Have you ever had one of those days when you realize you DON'T know everything? I'm not a big fan, but I had one of those yesterday. The best thing about it is that afterwards if your diligent, you come that much closer to knowing everything:). So for me this day involved tackling a job not unlike many others I have done before. I am booked solid for the next four weeks, so I booked the "easy" one first, it was a mini half bath, one layer of wallpaper to be removed, put a finish treatment on walls. Piece of CAKE. I very much dislike stripping wallpaper, but sometimes it comes with the job, so I do it. However, yesterday I came to realize that the act of stripping wallpaper is exactly like childbirth, or just as painful, only with no sweet reward at the end. But I mean in the way that you completely forget just how painful it is until you do it again. I thought since it was only one layer and it was a tiny room, I would have that baby stripped by noon, but I gave myself a buffer and planned to be working on it until 1:00. Well, soon after I started stripping and the wallpaper was coming off in quarter size pieces with a struggle, I started to think this mini half bath looked more like the state of Texas, not to mention my 1:00 finish time seemed laughable. It turns out that the only thing separating the one layer of wallpaper from the wallboard was a flat primer which the wallpaper glue had decided to love and marry forever, so I was not only stripping wallpaper but the wallboard paper as well. Now this job has turned from a 3 day job into a week at least, and I don't have that long, so I went to research what to do. I found this great site that explained the differences between types of wallpaper. Apparently there are 3 types| 1. Strip able which peels off in big sheets when you pull on a corner. (In which case, the author suggests opening a bottle of chanpagne:)) 2. Peel able which is where you are able to pull of f the top layer in big sheets, but it leaves the paper backing, which you just soak and it scrapes off without too much trouble. And 3. Traditional, which is like newspaper super glued to your walls that you have to pull of in quarter size pieces. ( that is actually my interpretation since I deduced I had the 3rd one.) If you ask me the author had that backwards because a nice cold bottle of bubbly could have only helped my situation. Since I don't consider that to be a sound professional strategy, I simply decided to turn up my iPod louder and imagine I was on an archaeological dig. Even now that I am armored with all this knowledge, it doesn't change at all the fact that I will be spending the next four days and nights in this tiny space hard at work digging for buried treasure. However, I can share so that others may be spared.... If you are preparing to either wallpaper a room, have a room wallpapered or strip wallpaper in a space, you need to determine what kind you have and under no circumstances whatsoever, should you hang traditional wallpaper. I don't care how cheap it is, or how much you love it and think you will never want to change it! Don't do it! If you are removing wallpaper, check in a hidden spot and see what kind it is and if it fits the description of #3, you would be better off to patch any rough spots or seems and use a fine sander and sand the walls until smooth and then paint or paper over it. I would never suggest doing something because it is easier if that meant that you would have to sacrifice quality of the end result, but in this case, I think it is better for the walls to not strip it. If it is hard to remove, you risk getting it too wet, and gouging the wallboard. Good luck!
Until we meet again,
JD
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