First time buyer and most definitely a newbie in the 'practical world'. Wallpaper is our first job and just wondering what is best to get rid of it? Is it worth buying a stripping machine, if so, what sort and what sort of price. Or would it just be worth while scouring the paper first and using stripping solutions (Vinegar/warm water etc).

Thanks for your help!

 

Welcome to the forums and congratulations on becoming a homeowner!

Stripping wall paper is rarely fun. I've never noticed much difference between renting a steamer and just using warm water. Scoring almost always helps. Once you get the adhesive wet, it will come off fairly easy although I have stripped some paper that made me fight for every square inch

Once the paper is stripped and the adhesive removed, you will likely need to make some repairs to the wall......... but that is the easy part

 

I see England in the location..so things may be different over there...

And a lot depends on the homes age. My parents moved into a house back in the 60's that was almost 90 yrs old at that time. 5-6 layers of wallpaper as I remember, lathe and plaster walls. Dad tryed all the basic stuff and wound up renting a commercial steamer from the paint & wallpaper store. Not one of the little home models you see now. Used a 2 x 2 ft plate to steam, raised the humidity/temp in the room to about 100%/120 degrees it seemed.

Kinda funny, winter prob 20 degrees outside, windows wide open and condensation just rolling down the glass.

Anyway, if the house is newer I liked using DIF enzyme gel and warm water in a sprayer and the scoring as Mark mentioned. If something called the Paper Tiger (I think) is available, it works quite well.

EDIT...btw..removing it is one reason why I hate wall paper. I'd rather paint anything, so much easier to change down the road.

 

Cheers guys for your quick reply.

I'll let you know how I get on! Happy New Year!

Matt & Sophie

 

I just got finished stripping the walls in a 90 year old house I bought. There was at least 5-6 layers on top of horse hair plaster. I scored the layers, soaked the walls with some cheap liquid fabric softner and water in sprayer then went to town with the razors blades. Alot of time and razors blades.