Hi,

Been promising this for a while, but having stripped most of a house, I feel
able to add something that hopefully will help others. If anyone would like
to add or correct anything before I make this live, please feel free to
suggest stuff, otherwise I'll whack it up.

Ignore the wiki-markup - I'll fix any errors here on upload.

Starting with the current Wiki, I'm proposing to update to this:

Cheers

Tim

===Steamer===
* Makes a wet mess [ed: I personally didn't find this an issue - do we want
to keep this?]
* Can be very useful on stubborn cheap vinyls that don't peel dry and
painted paper (especially ceiling paper).
* Fills the locality with a lot of water vapour - best done in spring or
summer when windows can be opened, if possible.

===Wallwik sheets===
* Use your own sprayer with them
* [http://www.wallwik-uk.com/products/w...al-sheets.html Wallwik
supplier]
* Possible (untested) replacement for wallwik sheets: lining paper

===Sprayer===
* Use warm [[water]] & [[detergent]]
* Less messy.
* The best sprayer for large areas of work, if you don't mind a bit of a
mess, is a pump up garden sprayer - very quick and easy, especially on
papered ceilings and paper on bare plaster, both of which can require a lot
of water due to the absorbancy of the plaster.
* Don't forget to flush your garden sprayer out several times if you've used
evil gardening chemicals in it previously.
* A fine mist spray makes less mess than a coarse spray, but whatever you do
will make the floor wet. Best to lay plastic or turn the heating up and
open some windows.
# Spray a section
# Wait 5-15 minutes (if paper is looking dryer rather than wetter then it's
time to respray)
# Respray the section
# Wait 15 minutes
The paper should come off easily.

===Vinyl paper===
The vinyl surface is waterproof, and the [[adhesive]] only comes away when
wet. There are 2 ways to enable this to happen:
# Peel off the top vinyl layer. Many, but not all papers are designed for
this to be done. Likely to be a feature of the better quality papers. tart
in a corner and pull gently, at at least 90 degrees and if possible, try to
pull off parallel to the wall - if you're lucky, it will come off in one
sheet.
# If the previous attempt to peel fails, then you will need to scarify the
vinyl layer to allow the penetration of water and/or steam. A bladed roller
tool is available to do this in several formats. Without trying to plug any
particular product brand, the type with 3 spikey rollers that you just push
and drag around is a fast and efficient device.
# Scarified paper may be fairly easily removed with steam. Steam the first
corner (top or bottom) for a good minute, then carefully (it's hot!) try to
pick up the corner of the vinyl. If you are very luck, it and the backing
paper will start top lift as one. If not, hopefully, at least the (thin)
vinyl will start to peel. Move the steam onto the next section and apply
gentle pulling force onto the bit you lifted. With care, you should be able
to keep peeling very slowly with the steamer staying in advance of the
section you're peeling. If the paper is very low quality, or old, it may
tend to tear or break. If this happens, try a stripping knife instead of a
peeling action.
# Any remaining backing paper is fairly easily dealt with. It can be steamed
off in a second pass using a stripping knife, but this takes longer due to
the paper absorbing the steam - it needs to actually become wet. A quicker,
though messier approach is to follow the sprayer instructions above, or to
sponge on hot water from a bucket. If the paper is sufficiently wetted in
typically 2-3 passes, for at least 10-15 minutes, it may peel off in one
piece, or it will yield fairly easily to a stipping knife. Wetter the
better is the key to success.

===Painted non vinyl paper===
Typically this would be painted lining or textured paper (wall or ceiling).
# Steam can work very well on this type of paper, depending on how many
coats of emulsion there are. For one or two coats of emulsion, scarifying
is not always necessary. If it's been painted many times or with gloss
paint, scarifying may help, prior to the application of steam or copious
hot water.

===Cleaning the walls afterwards===
Just when you thought stripping was the most boring messy tedious job in the
world... Now you have to remove the glue residue.
# Hot water - as hot as you can stand, and lots of it. A drop of Flash or
similar does no harm. Good large rough and robust floorcloths too - lot's
of 'em. A tea trolley helps, to keep the bucket at a convenient height for
the upper parts of the walls and ceilings.
# Paper over painted plaster: the glue should wash off fairly easily. Apply
broad strokes with a very wet cloth to wet the glue. Do this over a good
couple of yards of wall to give the water time to work. A second pass
should see most of the glue coming off.
# Paper over bare plaster: This can be harder as the plaster tends to hold
the glue plaster well, and defeats the water by sucking it up. Based on
various suggestions from uk.d-i-y USENET group, I found a sharp bladed long
handled scraper helped (3" razor sharp blade, handle about 12" long).
Wet about 1/2 square meter/yard with either the cloth or a sprayer. Have a
quick coffee (10 minutes), then wet again, until it's almost dripping. Now
push (or pull) the blade at a fairly shallow angle in a single pass. If
you're lucky, 90% of the paste gunk will come off and pile up on the blade.
Rinse the blade in the bucket of hot water and do the next 3" strip. This
works best on good hard flat plaster. If the plaster is less even, and you
find you are missing hollows, try 1/2 blade width passes with on overlap.
After you've scraped a section about a yard wide and a foot or two deep, put
the blade down and use the floorcloth to wash the remainder of the glue
off. With any luck, if scraping was effective, this will need perhaps 3-4
passes, with a fair bit of rubbing on one or two. If you run your finger
over the wet surface you will feel if it's slimy or not. Not slimy is
perfect - no glue left. Very slimy and you need to wash more. Slightly
slimy - you need to decide if it's good enough. If you are going to paper
again, a little past is unlikely to matter. But if your are painting, it
would be best to remove as much glue as reasonably practical.

==See Also==
* [[Special:Allpages|Wiki Contents]]
* [[Special:Categories|Wiki Subject Categories]]

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