Steaming Off Vinyl Wallpaper

The heat from the steam will loosen the wallpaper glue allowing you to simply pull the wallpaper off.

Steaming off vinyl wallpaper. The process takes time and you may need a trowel to help scrape off stubborn wallpaper adhesive. Steamers are especially good at removing stiff heavy old style wallpapers and papers that have been adhered for a very long time. Once the water heats up in the steamer press the applicator against the wallpaper. You can rent a commercial wallpaper steamer as an alternative to solvents.

Zinsser s paper tiger wallpaper scoring tools is useful as it doesn t damage drywall or plaster. Rent a steamer instead of purchasing one since this is not a job you will do very often. Place the steamer on the surface of the wall to penetrate glue. Experience will tell you how long to hold the steamer pad against the wall if you apply too little steam the wallpaper will be difficult to remove.

Apply more steam as needed and continue scraping until the wallpaper is removed. Once the steam has softened the glue begin working at a seam or the edge of a perforation to remove the paper by scraping with the wallpaper scraping tool a plastic putty knife or a drywall knife. So only use this tool if the method suggested already doesn t work. If you are removing vinyl coated wallpaper with a steamer you still have to use a scoring tool to punch holes in the paper so the steam can reach the glue.

Another way to remove wallpaper is to use steam. To use a wallpaper steamer place the steamer pad on the surface of the wallpaper and hold it long enough to allow the steam to penetrate the paper and soften the glue.