Spryte Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 We are house hunting. :) Sat we have appts to see several homes (ok, six. Six! What are we thinking?) Most are fairly ready to go, with only minor changes we'd make. But one that is very interesting to us, for its bones, is covered in wallpaper. Gaaah! Wallpaper borders are in every room , and the kitchen has wallpaper everywhere. How difficult is it to remove wallpaper? We'd have a lot of prep and painting to do, obviously, but have never dealt with wallpaper. Is it hard to remove? Would this be a deal breaker for you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 My son thinks it should be in any real estate contract that previous owners must come and remove wallpaper. :lol: It really depends on how well it was put up and the quality of the paper. Borders are not so bad, except you're going to be scrapping near the ceiling. It also depends on whether there is drywall or plaster behind it. Drywall is more forgiving. There are ways to facilitate the project, all take some time and work. If everything else is right, wallpaper is never a deal breaker. I would factor time to remove it into the cost. It took me two days (and I'm experienced) to remove wallpaper and all the remnants from my son's staircase. I hate wallpaper. I will never put it in one of my homes. I'd rather paint. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 What elegantlion said. Some wallpaper is really easy to remove. Some wallpaper is a pain. That being said, if the house has good bones and a good location and you really like it I absolutely would not pass on it just because of some wall paper borders. It can be dealt with. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I'd rather chew on glass than do that again. BUT if that were the only con, I could get over it. It varies in difficulty. It depends on how long it's been there for one thing. We had some wall paper here that was probably original to the house (the house is 90 something years old). That was oh so much fun to remove. NOT But then some of the newer stuff was not as difficult. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I despise wallpaper. I had to remove a lot from our current home - all the bedrooms and the dining room. In some areas, where they had used appropriate glue and put it over drywall that had already been textured and painted, it came off very easily. In other areas, I swear they must have used superglue, because it was a time-consuming pain in the butt to get it off. And in one room (my daughter's) they had put it DIRECTLY onto the drywall, without any texturing/painting first. So as I tried to peel off wallpaper, the top layers of the drywall were coming off with it! I didn't know what else to do, so I left the wallpaper there, and textured and painted on top of it. It wouldn't make me choose not to buy a home that I otherwised loved, but it might be a negotiating point! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 Oh boy. This is making me nervous. But it also sounds doable, if we love the house. So I'll leave it on our schedule to see, and we'll consider it. Of all the houses we're seeing, this one has the most character. And an in law suite, which we were hoping to find for aging parents. Just ... Lots of wallpaper! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Wallpaper? Or wallpaper borders? Border are easier to deal with by far. If the entire house is wall to wall wallpaper and you don't like the style, I would see about negotiating for the owners to have it removed professionally or include some sort of financial compensation for removal of the wallpaper. Maybe a reduction of the cost of the house or something. If it turns out that the wallpaper was improperly installed, trying to have it removed from every room could be costly and time consuming. On the flip side, if you find that it really is hard to get off, you CAN texture and paint over. I don't normally recommend that for a long term solution but my parents did it and it worked out fine. ETA: I still wouldn't pass up a house that I really liked and checked off all my boxes just because of the wallpaper. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I just don't want to lie and say it is not that bad. It is THAT bad. And you know what really is probably the biggest concern is not even removing it. You don't know what the walls look like underneath it. Some of the walls under the paper here were mangled. It's an old house so it goes with the "theme" of being less than perfect. But yeah... I see that wallpaper is sort of coming back in style. Stuff like doing one wall in a room as a contrast. Looks interesting I suppose, but no. I will NEVER use wall paper. EVER NEVER NEVER I don't regret it though. In fact after awhile it sort of felt therapeutic. LOL Probably because I had lost my mind. