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Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:26 am  |
This past weekend I ripped the whole first floor of my home and putting down wood flooring. Taking the existing floor in itself was torture. Carpet, tiles and lanoliam (sp?). That took the better part of friday evening and half a day on saturday. Half my floors are put in and my house is in shambles and not to mention all the dust around the house since the b/f's cutting the wood inside the house  .
Now I need to strip a few walls of these ugly wallpapers that I discovered over the weekend. Anyone know the quickest and cheapest way of removing these? I know I can probably buy a solvent, but I also heard warm water and vinegar works just as well. This also means I'll be painting the better part of the house also. Anyone have tips on painting also so I don't mess up my new wood floors. I know I know, I probably should have painted the walls before the floors went in, but it was sort of a spur of the moment thing.
Any advice would be appreciated!  |
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26, combination skin with oily t-zone |
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Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:50 am |
Wow Ariesxtreme you sound like you've got your hands full  I've found that scoring the old wallpaper with a utility knife and just using a paint roller (or brush) dipped in warm water will loosen the glue (let it soak in) and it should come off pretty easily. Don't score too deeply, or you'll leave indentations in the drywall, and fixing those will require Polyfilla or plaster!!
After you remove the wallpaper there will be some glue residue and you'll have to wash that off. Again, warm water on its own should do it.
As far as protecting the floor is concerned, you must put a dropcloth down and if necessary, tape it along the edges to ensure it doesn't move.
Good luck! |
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Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:55 am |
| Aries, I highly recommend you take a look atwww.apartmenttherapy.com. It's my favorite home improvement / interior decoration site. Do a search for "removing wallpaper" or something, and I'm sure you'll find helpful advice. And, if you can't find an answer, just send a question and someone will respond. |
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Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:55 am |
Thank you! I like projects like this, but talk about manual labor. Our bodies were acking and still am. I'm walking pretty funny and my backs killing me.
Now the task of finding the right color to paint the walls. Was at Home Depot and my head was spinning from all the colors I could choose from. |
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26, combination skin with oily t-zone |
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Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:18 pm |
Good lord, ariesextreme! (Another screen name I LOVE! I'm an Aries, too, and so is my sister - I thought SHE was the most extreme Aries in the world until I read your home improvement post! Wow!) You are one ambitious lady. I moved 2 years ago and still haven't unpacked all my boxes! I can't imagine undertaking the project you are doing.
OK, Anya recommended scoring the wallpaper and that's the best possible suggestion. If you go back to Home Depot (or Home Despot as I like to call it!) they sell these round plastic domed devices that fit in the palm of your hand. That have "teeth" on the inside that rotate around on wheels and are specifically designed for scoring wallpaper. You just press them against the wall and roll them around and they punture tons of little holes all over the wallpaper. The cool thing about them is that they are designed to NOT tear up the walls underneath.
There are also wallpaper adhesive remover sprays that you can get. After you score the paper, just spray it down well with the adhesive remover.
Also, you can rent a wallpaper steamer. Its a device not unlike a (large) clothes steamer, but the steamer "head" is a large flat thing about the size of a piece of 8-1/2 x 11 in. paper (or larger depending on the model of machine). After you've scored the wallpaper, you just hold the steamer up to the wall for a a bit and it will steam the paper off. You have to use a utility knife to scrape the paper off, but you'll have to do that regardless; its the only way to really get the paper and adhesive off. You may even want to check to see if you can steam the wallpaper AFTER spraying it with the adhesive remover. That old wallpaper might just fall off the wall if you do that!
To protect the floors, like Anya I suggest putting down a pretty thick plastic drop cloth to create a waterproof barrier, then a canvas or cloth-like painters dropcloth over that, to absorb the liquid that inevitably will get on the floor. Anya's suggestion of taping the edges of the dropcloth(s) to the floor edging is right on. That way water won't seep into the crack between the wall/floor, which may not dry all the way and could lead to mold.
Good luck. I hope you took "before" pictures! We'd LOVE to see your "before" and "after" pics! |
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Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:37 pm |
Darn, I should have taken before pics because the carpet and tiles that were there before was god awful. Can you believe that they laid tiles in the entrance ontop of lanoliam tiles on top of another floor? These people were lazy to strip the layer prior to laying down another layer of flooring. That was such a b*tch to remove!
I will take progress pics though. Since my house has half the flooring down you can see still see the plywood.
Thank you girls for the link and all the advice! |
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26, combination skin with oily t-zone |
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Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:00 pm |
Just want to give you a pat on the back We got someone to come in today to measure our house for hardwood floors. It is quite expensive so there goes my lasik procedure budget 
DH was thinking about doing the tiles in the bathroom himself. I told him he watched too many episodes of "Flip this house". There is no way I will let him tile anything.
