Wallcoverings How To

Hanging Wallpaper or Borders is not hard to do, provided you have the correct products and procedures. Our friendly, knowledgeable staff will be pleased to guide you in achieving a successful installation - one you'll be proud of.

Easy to follow hanging instructions accompany each purchase, and our knowledgable staff can answer your questions.

REMOVING WALLPAPER OR BORDER

Over the past 20 years wallpapers / wall coverings and borders have changed dramatically, not only has the product been improved by way strength, durability and ease of hanging, but the ease in removal has been greatly improved too. This makes re-decorating much easier, cleaner and a lot less stressful.

If you follow these simple rules below, you might find the removal of your old wallpaper not so painful as you thought it might be. Before you start it is VERY IMPORTANT to be sure to turn off all electricity to any electrical switch or sockets. Water may run into these outlets and cause electric shock or a fire hazard.

There are basically 3 types of wall paper installed in homes today.

1. Solid Vinyl wall covering
2. Vinyl Coated wall covering
3. Regular wall paper (non washable)

Each requires a different method to remove, so it's IMPORTANT that you determine which type you have before you begin your project.

How do I know which type I have?

Easy! Go to any corner of the wall or find any seam in the wallpaper and 'pick' at a corner and see if the front face (or top sheet that has the pattern printed on it) peels away from the surface. If it does, then you have (A) Solid Vinyl wall covering and you have an easy day ahead of you, because most of these are so easy to remove. Simply go around the room and 'peel' off all these sheets, but keep them to use later on as drop cloths at the base board.

Once you have removed this first layer, you will more than likely see another thin layer of light brown paper remaining on your wall. This is the backing paper, which you have pulled the first layer from. If you are 're-hanging' a new wallpaper in this room, some customers 'do not' remove this backing paper from their wall, but use it as a lining paper for their new paper. However, it is essential you are sure this backing paper is 'soundly adhered' to your wall, or your new paper can pull it off when you try to hang over it. Look for tell-tell signs, such as: are any of the seams lose, or are there peeling edges or corners at the top or bottom of the sheets. If there are....do not attempt to hang over it, remove it!

This is easily done as follows:

• First use some old towels and place them at the edge of the baseboard, then cover these with some of the vinyl paper you previously peeled from the wall.
  
• In a bucket of hot water (2 gals) (use rubber gloves to protect your hands) add either 2 cup of A LIQUID LAUNDRY DETERGENT or 2 cups of WHITE (CLEAR) VINEGAR. Both help to soften and dissolve the paste behind the paper. Using either a LARGE PAINT BRUSH (4" min), SPONGE, OR SPRAY BOTTLE, apply one of these solutions GENEROUSLY over the wall starting from the bottom and working upwards. Do only 1 wall at a time....don't get too far ahead of yourself.
  
• After you have thoroughly wetted the wall, BE PATIENT and wait at least 5 minutes. Small blisters or bubbles will start to appear under the wet paper. Taking a 4" or 6" flat putty knife or scraper, start to scrape the paper off the wall, starting from the bottom and work your way upwards. If your paper does not come off easily, re-apply more of the solution and let it soak longer. When you remove this paper, let it fall onto your old sheets of paper (drop cloths) on the floor and when full, roll them up with the damp paper inside and discard in the trash bin. Once an entire wall has been removed of old paper, use FRESH CLEAN WARM WATER AND RINSE THE WALL DOWN THOROUGHLY to remove any traces of old adhesive or paste, etc.

(B) Vinyl Coated wall paper:

If the front face of your paper does NOT come off by pulling at a corner, but tends to break away in small pieces, you more than likely have a Vinyl Coated wall paper and your work ahead will be slightly harder, but not so hard if you follow these simple tips:

• It is important you scratch the surface of your paper to break down the vinyl coating, (which made your paper washable when you purchased it). If you don't do this you will be wasting your time wetting the surface as the water will simply run down the wall and onto your floor and not make its way through the paper to soften the paste. Scratching the surface will allow the water to penetrate the surface of the paper, which it must do to soften the paste behind it. You can do this using coarse sand paper (using wet n' dry paper keeps the dust down), pot scrubbers (3M Non stick pot scrubbers are ideal), or you can purchase a tool called a PAPER TIGER which you basically rub over the surface of the wallpaper and it makes 100's of small holes, so the solution can soak into the paper. We recommend using coarse wet n' dry sand paper, usually about 6 sheets will do an average room, rinsing them out frequently in clean warm water so they don't clog up too fast. Once you have scratched up the front face of the paper, simply follow the same method as you would for removing the paper above.

Regular wall covering, (Non-washable), grass cloth, etc:

• These are removed by simply soaking the paper off the wall as described above. Because these papers have no protective coating on them, the hot water will penetrate through the front and soften the paste, but please remember to use plenty of hot water and let the paper soak thoroughly. The more you allow your paper to soak, the easier your scraping will be and less work on you.

IMPORTANT! After you have removed your wallpaper and washed all surfaces thoroughly, it is VERY IMPORTANT you allow the walls to DRY THOROUGHLY before you attempt to re-hang paper or paint. Depending on weather conditions this can vary from 1 - 3 days.

With over 40 years experience in the Wall covering Business, we are here to help you. Should you have any questions or concerns about removing or installing your wall paper, please e-mail us michael@borderstore.com or feel free to telephone us during our regular business hours at 714-901-6704 (Please remember we are on the West Coast so allow for time difference).

Thank you,

Michael Arnell,
Owner
The Border Store