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 If the house is perfect in every other way, wallpaper would not stop me at all. And this is someone whose current home came with every room covered in 7 layers of wallpaper. It was really interesting to see how the designs changed over the years! (Since the very early 1900's!) Sure, it's a big job, but no bigger than a lot of jobs you might have moving into a new home (fixing up gardens, building a deck, etc.) You can call it your summer project, or even hire high schoolers who are trying to earn money for college next year. Some walls will go along more smoothly, and others will be painstakingly slow. Do one room at a time, or two at a time -- your husband in one in you in another. Play a movie in the background while doing it. I absolutely love our house, and do not regret a single minute of having to remove that old wallpaper. Although I must admit... we did put up new wallpaper on every single wall again, except the kitchen and bathrooms. It's such an old vintage-style home, it just seemed to fit. :) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 Wallpaper? Or wallpaper borders? Border are easier to deal with by far. Every room has at least a border. The kitchen has more, with wallpaper on the walls with cabinets (it's an open kitchen, so thankfully there aren't many walls). It looks like they painted before applying most of the borders, since the rooms are all different colors. :D We'd have a lot of work to do. But it's a great house, from the pics. We'll have to see in person to be sure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 When I bought my first house, I put in the offer that a condition of sale was that the owner would remove the (ugly) wall to wall carpeting and I would approve the condition of the (hardwood) floors underneath it. It went through smoothly. The owner took the carpeting up in escrow, I had a flooring guy come in and tell me what it would cost to fix and refinish the floors, and away I went. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 When I bought my first house, I put in the offer that a condition of sale was that the owner would remove the (ugly) wall to wall carpeting and I would approve the condition of the (hardwood) floors underneath it. It went through smoothly. The owner took the carpeting up in escrow, I had a flooring guy come in and tell me what it would cost to fix and refinish the floors, and away I went. What a great idea. Thank you. We bought our current house in a hurry, so it had to be move in ready. This time we're open to looking at more houses, even if it means some work. It's added a layer of complexity! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 We have removed wallpaper from two houses. Some of it was very easy, and some of it took a lot of steaming and scraping and then washing to get the glue off. It's a pain in the neck but not worth passing up an otherwise great house because of it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 We bought a house with a lot of wallpaper. We lived with it for a few years while we saved up money to have it professionally removed. Split foyer (so, two levels) of vertical pink and white stripes. I wish I were kidding. Almost every room had wallpaper -- and I didn't like any of it. However, I know that we got the house at a better price because of it -- most people didn't want to look at it or deal with it. As pp said: Beware of what is underneath. When we took down the wallpaper in the master bedroom, the walls were full of graffiti in ink, marker, you name it. I love Hotrod! written all over the walls. :svengo: All that being said, I would definitely consider the house, but know that there might be some significant cost in removing the wallpaper and repairing anything underneath. Maybe you can get a discount on the house. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Yes, some kind of compensation, or something. We had wallpaper ot remove here, and that was some of the worst days of my life. We tried scoring it and using chemicals. We tried steamers (which worked MUCh better but still sucked). Oh, and the steamer thing is HEAVY, so I have vivid memories of holding up this heavy steamer at 3am with hot water dripping all over me, sometimes burning me, as I tried to get rid of MULTIPLE LAYERS of ugly wallpaper. I personally think the stuff should be against the law. I was ready to go stand in front of wallpaper displays in stores screaming at anyone who tried to buy some. hate it. But wouldn't not buy a house over it. but if there were two houses, and one had wallpaper, I'd go with the one without. Awful, evil stuff. Oh, and this wallpaper had been painted over. Multiple times. I think that might have made it harder. Wallpaper? Or wallpaper borders? Border are easier to deal with by far. If the entire house is wall to wall wallpaper and you don't like the style, I would see about negotiating for the owners to have it removed professionally or include some sort of financial compensation for removal of the wallpaper. Maybe a reduction of the cost of the house or something. If it turns out that the wallpaper was improperly installed, trying to have it removed from every room could be costly and time consuming. On the flip side, if you find that it really is hard to get off, you CAN texture and paint over. I don't normally recommend that for a long term solution but my parents did it and it worked out fine. ETA: I still wouldn't pass up a house that I really liked and checked off all my boxes just because of the wallpaper. