by Catherine Lear

Created on: May 10, 2009   Last Updated: July 11, 2009

I own property business and I can tell you that in my kind of business we have to decorate all of the properties that we buy and manage, it would be so easy for me to tell the painter to just wallpaper over the old paper. In fact, it would save me quite a lot of money if the painter just painted or wallpapered over the old paper.

Nevertheless, as my dad keeps telling me if a job is worth doing its worth doing right. Therefore, every house that I buy or manage gets a complete makeover. It is so easy to take of the old wallpaper, you can either do it by just soaking the wallpaper with a hot solution of water, all you do is take a bucket and add a little bit of sugar soap, this makes the water very soft. Now sponge on the water letting it soak into the paper. With a 4-inch scraper work your way down the wall scrapping of the old paper, you must scrape of every bit of old paper so that the wall is smooth.

That is the old way of removing old wallpaper. By far the easiest way of removing old wallpaper is to buy and use a steam wallpaper remover. This is a devise that works like a large kettle, you fill the container with water, attach a tube with an attachment that fills with steam when fitted flat onto the wall. The steam comes up the tube and onto the wallpaper making it soft, you then use your scraper to peel of the old paper again leaving the wall smooth.

Make sure that you wear some kind of protection when using steam; steam can be dangerous and can leave you with a nasty burn, so use gloves and use safety goggles when using steam.

It is so easy to take of old wallpaper its just knowing how. Once you have taken of the wallpaper you will have to smooth down all the walls. Again, there are two ways to do this; one is by just using a piece of sandpaper, fit the sandpaper around a small piece of wood 6inc by 4inc then rub all the way round the walls, this will make certain that all the little bits of paper are then removed.

The second way is again the easiest; you buy yourself an electrical sander with the relevant sandpaper, and again all you do is go over the walls removing all the old pieces of paper that are left. This way is far quicker and is well worth the money that you spend buying the sander.

Remember also to pick up all the wet wallpaper that falls onto the ground do this as you remove the paper, or you will find that you will be treading it all over the place. Never be tempted to leave the old wallpaper on and paper over it. One day you will eventually have to remove it and it will take you that little bit longer, I have come across this in old houses that I have brought and renovated, and it has cost me more to employ someone, has it has taken a lot longer to take the old wallpaper off.

If you have to use stepladders and most people will have to use them, make sure that again you are safe, most accidents are home related and can be avoided. Make sure that you hold on to the stepladder with one hand and with the other do the work.

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