by simaljon »
Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:52 pm
I am in the process of removing the same in our newly bought (old) house. We thought about skimming but the cost put us off. So I decided to take it off with a steamer but soon discovered that this merley melted the paint into a mass of stringy pizza cheese mess!
The answer lay in a method that requires the glue being soaked off slowly (in one case overnight).
How to do it:
1. Score the paper in a noughts and crosses pattern across all the surface, making sure that you don't go through to dammage the wall. I used a paper scorer from B&Q but a craft knife or even a pizza wheel will do. It just needs to break through the paint and into the paper.
2. Wet the paper with a mixture of hot water and washing up liquid. Mixture is about 3 tablespoons to 5 ltrs. The best way to put it on is using one of the garden spray bottles which pressurise with a pump handle on the top. Make sure the paper is wet all over.
3. The clever bit. You now need to cover the wet paper with a pre soaked (in a bucket of the same solution to wet the walls) covering like a lightweight cotton sheet or the thin white closeknit fibrematting (used to keep the frost off your veggies) available form garden stores. Make sure you press out any airbubbles so it is in contact with the paper all over.
Why? Because this locks in the moisture and allows the soap solution to start softening the clue. Make sure the covering stays wet by extra spraying.
4. Leave for an hour and then test peel/scrape the paper off. If it doesn't come off cleanly leave it on a bit more.
Our most stubborn woodchip had been painted with gloss and required an overnight soak. However, in the morning after a quick respray to wet and another hour to soak the paper came off no problem. The other benefit was that the plaster underneath was totally scratch free.
This is a long method that requires patience. We haven't tried it on the ceilings but it sure works on the walls.
