Time and patience are the key ingredients to removing wallpaper from plasterboard, especially when the plasterboard was not primed or painted before the wallpaper was installed. If you are not careful, not only will you remove the wallpaper, but you'll take part of the plasterboard with it. Damaged walls can be repaired, so there is no need to worry if you do happen to tear the drywall paper. Use the available tools and removal products, and take your time. By taking your time, you will cause less damage, and not end up with more work than you bargained for.
Instructions
Removing Wallpaper with Wallpaper Removal Products
1. Hold the wallpaper scorer so the spiked wheels are touching the wall. Push the scorer across the entire wall. Apply enough pressure to puncture holes in the wallpaper, but not so much pressure that you also end up puncturing holes in the plasterboard. Repeat this process on each wall.
2. Place dropcloths on the floor underneath one wall, and saturate the wall with the wallpaper removal product. Allow the product to sit on the wall for the amount of time recommended by the manufacturer. The wallpaper removal product will soften the wallpaper adhesive, allowing you to remove the wallpaper.
3. Lift a loose edge of the wallpaper, or use a thin-blade putty knife to lift the edge of a seam. Slowly begin to pull the wallpaper to remove it. The wallpaper is not likely to come off in entire sheets, so continuously repeat the process of lifting an edge, and pulling on the paper. You may end up removing the paper and leaving the backing behind. This is because some wallpaper is considered strippable.
4. Fill the spray bottle with hot water, and saturate the backing left behind. The hot water will soften the glue and allow you to scrape the wallpaper backing off the wall with a scraper.
5. Saturate the remaining walls, one at a time, with the wallpaper removal product. Allow the product to sit on the walls, and use the same techniques to remove the wallpaper.
Using a Wallpaper Steamer
6. Fill the wallpaper steamer with water; connect the hose to the steamer, and the steam plate to the hose. Plug the steamer in and allow it to heat up. The steamer is ready to use when steam is coming out of the steam plate.
7. Hold the steam plate flat to the wall. Start on an upper or lower corner of the wall. Hold the steam plate for at least 60 seconds in the same spot and slide the steam plate over to another spot next to the one you just steamed. Repeat until you have steamed a 3-by-3-foot area.
8. Create an edge you can grab, using the wallpaper scraper or putty knife. Pull the wallpaper off slowly.
9. Saturate remaining wallpaper backing with hot water to soften the adhesive if it did not come loose with the steamer. Scrape the backing off the wall with the wallpaper scraper or putty knife.
10. Repeat each step until you have removed all of the wallpaper.
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