I found this link on the Lowe's website and it really helped me:
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=howT...emovewallpaper

I tried different techniques before I found what worked best in my case. I
tried spraying with soapy water (using a garden/pesticide sprayer). But,
what worked best was to FIRST peel off whatever paper I could while it was
dry -- just find corners, peel them up, pull paper away from wall in
sections. Then, I sprayed soapy water on what was left -- brownish
backing -- and it came right off.

Before doing that technique, I was wetting the paper and trying to peel
and/or scrap, but the wetting made the paper too soft to peel off from the
backing without breaking apart, and not soft enough to just scrap off. So
peeling it off DRY first, then wetting and scraping worked the best.

"David Combs" wrote in message
...
Rewallpapering first and part of 2nd floor; previous stuff
put up 30 or 40 years ago.

(Well, actually we're just removing the wallpaper so we
can paint the walls -- wife says she wants a change...)


This room's (hall and stairwell) paper was cheaper than
the other, and is proving damn near impossible to get
off.

We're using enzyme-stuff "DIF" brand.

We've tried steam from kettle just off stove, boiling --
no effect.

Also *very* hot water (just short of boiling) -- no
effect (ie, no incremental improvement -- although
on the other rooms, yes, it did help there).

DIF does help, but not enough -- the back side of the
paper ("backing"?) and glue stick to the wall, and the
only way we know to get it off is the scraper, difficult
inch by difficult inch, taking a *huge* amount of time.

Is far more difficult than in the other rooms, with
a better class of wallpaper having been put up
(also 30 to 40 years ago).

QUESTION: (1) are these different brands of wallpaper-
remover chemical all the same, or do some use *different*
chemicals from the others?

(2) Currently, we're using DIF brand.

Anything better?

(Especially if you've actually tried DIF, and discovered
yourself that some other brand works better!)

(3) Any hints?

(4) Does making the blades eg razor-sharp help (they're
already pretty darned sharp)?


Thanks!

David