woodchip wallpaper

pizzaboy

Hi all
I there any easier way of removing woodchip wallpaper from a kitchen ceiling than soaking it with water and elbow grease:D

Fizog

Yes there is. Borrow a wallpaper steamer from someone. Make its soooo much easier. i would be a bit suspect that the woodchip is covering up crummy plaster, all the flats I've been in the plaster came away with the woodchip!!

greyteam1959

If you score the wallpaper lightly with something before you wet it with water this lets the water thro the layers of paint to actually soften the adhesive that the paper was stuck on with. Wet it and leave it maybe 10 minutes.
Should come off fairly easily.
Or go down the expensive route and hire a steam stripper.

pizzaboy

Thanks for,the replys.

It has been on for number of years by the looks of it,but the plaster seems to be ok underneath..it was on every wall and ceiling in my house at one point..bloody awfull stuff:D

misgrace

If its been on for years, then sometimes if your lucky you can get your scraper under a piece and a whole strip can come away, specially if its really dry and hard.
Failing that,do big crisscrosses (spelling dont seem right)and soak with very hot soapy water, do this about 3 times, and it should come off okay.
If its old matt paint it will be easier to get off, if its silk,:eek: hire or buy a steamer.

siocledpoeth

a friend recently mentioned that they had filled the room with steam (hired steamer i think), closed the door and left it running for 15-20 mins after scoring the paper and it peeled off easily. don't know if it works - all my walls are painted, but good luck

Mushy61

When I moved into my house over 15 years ago, every room had woodchip wallpaper :mad:

After hours of struggling with a scraper, I did exactly what siocledpoeth suggested and left a steam stripper running for a period of time, it certainly did the trick.

misgrace

Not only does it make the paper easier to come off, using a steam stripper is great for the skin as well.:D

Peartree

Hiring a steamer, IMHO, is not expensive when you start factoring in the amount of the valuable time (and frustration) you will save. You can even buy a wallpaper steamer for around £30 at a DIY store. See if someone in your family will split the cost and share it with you, that's what we've done.

Having dealt with a house where there were about ten layers of wallpaper, superglued on the wall with gloss paint between each layer (well that's what it felt like) I wouldn't tackle any wallpaper stripping job without one. Also, it is worth spending a bit of money on a good professional wallpaper scraper.
Before starting, give the paper a really good scoring so the steam can get underneath it.

However, agree that woodchip on the ceiling is probably covering up something you may not wish to deal with - yet to meet a woodchip that wasn't. Do you hate it that much? Amazing what you can live with when the alternative is a plasterer's bill - after losing lumps of wall in my dining room when I stripped it, I suddenly found I could, after all, live with the anaglypta in the hall!

Peartree

gingerdom

Sounds crazy but mix up some wallpaper paste, add in some wallpaper stripper solution, slap it on the wall and leave it for a couple of hours. You'll find that the paste stays wet on the wall long enough to penetrate the wallpaper and so will pull off easily. This method also is safer around the electrics and you're less likely to damage the plaster through over-enthusiastic steaming. Of course don't leave the paste on too long or else ....