How does wallpaper steamer work

If the wallpaper has a vinyl finish or has been painted, first score the paper with a craft knife or old kitchen fork taking care not to damage the wall and plaster underneath. By perforating the paper, steam penetrates the wallpaper more quickly and loosens the wallpaper paste. If you have a lot of rooms to strip in your home, it is best to use a wallpaper scoring tool.

This will make the job of perforating the paper a lot quicker. If you only have the ceiling or a wall to strip, cut along the edge using a knife and metal edge between the two surfaces. This is how to remove wallpaper without accidently also removing paper you wanted to keep. Firstly, read the wallpaper steamer instruction manual and pay particular attention to the safety information. Use an old piece of wood or a metal tray to place the wallpaper steamer on to prevent damaging the floor underneath it.

This will also keep the steamer flat and stop it from tilting which could damage the heater element. This tip is how to remove wallpaper quicker, simply fill the steamer with warm tap water to reduce boiling time. Using a jug also makes it easier to pour. Plug in the steamer and wait for the water to boil. Start from the top of the wall and work your way down.

For high walls or to reach the ceiling use a standard or platform ladder but take care to ensure the unit is kept flat and stable. Hold the steam plate on the wallpaper for a maximum of 30 seconds at a time. The steam penetrates through the wallpaper to the old adhesive paste underneath, once moistened it loosens the paper from the wall. If a panel comes off right away, the wall was coated with a primer before it was covered. Just keep pulling slowly until you're done. This can take less than an hour or it can take up your entire day, depending on the size of the room.

You may need a paper scraper for any patches that don't come off right away and a sponge and bucket of warm water to wipe off any sticky residue. This method is easy, quick and costs you nothing. Unfortunately, wallpaper rarely comes off that easily. However, simple alternatives abound.

Wallpaper steamers can do the job when other methods fail. They're especially effective on tough projects, such as wallpaper that's been wallpapered over or painted. If the wallpaper isn't porous, you can score it by cutting slits with a razor or scoring tool. Here's how you handle the rest:. Wear protective goggles, gloves and a long-sleeved shirt.

Try to keep the plate lower than your arm. Otherwise, hot water can drip from the plate and burn you. When the steamer isn't in use, set the hot plate on a cookie sheet or similar surface. Again, steamers work for the same reason liquid and gel removers work -- they allow hydrolysis to occur. Heat also makes an effective catalyst for hydrolysis and also helps makes liquids more soluble.

Wallpaper steamers heat water until steam forms, which is then applied directly to the wallpaper adhesive. The steam breaks down the glue through hydrolysis. Now that you know several ways to remove wallpaper, stop procrastinating and get started. May that farmyard scene on your kitchen wallpaper motivate you: The cows have come home, and now's the time for action.

The Wallcoverings Association recommends cleaning and priming walls before covering them with wallpaper. Add two cups of bleach to a gallon of water to scrub away any mold, mildew or stains. Rinse those areas with water and let them dry completely.

Use spackle or drywall to fix irregularities. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Let it sit for the recommended time as per the product instructions.

Scrape off the residue until it has completely gone with a stripping knife. Dry the wall with a clean cloth or rag and leave to dry out completely. Once you're satisfied that the walls are completely dry, you can turn the power back on. Now your walls are stripped of wallpaper and cleaned you may find that some parts need repairing. Read our guide for preparing walls for painting for step-by-step advice on repairing and sanding walls before decorating.

The same steps apply if you will be hanging wallpaper. Once you've completed all of these steps and made any necessary repairs, you're ready to decorate. Whether it's a fresh coat of paint or a new layer of wallpaper, our guides will walk you through the process so you get a smooth, professional finish.

Materials: Dust sheets - cloth or polythene dust sheets are usable for this task. Polythene sheets are more moisture resistant, so a good choice if you have carpets, but can be at risk of tearing.

Cloth dust sheets can be beaten outside to remove dust, washed and be reused. Some cloth dust sheets also have a polythene backing to help stop spills from penetrating. Safety first Keep chemicals and adhesives out of reach of children. Always use a suitable ladder when working at height. Safety goggles should be worn when stripping paper to protect eyes from falling paper, debris and hot water. The two options are: a chemical stripping solution an electric steam wallpaper stripper Chemical stripping solution A stripping solution is a chemical liquid that can be applied to walls to help remove wallpaper.

