5 Easy Methods to Remove Old Wallpaper & Make New One Stick Stronger

When we do home re-decoration, we often need to re-paint the wall and hang new wallpaper over the old one. Usually, due to the high viscosity of the original wallpaper, removing the old wallpaper could be difficult, and also it is very hard and inconvenient to clean up, so the new wallpaper won’t stick very well. This article will teach you how to remove the old wallpaper on the wall, so that the new wallpaper more solid. 

How to treat old wallpaper

The best way to apply new wallpaper is to peel off the old wallpaper first, which will make the new wallpaper adhere more strongly to the wall. Although it is also possible to hang new wallpaper on top of the old wallpaper, this is sometimes not a good idea as the adhesive can get wet and cause the old and new wallpaper to come off the wall together. In addition, if you cover the old wallpaper at the joints with new wallpaper, the overlapping marks will show on the new wallpaper. If, due to these circumstances, you still wish to apply new wallpaper over the old wallpaper, you should sand the seams smooth, remove the loose strips of wallpaper and reattach the loose edges of the old wallpaper joints to the wall before you start applying the new wallpaper.

Method 1: Alcohol

For waterproof paint, cleaning the wall paper glue with alcohol does not cause much damage to the walls, but rather the volatile effect of alcohol can minimize the damage to the walls from cleaning. However, one thing you need to keep in mind is that the concentration of alcohol must not be too high, otherwise it will be too volatile and easily turn white walls yellow or black.

Method 2: Steam

You can also use a steamer, but you will still need to use a broad-bladed putty knife to scrape off most of the old wallpaper.

When the water is hot, press the steamer against the wall until the wallpaper at the edge of the steamer has darkened due to moisture, starting with a strip of paper and gradually peeling off the wallpaper from top to bottom. 

After steam has done half the strip, pull up the top corner of this wallpaper with your fingernail or wallpaper scraper and peel off the wallpaper. If you cannot remove the wallpaper, use a wall scraper to remove it. You may have to steam the same area twice or three times to loosen the older adhesive on the back of the wallpaper.

Method 3: Salt

This method uses physical friction. Because the salt is white crystals, you don't have to worry about the unusual color that rubbing gives to the walls. During the rubbing process, you can use white gauze that can hold the salt, wrap a small packet of salt and rub it gently. You will then notice that the glue left on the wall paper is slowly disappearing and beginning to stick to the top of the white gauze. You just meed to pause while rubbing to remove the clumps of glue on top of the gauze, and the rest goes without saying.

Method 4: Peelable/Removable Wallpaper

Select a corner at the top of the wall and lift the wallpaper up with the tip of a wallpaper scraper.

Get as close to the wall as possible, pinch the corner of the wallpaper and try to remove it from the wall. Peel the wallpaper off the wall towards you so that it is easier to remove it. If it is peelable wallpaper, then the wallpaper will come off the wall as long as you use a smooth, moderate force.

Method 5: Solvent and scraper

Cut the old wallpaper horizontally with wallpaper scraper, spacing each cut approximately 20 or 25 cm apart.

Apply water or wallpaper solvent and wait a few minutes for it to completely soak through the wallpaper.

Repeat the same treatment on the next strip of wallpaper, then return to the first strip and re-wet it with the preparation from top to bottom.

Start stripping the wallpaper with a multi-purpose wall scraper, approximately 8.9 cm wide, with a movable blade. Starting with a cut horizontal strip of wallpaper, place the blade under its top edge and with the scraper at a 30 degree angle to the horizontal, slide the blade to scrape off the wet wallpaper. A strip of wallpaper the width of the squeegee will come off with the blade and curl around the squeegee as the blade is pushed downwards.

Continue to push down until the wallpaper can no longer be peeled off. If the strip of wallpaper scraped off breaks off, re-moisturize this area and start scraping off another strip of paper.