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plansrme Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 As others have said, I would not pass on the house because of wallpaper, especially borders. I've removed mountains of the stuff from our current house, and it does not even come close to making the List of Home Improvement Projects I Will Never Undertake Again. It's time-consuming, and you really have to fiddle around with technique until you figure out what works for your paper and your glue (someone else's miracle removal technique may not have any kind of effect on yours), but it is not usually hard. It's an inside job, so you are in air conditioning, at least. Borders tend to come off easier than anything else because (1) they were put up during the 80s, not during the 70s, when wallpaper was applied with Super Glue, as best as I can tell; and (2) you can always get access to a good edge. Edges are your friend. The borders also are almost certainly glued on top of paint and not directly to bare drywall. Removing paper that was slapped right onto naked drywall (not uncommon in bathrooms) tends to make a mess of the drywall. Good luck with the house-hunting. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 The real question is how many layers of wallpaper are on the walls. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 it depends how it was installed for how difficult it is to remove. I've had some that was a pain - and other's that was easy peasy. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 When you make an offer on a house, budget in enough money to hire painters to come in and remove all of the wallpaper and paint the whole house before you move in. It will make your life so much easier. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I just don't want to lie and say it is not that bad. It is THAT bad. And you know what really is probably the biggest concern is not even removing it. You don't know what the walls look like underneath it. Some of the walls under the paper here were mangled. It's an old house so it goes with the "theme" of being less than perfect. But yeah... I see that wallpaper is sort of coming back in style. Stuff like doing one wall in a room as a contrast. Looks interesting I suppose, but no. I will NEVER use wall paper. EVER NEVER NEVER I don't regret it though. In fact after awhile it sort of felt therapeutic. LOL Probably because I had lost my mind. :lol: I wouldn't pass up a house because of wallpaper. But it is a pain to remove. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Even in my fantasy world, where I browse mansions on line and would be able to afford professional removal and repainting, I skip the over papered dream homes! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 When you make an offer on a house, budget in enough money to hire painters to come in and remove all of the wallpaper and paint the whole house before you move in. It will make your life so much easier. :iagree: :iagree: :iagree: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GailV Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 The real question is how many layers of wallpaper are on the walls. And whether someone thought it clever to put Killz in between layers, particularly if they don't get it on evenly so some areas ALL the layers rip right off, and other areas only the top layer rips off while the next layer is nearly impregnable. For the love of all that is good and holy, actually TAKE DOWN the wallpaper before doing anything else. Do NOT believe people who say it's okay to paint over wallpaper. It isn't. Okay, it might work for the first layer of paint, but some future person (or you) will want something fresh, and then be faced with either putting another layer of paint on, or taking off painted-over paper. And eventually the weight of the layers of paint will start to drag the paper off the wall. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Painting over wallpaper should also be illegal. With severe penalties. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 And whether someone thought it clever to put Killz in between layers, particularly if they don't get it on evenly so some areas ALL the layers rip right off, and other areas only the top layer rips off while the next layer is nearly impregnable. For the love of all that is good and holy, actually TAKE DOWN the wallpaper before doing anything else. Do NOT believe people who say it's okay to paint over wallpaper. It isn't. Okay, it might work for the first layer of paint, but some future person (or you) will want something fresh, and then be faced with either putting another layer of paint on, or taking off painted-over paper. And eventually the weight of the layers of paint will start to drag the paper off the wall. :iagree: It used to drive me crazy when I would watch an episode of Sell This House and Roger would have them paint over all of the wallpaper because there wasn't enough time to remove it before the open house, which always just happened to be only 2 days away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I agree that taking down wallpaper is a pain. And I also agree that I wouldn't overlook an otherwise perfect house because of it. At our very first house, DH laughed because the minute I stepped inside the door with our brand new key I walked into the powder room and began to pull off the hideous mirror-style paper. I picked up one corner and peeled it right off around the whole bathroom in just a few minutes. Hooray! The wallpaper in the stairway also came right off. But then the border that was in the master bedroom took an entire day to scrape off. I think they used superglue on that. So you never know until you try. If you can get them to agree to remove it professionally as part of the sales contract, that would be ideal. