Stripping Wallpaper

**monkeywrangler71** · 08-29-2010, 05:59 PM

Does anyone has a technique that doesn't make you feel like your arms are going to fall off?! I've been scraping all week, and boy am I sore!

We normally mix up a bucket of water and stripper, then slosh it on with a rag, scrape, slosh, scrape, slosh. It makes a wicked awful mess, the bits you scrape off end up cemented to the floor.

Yesterday afternoon it suddenly occurred to me that a squirt bottle in one hand and the scraper in the other would be so much easier and less messy. Of course I only had one corner of one wall left when I had this revelation.

I tore down some of the ugliest wallpaper I'd ever seen - guess what I found under it?? Uglier wallpaper!

**BeachBaby** · 08-29-2010, 06:43 PM

I used fantastic sprayed it on the wallpaper soaking it and leaving it for a couple minutes and then it just peeled off. It was super easy. The fantastic actually worked better and faster than the stripper did. We ran out of stripper, that's why I tried fantastic and did the rest of the house with it instead of stripper.

**monkeywrangler71** · 08-29-2010, 06:46 PM

I don't know if the stripper has anything special in it, I've used fabric softener instead and it worked just as well.

**Momto5RN** · 08-29-2010, 06:53 PM

i have used one of those rolly things that put little holes in it
then sprayed on fabric softener watered down works fairly well .

last time i had dh and the older 3 kids get some 12" wall border off due to my fibro i couldnt keep my arms up above my head long enough to do much work on it

**Momto5RN** · 08-29-2010, 06:54 PM

aha just remembered the name of the little rolly thing - i think its called a scoring tool

**sjohnson3278** · 08-29-2010, 07:38 PM

I heard that mixing water and fabric softner is suppose to do the trick but I have never tried it. Good luck though...it sounds like it's a hard job.

**frugalfoster** · 08-29-2010, 08:13 PM

Warm water and fabric softener.... you can always rent a steamer..they work pretty well too...but no matter what you use, you'll need those arm muscles!! lol

**frugalfranny** · 08-29-2010, 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by BeachBaby

I used fantastic sprayed it on the wallpaper soaking it and leaving it for a couple minutes and then it just peeled off. It was super easy. The fantastic actually worked better and faster than the stripper did. We ran out of stripper, that's why I tried fantastic and did the rest of the house with it instead of stripper.

Thanks.........I will be trying this during the winter. I have some in my kitchen to remove....above the cupboards.

Let us know what you try that works really good, MW71---sounds like you will be removing for awhile! how many layers are on the wall?