Wallpaper That Just Won’t Peel
Category: Renovating
Many older homes have non-peelable wallpaper that is slightly more difficult and messy to remove. These papers have a water-repellent surface that does not easily separate from its paper backing. For these types of papers you will need to first score the surface of the paper.
There are a couple of options for scoring the paper:
- Use a wallpaper-scoring tool, which is specifically designed to score wallpaper. This tool has notched teeth that perforate and lift the wallpaper as they roll along it. It is sometimes called a paper tiger.
- Utility knives will also work if you gently score the top layer of the paper in a crisscross pattern. If you use a utility knife to score the wallpaper be very careful not to cut the wallboard below the surface of the paper.
- You may also use a very coarse grit sandpaper to score the surface of the paper. Just be sure to do this by hand and not with a power tool.
After you score the surface of the paper so that it is now absorbent, you are ready to start stripping.
Tags: Renovating, Wallpaper
Karen