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 We ended up redrywalling over the existing wall with wallpaper in one room because it turned out to be suck a mess. I would consider this option if faced with the prospect of difficult paper again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flowing Brook Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 We removed wallpaper in our house. This little steamer made the project so much easier. The time it took to take down the wallpaper was cut by more than half the time. It is a life saver. http://www.amazon.com/Wagner-0282018-Steamer-1-Gallon-Wallpaper/dp/B0009XEL4O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436473543&sr=8-1&keywords=wallpaper+steamer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I haven't removed much wall paper, but we did have a wall paper mural in ds's room that covered one wall. I was really worried it would be hard to get down because I hadn't sealed the wall (although it was painted). It wasn't a big deal at all. We also removed wall paper from the bathroom of our first home and again, no big deal. I guess I've gotten lucky, but from my very limited experience, I wouldn't let wall paper stop me from buying a house I really liked. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 We removed wallpaper in our house. This little steamer made the project so much easier. The time it took to take down the wallpaper was cut by more than half the time. It is a life saver. http://www.amazon.com/Wagner-0282018-Steamer-1-Gallon-Wallpaper/dp/B0009XEL4O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436473543&sr=8-1&keywords=wallpaper+steamer Thanks! I noted it on Amazon, so I won't forget. :) Thanks to all of you, I won't scratch this house off the list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solascriptura Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Wallpaper sucks, but you don't really know how bad it is until it gets removed. Ours had been on top of unprimed drywall. Chunks of the drywall came off once we steamed the wallpaper. My dh had to joint compound and sand the entire room. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Wallpaper sucks, but you don't really know how bad it is until it gets removed. Ours had been on top of unprimed drywall. Chunks of the drywall came off once we steamed the wallpaper. My dh had to joint compound and sand the entire room. Yes! That is the real danger. If the wallpaper was put on by the builder the chances are good that the drywall was unprimed. My dining room on a contrast wall, was originally one of those ... I don't what it is a called. Tapestry wallpaper? Wallpaper like a giant photograph, not a design, usually of a lush outdoor scene. So, the sheets have to be put up in the correct order. The paper was put up on unprimed drywall. Then a textured wheat design paper was put over that. Then it was painted baby blue. Baby blue wheat on the walls. It looked great :lol: I think the wheat paper didn't stick to the other paper since it was kinda slick, so they used lots of wallpaper glue. Which made it hard to remove. I ended up upholstering that wall to cover up the mangled drywall. removing the wallpaper borders that they'd put on over the *textured* walls was lots of fun. They make this wallpaper tool that puts little holes in the paper for water/steam/chemicals to seep in. Can't use that without ruining the texture. So it was me and sponge on a ladder. Although, I got the house much cheaper, and removing ugly wallpaper is an intensely satisfying chore. Especially when you get a big chunk. Take that! you ugly wallpaper. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Our current house had tons of wallpaper. Some came down super easy......within minutes the room was about done..........seriously. Other rooms were a NIGHTMARE. We loved the bones of this house and the flow really fit our lifestyle and needs as an adoptive/foster family with young adult kids. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2samlibby Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 If you purchase the house, go buy a wallpaper steamer. They run about $60. It will be worth every penny. The last house we bought had wallpaper in every room. Some we stripped right away and others we waited awhile because we were busy with moving and painting and getting settled. Some wallpaper comes over easily, and the steamer will make that go even easier. Others will take a bit of work. Do not paint over it. It makes a bigger mess for the next person. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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