How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

DH and i are going to try to save some money and remove a some wallpaper and and paneling. i don't even know where to begin as far as how to and what to use to remove the wallpaper. it is a small area and half of it is already peeling so i am hoping it's not gonna be that hard to do. also, not too sure about the paneling, that is only one small wall

any ideas? what do i use to remove the wallpaper?

TIA

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

When I helped with my sisters house (with wallpaper), we were able to just put it off, but it left all the glue on of course. There's this blue'ish spray that you use to spray on the walls and then wipe the glue off. It worked pretty well, but definitely gets very messy and does become alot of work if you're doing a large area.
My sister and I did the whole dining room, living room and hallway (hi-ranch) and it turned out great.

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

I took off my wallpaper a few months ago. Basically I peeled off the top layer and the paper/glue layer was left I just sprayed water and used a spackle knife to scrap it and it came right off. That thing that they sell that scores the paper is a waste and the blue gel isn't all that great either.

Paneling is usually just nailed up. If they used any type of glue I don't know about getting that down.

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

We removed an entire house of wallpaper last year. The best thing we found was DIF in the bottle. They say to scour the wall first, but we found that if it was papery wallpaper, that spraying the wall and soaking it, then spreading the DIF with a sponge, leaving it for 5 minutes and scraping it off helped immensely. I'd consider myself an expert wallpaper remover at this point (yes, EVERY room in our house had to have it removed!), so if you have any questions, let me know. As for the paneling, the two rooms we have paneling in I just primed and painted it and it looks nice, actually! You just want to be careful because you never know what's behind the paneling. Good luck!

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

Sometimes you need to weigh if it will be easier to just tear the wall down and put up new sheetrock. It isn't always, but sometimes there is either so many layers, or the glue is so bonded to the wall that you wind up taking the sheetrock along with the paper.

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

Wallpaper isn't too bad IF it's only one layer. My friends bought a house where there was 4 LAYERS OF WALLPAPER!! And it was all glued on. Yikes. They wound up just getting new sheetrock.

We had paneling in our living room and guest bedroom. We replaced the sheetrock in the living room. But we opted to paint it in the bedroom, and it made the room look 1000% better.

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

I helped a friend of mine remover a wall paper border in her bathroom. We actually used Krud Kutter (found at Lowe's)

If it's a really small area, try this. We just sprayed it on and it peeled right off, also took the glue off.

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

Try Zif to help remove wallpaper. My friend used Febreeze and just sprayed it on and it helped in removing the paper.

Good luck! DH and I were going to do this ourselves and we decided to hire a painter.

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

I had to do this, such a PITA. I used the DIF, but that didn't work. I used a steamer and scored the paper-this made it more difficult.

I found if I just wet the wall paper-like saturated it with a wet paper towel, then used a spackle knife to scrape it and the glue off, it came off in sheets.

I've also heard using a spray bottle with water and vinegar works, but I only heard that after I did all this other work.

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

DIF!!!! it works!

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

we did our kitchen and sunroom recently. it was a pain but not terrible.. we peeled the top layer off (i liked to wet it even though DH told me it didnt matter - whatever haha) then sprayed the bottom layer with warm water and hair conditioner ( i bought VO5 - $1.00!) then scraped it off

but after we had so much spakling and sanding... ughhh.. i hate sanding. but our walls in the room werent primed or anything before they put wallpaper on it and our kitchen was plaster. DH wanted it perfect so he spent a lot of time sanding


i dont think paneling is a big deal. DH started taking it down in our basement its just nailed to the studs. its just alot of garbage to throw out

Message edited 3/26/2009 6:31:19 PM.

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

thank you to everyone for your tips!!
i bought the DIF tonight and also bought vingear. my friend has a steamer and she is going to bring that over as well.

i will let you all know how it goes, thanks again

Re: How hard is it to remove wallpaper and paneling?

we have taken down all sorts and all ages of wallpaper.

age makes a huge difference - they now make glue that is easier to take off.


If it's new - it's easy - someone mentioned - pull the paper off and then with hot water (works just as well as DIF) and a spatula (I find the plastic dry wall ones do less damage to the walls) you can scrape off the paper and glue.



If it's old...no amount of DIF will help...you need the steamer. If you can borrow one that's great - I rented from HD and it was well worth the time it saved