Stubborn wallpaper paste

bertiewhite

Has anybody got advice on removing years of old wallpaper paste from an Edwardian house please?

I've removed the wallpaper ok using a steam stripper but it's left behind some really stubborn paste. I've tried further steaming and a solution made of detergent, baking soda & vinegar followed by sugar soap and finally a commercial paste remover but nothing seems to touch it. The steaming simply makes the old adhesive more slippery & harder to scrape.

I've managed to remove some patches of adhesive using a really stiff bladed stripping tool but I can't help thinking that it's more to do with the scraping/chipping and nothing to do with the substances I'm using.

Do I just need to persevere or is there something else that will break down the old paste?

NewShadow

I had a conversation with someone earlier this week talking about their experience renovating an old house - he said they came across patches of something that they thought was bomb proof wallpaper paste but it turns out it was some kind of damp proof gunk called G4... any chance it might be something like that?

He apparently ended up sanding it down then using lining paper to give a smooth surface for painting.

bertiewhite

NewShadow wrote: »

it turns out it was some kind of damp proof gunk called G4... any chance it might be something like that?

I'm pretty sure it's not because in some places it's thin enough to start flaking - those are the bits I've managed to remove!

Mistral001

I used to spend ages taking off wallpaper paste before painting the walls until I got a painter decorator to do one room because I did not have the spare time to do it. He did not worry too much about taking all the paste off. He just lightly sanded the walls to get the worst bits off. The finished room did not look any different to the rooms I had meticulously removed the paste from. I now do what the painter decorator did when I strip wallpaper to replace with paint.

dunroving

There is a product by Zinsser that I have used in the past when removing paper that has stubborn glue (my kitchen felt like it was papered using like superglue!). It seems to liquify the paste a lot more than plain water.

It's called DIF and is available for about £7 for a litre. You dilute it and then either spray or sponge onto the walls. You can then scrape the paste off more easily.

ITtim

As mentioned in other posts, get the sander out, you'll still see the marks but once its painted you won't be able to see it anymore.

bertiewhite

Right, a quick update.

I tried sanding this afternoon by hand and with a power sander and it's no go - the sander hardly touches some bits and all I achieve on others is a clogged up pad.

I just happened to be in my local hardware shop this afternoon and the owner said that he'd heard some older properties had the walls painted gloss in the past to make papering easier so I went back home and tried some stripper I had in the garage. No not that either.

After reassessing the walls a bit closer, I think I'm up against a mixture of layers of glue (because I can see tell tale marks where bubbles have been, paper & paint so I'm back to alternating between the hot air gun & steamer again because some of it comes off relatively easy and then I hit a stubborn patch again. What I have found is if I keep the stripping blade really sharp it's a lot easier so that's something.

Thanks for your comments.

verybigchris

The ceilings in my house had been pasted, then papered, then glued, then had polystyrene tiles on top. I was able to get the tiles off but they left behind all kinds of gunk that just reactivated when I tried steaming them (and steaming over your head isn't much fun anyway).

I was about to give up and just try papering over it all, when I got a reciprocating multi-tool from Aldi to use as a plunge saw. It came with a scraper attachment so I tried it out of curiosity, and I was able to clear the ceiling with it in no time. It's not really any different from scraping by hand, except it's doing it 10,000 times a minute. You've just got to be careful not to hold it at an angle or it'll go into the plaster.

bertiewhite

verybigchris wrote: »

I was about to give up and just try papering over it all, when I got a reciprocating multi-tool from Aldi to use as a plunge saw. It came with a scraper attachment so I tried it out of curiosity, and I was able to clear the ceiling with it in no time. It's not really any different from scraping by hand, except it's doing it 10,000 times a minute. You've just got to be careful not to hold it at an angle or it'll go into the plaster.

Aha, I've got a multi tool which I've only really used as a saw for skirting boards etc but I've got a blunt saw blade which may do the trick - never thought of that, thanks!!!