RTLP wrote:
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.

The simple logic is that water has to reach the paste in order to
dissolve it and get the paste and paper off the wall. "Strippable"
paper (in my experience) pulls away, top layer only, very easily. Then
spray the remaining paper - there is now no vinyl coating - let the
water soak in, spray again, and start lifting the paper away with a
scraper. When the paper isn't strippable, I use coarse sandpaper and
care not to cut too deeply with it. Sand horizontally to cut through
the vinyl surface, back and forth just enough to make close cuts through
the surface. Solid vinyl wallcoverings need the same approach, just a
little bit more cutting through with the sandpaper. I don't know what
advantage the chemicals are supposed to have - enzymes? The plain
simple truth is that water still has to reach the paste. I've stripped
paper in four homes, and never had trouble getting paper off with this
method. Usually takes two tries, as the paper won't be cut deeply
enough in places - I'm careful so's I don't cut into the paper covering
of the wallboard. Lots of rags and newspaper, coffee, something to do
during the "soak" cycle. Messy. Not rocket science. Let the whole
mess dry a day before washing the wall down for a final time to get the
last remnants of paste.

I don't know when vinyl coated papers became the most common, but unless
the paper is really antique it probably has some sort of waterproof
coating, if not solid vinyl. The only time I've had difficulty getting
paper off was where somebody used a repair adhesive to reglue seams that
came loose - the stuff was like Elmer's Glue, and had to use a razor
scraper to shave it down because it would not soften with anything.