A-Z of DIY & Building Guides How To Strip Wallpaper

Date Published:

01/06/2009

Contributed By

George Clarke

You can do this job without a steam stripper using a sponge and a bucket of warm water - but why would you? It will help you peel off stubborn painted wallpaper, without making scratch marks on the wall, in a fraction of the time.

Time required: Allow a weekend for stripping and preparing a 4m sq room

Cost: Wallpaper steam strippers cost from about £20 for a weekend's hire. Hire shop models have a bigger water reservoir and faster action than DIY tools. Try HSS

Skill level: It's a messy but satisfying job - and you needn't have any DIY experience to do it successfully

You'll need: Rubber gloves; goggles; steam stripper; sponge; scraper, perforation tool; rubbish bags; dust sheets; plaster filler and filler knife; abrasive paper; stepladder

Step One

Open windows and doors and move furniture away from the walls so that you can work easily. Spread dust sheets around the wall you plan to strip first. Don’t use plastic sheets on the floor as the steam will make them slippery and dangerous.

Fill the steam stripper with water (from the hot tap to speed up the warming up time) and allow it to reach the right temperature while you score the old paper with the perforator. Read all the safety instructions provided with the steam stripper and wear goggles and gloves. Take care to keep the steam pad away from electrical sockets and switches. Work across the wall but don’t press too hard or you will damage the plasterwork.