There’s something about stripping wallpaper that to me is very therapeutic. The downside is that it can be immensely hard work when there are numerous layers and RSI sets in. Multiply the layers by the number of rooms to strip and the total here becomes at least fifty, perhaps seventy. I don’t know what that number means – it’s a random sum – but that’s what we’ve got. Yesterday that total equated to around about a year’s solid work for me
But today that number has been considerably reduced, courtesy of one of the roof guys who saw me labouring away and brought in a stripping product for me to try. I tried some last night and can confirm that the sum will now be divided by perhaps ten, meaning that naked walls will be achievable in about six or seven. I started again this morning after a coffee
The effectiveness seems to be due to not only the product, but the application using a pressurised spray (‘vaporisateur’), the type you sort of jump up and down on to build up pressure
When we were kids there was a product that was regularly applied to prevent greenfly in the garden, not only by our parents but by us, very willingly, because it seemed so much fun to use the spray thing. It was called, enchantingly, Killa Spray. Therefore, before anyone gets too precious about using spray substances to remove wallpaper without proper mask/ overalls/ ventilation I would suggest that any damage was already done back in the seventies
So, the concentrated product is enormously diluted with water (we’re back to wallpaper stripper now, I very much doubt that Killa Spray still exists) and is used to soak the paper economically and evenly. A few minutes later a scraper will just lift the paper cleanly. Voila! C’est fait!
I admit that I am not so tough, I do wear gloves because my hands are like beacons of abuse right now. But I am also really enjoying removing wallpaper in its truest purest form as therapy
And as you can see they’ve left some spare paper in case I change my mind!
Poshbird with Passion 
Oh my goodness, scraping wallpaper – been there done that. That is hard work and can be time consuming – but rewarding. Good luck, have fun! 🙂
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Thanks Terry
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I humbly suggest that you use that spare wallpaper to line a cupboard or something. Lest you forget!
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What a great idea! I’m so glad you suggested that
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We have a steam stripper somewhere in the French garage. I thought of you and was going to fish it out but it sounds like you have a better alternative now anyway.
I had to stop using it on our French walls as it was dissolving the lime plaster.
Some of our old plaster is rock solid, but some is very crumbly and fragile
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Well, I would not say no if you fancied bringing it over. I am open to trying anything and everything, thanks. Plus it might mean that 2 people can strip at the same time (how daring!)
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I guess you mean a steam stripper? I do have one of those, and the only reason I’m not using it is that it’s back i n the UK. They are very messy though, aren’t they. And you can’t pretend to be a ghostbuster with one of those!
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At least it’s not that textured, nobbly stuff that people used to put up over uneven walls and then paint with gloss. I nearly lost my sanity when trying to remove a hallway full of that stuff once.
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Oh dear! Woodchip – my nemesis! No, that is probably the worst possible stuff to remove. I spent a week on some last year at our flat and it nearly beat me
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I recall hiring a wallpaper stripper years ago when we lived in a very old cottage that needed completely stripping. Don’t think we had to jump up and down on it though – you just plugged it in. But I’m thinking you’ve probably not got any power on in this house? It’s hard work whichever way you do it.
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