Wallpaper removal: doing it without wrecking the walls

Before you start: what type of paper is it?

Lift a corner near a door frame and pull gently. If the top layer peels away and leaves a paper backing on the wall, it is a vinyl or peelable paper, and most of the job is soaking off that backing. If nothing peels, you probably have a traditional paper, a woodchip or a paper that has been painted over, all of which need water to get through to the paste.

Turn off power to sockets and switches on the wall you are working on, and protect the floor with dust sheets, because the softened paste and wet paper go everywhere.

Read more: Wallpapering and feature walls

Steaming versus soaking and scoring

Soaking with warm water and a sponge, sometimes with a little washing up liquid or a stripping solution, works well on unpainted paper. Give it ten minutes to soak in, then scrape. It is gentle on the plaster and costs almost nothing.

A steamer is quicker on stubborn, painted or multi-layer paper. Holding the plate on one section while scraping the previous one keeps a steady rhythm. Scoring the surface first with a scoring tool lets the steam get behind the paper, but pressing too hard scores the plaster as well.

Painted-over wallpaper

Paint seals the paper, so water simply runs off. Score the wall lightly, then steam section by section, giving the heat longer to work than on bare paper. Older emulsions sometimes come away in sheets with the paper; newer vinyl silks can be very resistant. Patience matters more than force here, because rushing is how chunks of plaster come off with the paper.

Lining paper and what it hides

Many older houses have a lining paper under the decorative layer, put there to hide cracked or patched plaster. Once the top paper is off, you can decide whether to keep a sound lining paper and paint over it, or remove it and deal with the wall underneath. It is common to find old filler, hairline cracks or even a different wall finish in one corner where a previous repair was made.

Damaged plaster: fill, line or skim

Small gouges and dents are filled, sanded and spot primed. If the wall has lots of small defects, a fresh lining paper can be the quickest route to a smooth finish. Where large areas of plaster are loose, blown or heavily scarred, a skim coat gives a new surface, and it then needs drying time and a mist coat before painting. We tell you which of these a room needs once the paper is off, rather than guessing beforehand.

Preparing walls for paint or new paper

Every scrap of old paste has to be washed off, or it will crack new paint and stop fresh paper from sticking. The wall is then sanded, dusted down and primed or sized depending on the finish. This preparation is part of our painting and decorating service, and the order of work guide explains why stripping and plastering come early in a wider refurbishment, before new floors go down.

Read more: Painting and decorating, Home refurbishment order of work, Painters and decorators in Harlow

Woodchip, anaglypta and textured papers

Heavy textured papers such as woodchip and anaglypta were often hung to disguise poor plaster, and they were usually painted several times afterwards. That makes them some of the slowest papers to remove. Scoring and steaming is normally the only practical method, working in small patches and giving the steam time to soften both the paint and the paste beneath it.

Be ready for what these papers were hiding. Cracks, old patches and uneven corners are common once they come off, so it is wise to plan for filling or lining rather than expecting a perfect wall straight away. Ceilings papered in the same way are harder still, because the steam and wet paper are working against gravity, and they need proper access equipment rather than a chair or stepladder. Taking ceiling paper down safely is one of the jobs people most often hand over to a decorator once they have tried a corner themselves.