Stripping wallpaper myself Vs Hiring someone

ahfh1

Hi,

I'm looking to strip wallpaper in every room in a 3 bedroom semi (all bedrooms, living room, dining room, landing and hallway).

It will cost me £40 to buy a steam wallpaper stripper if I want to do it myself. How long will this normally take for someone with very basic DIY skills?

Alternatively, if I hire someone to do it, how much will they normally charge?

Just need to weigh out the costs.

Cheers

macman

You don't need much DIY skill to use a steam stripper. They'll charge you a lot more than £40 to do a whole house. You'd get youe money back in half a day. All depends how much you rate your own time at.
Just make sure you don't over saturate the plaster, as if it is old this is liable to loosen it.

wallbash

This is a job for you to do , buy the steamer and get on with it:D

suisidevw

Absolutely. Easiest DIY job going. Scour the wall with the stripper first to get the steam all over the shop.

Invite some pals around, provide some lunch and get working! I'm sure many of your friends will have them as well, I know at least 5 of ours do!

blue_monkey_2

We inherited a house full of chip paper, after getting hacked off with trying the steamer on the wall we scored the paper all over and left the steamer running in the room for 20-30 mins while we had a cup of tea and went back in after, the steam had got under the paper and it has loosened it and it came off really easily. Any stubbon bits we put the steamer on the wall and it came off easily then.

ahfh1

Will the steamer still work if the wallpaper has had a thick layer of paint over it? I'm afraid the steamer might not be able to penetrate through the layer of paint.

Ta

wallbash

we scored the paper all over

As posted earlier.
You can buy very cheaply gadgets to 'score'

But I would just use a stanley knife

Dick_here

You might want to get somebody in if it turns out there are a few layers of paper on top of each other, otherwise it may take a lot longer diy-ing it than you'd imagine.

fiddiwebb

I have the dreaded woodchip paper on old plaster & lathe ceilings, have been putting it off as I am not totally sure how good a condition the old ceilings are and don't want a nightmare situation if using a steamer of the plaster blowing and falling off :eek:

daveyjp

Even easier than steaming, epsecially if you have whole rooms to do as appears to be the case. Score the surface then brush liberally with water containing washing up liquid. Paint this on all the walls. Once you have finished a room start again with the solution. Do this three or four times and it should start peeling off.

The washing up liquid stops it drying too quickly.

TotallyBroke

Don't buy the stripper. I picked mine up from freecycle.
Just do be careful that you don't blow the plaster, I like the idea from the previous poster about letting the steamer steam the whole room.

You can also buy wallpaper stripper solutions very cheaply in Wilkinsons I think