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Home Repair (alt.home.repair) For all homeowners and DIYers with many experienced tradesmen. Solve your toughest home fix-it problems. |
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#1
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Don't do this!
Need to re-paint the kitchen. Had been wallpapered yay many years ago
and a patch of the vinyl coating had pulled off. Aha, thinks I, "I'll just pull off all the vinyl coating and then use sponges and soak off the paper backing". No sooner said than done, at least the pulling portion. Even using two sponges I couldn't keep the paper wet enough with warm soapy water to strip. Off to the rental place for a steamer. Yep it worked but...the paper backing comes off in small pieces and the job took three times longer than if I had done it right to begin with. Harry, too soon old, too late smart, K |
#2
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"Harry K" wrote in message ups.com... Need to re-paint the kitchen. Had been wallpapered yay many years ago and a patch of the vinyl coating had pulled off. Aha, thinks I, "I'll just pull off all the vinyl coating and then use sponges and soak off the paper backing". No sooner said than done, at least the pulling portion. Even using two sponges I couldn't keep the paper wet enough with warm soapy water to strip. Off to the rental place for a steamer. Yep it worked but...the paper backing comes off in small pieces and the job took three times longer than if I had done it right to begin with. Harry, too soon old, too late smart, K Dontcha just love working with old wallpaper? Steve |
#3
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Harry K wrote:
Need to re-paint the kitchen. Had been wallpapered yay many years ago and a patch of the vinyl coating had pulled off. Aha, thinks I, "I'll just pull off all the vinyl coating and then use sponges and soak off the paper backing". No sooner said than done, at least the pulling portion. Even using two sponges I couldn't keep the paper wet enough with warm soapy water to strip. Off to the rental place for a steamer. Yep it worked but...the paper backing comes off in small pieces and the job took three times longer than if I had done it right to begin with. Harry, too soon old, too late smart, K Good of you to post this type of thing Harry. Most don't. Most come, get advice, do their job, and never let anyone know different. Not that they have to but it would be nice to tell others of their experiences or at least the outcome. |
#4
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"G Henslee" wrote in message ... Harry K wrote: Need to re-paint the kitchen. Had been wallpapered yay many years ago and a patch of the vinyl coating had pulled off. Aha, thinks I, "I'll just pull off all the vinyl coating and then use sponges and soak off the paper backing". No sooner said than done, at least the pulling portion. Even using two sponges I couldn't keep the paper wet enough with warm soapy water to strip. Off to the rental place for a steamer. Yep it worked but...the paper backing comes off in small pieces and the job took three times longer than if I had done it right to begin with. Harry, too soon old, too late smart, K Good of you to post this type of thing Harry. Most don't. Most come, get advice, do their job, and never let anyone know different. Not that they have to but it would be nice to tell others of their experiences or at least the outcome. Most people do not know Murphy's Law: 1. Nothing is as easy as it looks. 2. Everything takes longer than you think. 3. If anything can go wrong, it will. Most people only remember #3. And Murphy was an optimist. Steve |
#5
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SteveB wrote:
"G Henslee" wrote in message ... Harry K wrote: Need to re-paint the kitchen. Had been wallpapered yay many years ago and a patch of the vinyl coating had pulled off. Aha, thinks I, "I'll just pull off all the vinyl coating and then use sponges and soak off the paper backing". No sooner said than done, at least the pulling portion. Even using two sponges I couldn't keep the paper wet enough with warm soapy water to strip. Off to the rental place for a steamer. Yep it worked but...the paper backing comes off in small pieces and the job took three times longer than if I had done it right to begin with. Harry, too soon old, too late smart, K Good of you to post this type of thing Harry. Most don't. Most come, get advice, do their job, and never let anyone know different. Not that they have to but it would be nice to tell others of their experiences or at least the outcome. Most people do not know Murphy's Law: 1. Nothing is as easy as it looks. 2. Everything takes longer than you think. 3. If anything can go wrong, it will. Most people only remember #3. And Murphy was an optimist. Steve You know you just describe marriage. Who the hell was/is Murphy, anyway? Curious minds, etc. |
#6
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G Henslee wrote:
SteveB wrote: "G Henslee" wrote in message ... Harry K wrote: Need to re-paint the kitchen. Had been wallpapered yay many years ago and a patch of the vinyl coating had pulled off. Aha, thinks I, "I'll just pull off all the vinyl coating and then use sponges and soak off the paper backing". No sooner said than done, at least the pulling portion. Even using two sponges I couldn't keep the paper wet enough with warm soapy water to strip. Off to the rental place for a steamer. Yep it worked but...the paper backing comes off in small pieces and the job took three times longer than if I had done it right to begin with. Harry, too soon old, too late smart, K Good of you to post this type of thing Harry. Most don't. Most come, get advice, do their job, and never let anyone know different. Not that they have to but it would be nice to tell others of their experiences or at least the outcome. Most people do not know Murphy's Law: 1. Nothing is as easy as it looks. 2. Everything takes longer than you think. 3. If anything can go wrong, it will. Most people only remember #3. And Murphy was an optimist. Steve You know you just describe marriage. Who the hell was/is Murphy, anyway? Curious minds, etc. Use Google. IIRC he was involved in the NASA space program. Law was named after him. -- Respectfully, CL Gilbert |
#7
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My hat's off to ya, Harry. Like G Henslee said, most won't share their