Good luck with your home improvement project! |
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~~ super-sensitive, dry, dermatitis prone, rosacea/northern calif ~~ |
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Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:08 pm |
Here's what works for me. Buy the thinnest type plastic drop cloth you can find. It shouldn't be much thicker than saran wrap. Also buy one of those 2 or 3 gallon pump sprayer tanks. I'm talking about the kind that you would mix weed killer in. Pour a cup of cheap fabric softener and 2-3 cups of vinegar in the tank. Add HOT water to fill up tank completely.
Lay down thick plastic sheeting(save your thin sheeting for later)around perimeter of room to protect your floor. Seal it with tape at the baseboards if you need to cause this will be very drippy.
I score the paper first with one of those rotating perforation tools. I think the one I have is called a Wall Tiger or Wallpaper Tiger or something like that.
Wet down a large area of wall with the solution in the sprayer. It will keep absorbing so do it quickly and go over it about 3 times. Then immediately (you'll need an extra hand with this)spread the thin plastic sheeting over the entire area you just sprayed. It will stick to the wall and keep it from drying out to let the solution do the work. You can let this sit on the wall for as little as 15 minutes or I've even let it set for an hour or two. When you remove the sheeting the paper is soft and can be easily scraped away without damaging walls. Some wallpapers will even come off in sheets with this method.
Hope this helps!
-Cheri
| ariesxtreme wrote: |
Now I need to strip a few walls of these ugly wallpapers that I discovered over the weekend. Anyone know the quickest and cheapest way of removing these? I know I can probably buy a solvent, but I also heard warm water and vinegar works just as well. This also means I'll be painting the better part of the house also. Anyone have tips on painting also so I don't mess up my new wood floors. I know I know, I probably should have painted the walls before the floors went in, but it was sort of a spur of the moment thing.
Any advice would be appreciated! |
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:50 am |
Okay just ripped the last of the kitchen floor yesterday. I didn't realize all the crap that needed to be tossed out, with the carpet to the tiles and trim and so forth. I threw some of it out this morning for garbage day, but I knew they wouldn't take all of it if I threw everything out. I put the rest out on the deck behind the house.
Does anyone know what I should do with the trash? Can I call a place where I can drop it off or have them come and pick it up? |
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26, combination skin with oily t-zone |
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 2:20 pm |
| ariesxtreme wrote: |
| Does anyone know what I should do with the trash? Can I call a place where I can drop it off or have them come and pick it up? |
Aries, here in Los Angeles they have a service for large haul refuse - Chicago probably has it too. You have to call the City administration folks and ask them how you get large amounts of trash picked up. Tell them its from a home improvement project. Sometimes they bring out special bins for you to load up, then come by a few days or a week later to retrieve it. Good luck!
I'm so impressed with your willingness to undertake such a huge project. You rock! |
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 2:38 pm |
Thank you for the tip MermaidGirl. I'm so physically tired and worn out right now though. Is home improvement projects like plastic surgery? I've heard once you start you can't stop  . Now I want to do more things, like refinish the deck, put pergo down in the basement yada yada.
I couldn't have done it without the b/f's help though, I'm pretty tough when it comes to manual labor and am pretty hand with the tools, but some of these cuts along the staircase and along the sides of the wall were tough, no way I could have eyed those and cut the wood that precisely. |
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26, combination skin with oily t-zone |
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Wed Oct 25, 2006 11:09 pm |
| ariesxtreme wrote: |
| Thank you for the tip MermaidGirl. I'm so physically tired and worn out right now though. Is home improvement projects like plastic surgery? I've heard once you start you can't stop . Now I want to do more things, like refinish the deck, put pergo down in the basement yada yada. |
You're welcome, Aries. I think the reason home improvement is like plastic surgery is that when you fix up one area, everything else looks like hell by comparison! So you just keep going!
| ariesxtreme wrote: |
| I couldn't have done it without the b/f's help though, I'm pretty tough when it comes to manual labor and am pretty hand with the tools, but some of these cuts along the staircase and along the sides of the wall were tough, no way I could have eyed those and cut the wood that precisely. |
Yeah, boys are good for a few things, aren't they! An old boyfriend of mine had a t-shirt that said "I may not be smart, but I can lift heavy things" - which is exactly why I kept him around! Actually, it takes a lot of measuring and calculation to get precise cuts like that, so they are useful for more than just weight lifting! |
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Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:43 pm |
Aries, I second phredd4's wallpaper stripping advice. I just did it in my kitchen a few months ago, and it works like a dream! The only thing I would add is to wipe everything down with a damp hot sponge to make sure you get all the glue off. Also, if you have an oops where the wallboard starts ripping, stop immediately and approach from another side. You can repair a small oops with spackle, but it's much harder to repair a large one.
Um.. The home improvements..  Once you start, you can't stop. I always have a project going on. It's an even more expensive hobby than skincare! |
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