a scoring tool if you're having real prblmes with the remaining paper....although if it the PVA thing then even DIF won't do much good.

Looks liek you may need a plasterer