mistakes so that others don't have to repeat them. I guess it's a pride thing or the experience of life that tells you that people are pretty darn judgemental and will condemn you for the very thing they did too. "G Henslee" wrote in message ... Harry K wrote: Need to re-paint the kitchen. Had been wallpapered yay many years ago and a patch of the vinyl coating had pulled off. Aha, thinks I, "I'll just pull off all the vinyl coating and then use sponges and soak off the paper backing". No sooner said than done, at least the pulling portion. Even using two sponges I couldn't keep the paper wet enough with warm soapy water to strip. Off to the rental place for a steamer. Yep it worked but...the paper backing comes off in small pieces and the job took three times longer than if I had done it right to begin with. Harry, too soon old, too late smart, K Good of you to post this type of thing Harry. Most don't. Most come, get advice, do their job, and never let anyone know different. Not that they have to but it would be nice to tell others of their experiences or at least the outcome. |
#8
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C & M wrote: My hat's off to ya, Harry. Like G Henslee said, most won't share their mistakes so that others don't have to repeat them. I guess it's a pride thing or the experience of life that tells you that people are pretty darn judgemental and will condemn you for the very thing they did too. Well hell, I'm too old to -care- what people say. If it wasnt' for people calling me stupid I'd have no conversations at all Harry K |
#9
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Harry K wrote: Need to re-paint the kitchen. Had been wallpapered yay many years ago and a patch of the vinyl coating had pulled off. Aha, thinks I, "I'll just pull off all the vinyl coating and then use sponges and soak off the paper backing". No sooner said than done, at least the pulling portion. Even using two sponges I couldn't keep the paper wet enough with warm soapy water to strip. Off to the rental place for a steamer. Yep it worked but...the paper backing comes off in small pieces and the job took three times longer than if I had done it right to begin with. Harry, too soon old, too late smart, K Only way I have ever removed wallpaper, and always works, is to spray the paper backing with a windex or similar spray with warm water. Let it rest about 5 minutes, spray again, wait, and start scraping gently until the goop comes off. If the outer layer doesn't pull off, I use coarse sandpaper to score the surface VERY CAREFULLY, horizontally, spray and let soak as above. Scoring it horizontally keep the water from all running off and it will soak into the paper/paste. Never had paper that would not come off using this method, including two layers that had both been painted over. I usually wait a day to wash remaining paste from wall to avoid getting the paper coating of the wallboard too wet. I do one or two strips at a time so's the first doesn't dry too much before I get back to it. |
#10
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Norminn wrote: Harry K wrote: Need to re-paint the kitchen. Had been wallpapered yay many years ago and a patch of the vinyl coating had pulled off. Aha, thinks I, "I'll just pull off all the vinyl coating and then use sponges and soak off the paper backing". No sooner said than done, at least the pulling portion. Even using two sponges I couldn't keep the paper wet enough with warm soapy water to strip. Off to the rental place for a steamer. Yep it worked but...the paper backing comes off in small pieces and the job took three times longer than if I had done it right to begin with. Harry, too soon old, too late smart, K Only way I have ever removed wallpaper, and always works, is to spray the paper backing with a windex or similar spray with warm water. Let it rest about 5 minutes, spray again, wait, and start scraping gently until the goop comes off. If the outer layer doesn't pull off, I use coarse sandpaper to score the surface VERY CAREFULLY, horizontally, spray and let soak as above. Scoring it horizontally keep the water from all running off and it will soak into the paper/paste. Never had paper that would not come off using this method, including two layers that had both been painted over. I usually wait a day to wash remaining paste from wall to avoid getting the paper coating of the wallboard too wet. I do one or two strips at a time so's the first doesn't dry too much before I get back to it. The real ****er is that I knew better. This isn't my first time I have pulled wallpaper in this house using a steamer. My surprise was the way the paper backing acted. Wet with two sponges to the point water was dripping, grab my spatula, one scrape and the paper was already dried back on the wall. Didn't think to try the spray bottle but doubt it would have helped. Harry K |
#11
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"Harry K" wrote My surprise was the way the paper backing acted. Wet with two sponges to the point water was dripping, grab my spatula, one scrape and the paper was already dried back on the wall. Didn't think to try the spray bottle but doubt it would have helped. Harry K I removed the wallpaper from an 1800 sf house. They put wallpaper on everything but the floor. It had different types of wallpaper in different areas. Each acted differently to the warm water and spatula. Actually, I was surprised to hear of someone else using a spatula. At the start of the project, I found an old metal one that was springy. Through it all, that was the best tool. Steve |
#12
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SteveB wrote: "Harry K" wrote My surprise was the way the paper backing acted. Wet with two sponges to the point water was dripping, grab my spatula, one scrape and the paper was already dried back on the wall. Didn't think to try the spray bottle but doubt it would have helped. Harry K I removed the wallpaper from an 1800 sf house. They put wallpaper on everything but the floor. It had different types of wallpaper in different areas. Each acted differently to the warm water and spatula. Actually, I was surprised to hear of someone else using a spatula. At the start of the project, I found an old metal one that was springy. Through it all, that was the best tool. Steve I guess I misnamed it. What I was using was my 4" taping knife with others up to 12" ready if they worked...they weren't needed. Harry K |
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