Gwen Morse wrote:

Okay, first of all, thanks for the advice.

I think I've taken out of it...

1) Improperly-removed wallpaper sucks.
2) Wet the paper thoroughly to get it off - in particular,
"thoroughly" can be over several days.
3) Steaming may or may not work, but, it's possible to at least try it
"cheaply".


The secret is in getting water to the paste, so it softens and the paper
can be scraped off easily. I've never used a steamer or paper tiger -
paper tiger looks too vicious. Try very coarse sandpaper on a flat
block, lightly run across the wall back and forth. Spray with water,
let soak about 30 min, spray and soak again. Scrape what you can,
repeat the spray/soak. Vinyl coated paper is no different than painted
paper, as the water proof coating has to be gotten through. If the
paper coating on the wallboard is getting wet, let it rest a day and
continue. I always let it rest before doing a final wash to get the
last remnants of paste off the wall. Lay newspaper and an old towel at
the base of the wall to catch the mess. You can be soaking one strip
while you scrape another. Just use a light touch. Some papers,
especially fabric, will have a top layer you can pull off without paper
tigers and soaking, but leave the base layer of paper to be sprayed and
scraped. Only time I have ever found paper difficult to remove was
where someone used Elmer's glue or something similar to paste back loose
corners.