Electric steam wallpaper stripper A steam stripper consists of a tank with a hose connected to a steam plate. Step 1 Remove a small section of the wallpaper from a corner first with a stripping knife. Step 2 Try peeling the paper away to see if it can easily be removed without tearing. Step 1 Clear the room as much as possible. Step 2 Take everything off the walls, including vents. Step 3 Turn off the electricity for the room, in case of water or steam getting into electrical sockets or switches.

For an old style fuse box with rewirable fuses , switch off the main power at the fuse box. Isolate the circuit you plan to work on by removing the circuit fuse.

Put this in your pocket to avoid accidental replacement. And turn the power back on. For a modern consumer unit with miniature circuit breakers switch off and lock the relevant circuit breaker.

If necessary, attach a note to the unit to advise you are working on the circuit. Step 4 Check the correct circuit has been isolated and is dead. Stripping wall paper from walls and ceilings is not a fun job by any means. Traditionally this would have meant getting stuck in with a scraper and prizing the paper from the wall, but now we have access to more modern and efficient ways of removing these forms of pasted paper through using a wallpaper steamer.

There are various different methods of stripping wallpaper, more information on these can be found in our stripping wallpaper project here , but for the purposes of this guide, we are going to look at how to use a wallpaper steamer stripper. What also makes steaming so effective is that the heat generated through the process of creating the steam is an ideal catalyst for hydrolysis to occur.

The main body of the steamer is in essence a tank that incorporates a heating element. Once filled with water and plugged in to the mains electricity, the heating element heats the water to boiling point.

That said, any decent steamers will or should be sealed once the filling lid is screwed shut so dropping the unit should not spill any of the boiling contents. In terms of maintaining a constant flow of steam, most decent units should feature an in-built thermostat to keep the water at temperature. In the event of any thermostat failures there should also be a pressure release valve to release any pressure buildup in the main body.

Before we start stripping the wallpaper from our walls, firstly we need to establish what type of wall lies beneath the paper. This is indeed a good question and in answer, the type of wall will dictate how long we will be able to hold the steamer on the wall before it causes any damage.

There are a few caveats to this in that you may have plasterboard walls that have been plastered over or many older properties have lath and plaster. Where wallpaper is applied directly onto a plasterboard surface you run the risk of damaging the plasterboard itself if it gets too damp, so holding your steamer plate on it too long could increase the chances of this happening.

Additionally, as with the above, too much moisture will cause it to go soft and again damage easily. If you are stripping wallpaper from lath and plaster, prepare yourself for a fair bit of repair work once your done as in pretty much all cases some damage will occur. A dull and solid thud generally indicates plaster on a solid brick, block or stone wall and a hollow sound in most cases signifies a plasterboard stud wall that may or may not be plastered.

A hollow knock can also be an indicator of lath and plaster, some more tend to be the property age and how flat and level the walls surface is. Properties built before in pretty much all cases featured a lime finish which in itself was applied over laths to create lath and plaster. As lath and plaster is a fairly old school finish, in most instances the final surface finish itself was neither flat nor level so if the surface your working with undulates quite a bit, this can be a sign.

When it comes to wallpaper all is certainly not equal. If you are new to the DIY world, on a first glance at several rolls of paper, it may just look like exactly that, paper simply rolled into a roll. After reading through the above list you may be asking; why does it matter what type of wallpaper I have on my wall? Well, this all has to do with what you need to do to prepare the paper for stripping to make the job as straight forward as possible.

In order for your wallpaper stripper to be affective and loosen the paper from the wall, the steam has to be able to penetrate through the paper and soften and loosen the adhesive.

It will also make the job of getting it off much harder. The steam generated by your wallpaper steamer will soak nicely through, loosening and softening the adhesive and then allowing you to easily scrape it off. If you find that you have peelable paper this is even easier. This is due to the fact that the paper will naturally allow any steam generated by the stripper to penetrate through and get to work on the adhesive beneath it. By carrying out some prep work, this will allow the steam from your stripper to soak through and get to work on the adhesive that will in turn enable you to get it off the wall.

This can be done with a craft knife or stanley knife or with a purpose-built tool such as a wallpaper tiger. Using a tiger or specific scoring tool is the best method as it will ensure even perforations across the walls surface with out damaging the wall beneath. A Wallpaper or paper Tiger used to perforate the surface of the wallpaper to allow steam to penetrate.