In order to form a new decorative wall covering, it is necessary to get rid of the old one first. As a material for decoration could be used vinyl wallpaper. Before you start deleting them, you need to familiarize yourself with what this material is. The main positive feature of it is the ability to wash the walls.
Vinyl wallpapers can be produced on a non-woven or paper basis. The structure of the material is similar to a pie, the upper layer of which is made of vinyl, the second is made of porous plastic, while the base is the lower layer. This structure allows you to hide the unevenness of the walls, which should be considered when applying a new finish. After all, it may require leveling the surface, sealing cracks and chips.
If you have a question about how to remove vinyl wallpapers from walls, you should know that they are classified in two varieties. The first is represented by a material resistant to mechanical influences, while the second variety is a coating that is resistant to moisture.
Preparatory work
If you wondered how to remove vinyl wallpaper from the walls, then first you need to clean the room, if possible furniture items are taken out, and those that are too large are covered with a film. The floor can be covered with polyethylene and newspapers, so as not to slip on the surface during the work.
At the exit of the room, a wet rag is laid so as not to spread the dust throughout the house. In order to exclude accidents, it is necessary to turn off the electricity, while lighting devices are best removed from the walls. As for the switches and sockets, the wallpaper under them should also be removed. To do this, the screws are unscrewed, and the wallpaper is torn off, after the switches can be reinstalled.
Tool preparation
If you wondered how to remove vinyl wallpaper from the wall, you will need to stock up on a certain set of tools, among them:
- roller;
- bucket;
- foam sponge;
- putty knife;
- masking tape;
- ladder;
- gloves.
When choosing a roller, you must prefer one that has spikes, it is also called a wallpaper tiger. The bucket will need to be filled with warm water, adding a dishwashing detergent. This will allow you to quickly remove the wallpaper. A foam sponge can be replaced with a spray bottle or a nap roller. In order to exclude damage to outlets, they are usually sealed with masking tape, after completion of work it can be quite simply removed.
Ways to remove vinyl wallpapers: using water
Quite often, home masters wonder about how to remove vinyl wallpaper from the walls. When it comes to plain paper coating, removing it will be quite simple. To do this, the surface is only wetted with water and left for some time for impregnation. After that, the material can be cleaned from the walls with a spatula or scraper.
But if the walls of the room have vinyl wallpapers, then they can have moisture resistance properties. However, water can still be used to remove them. In the first case, a roller with spikes should be used. If it was not possible to purchase it, then you can use a metal brush or an ordinary knife, however, such tools are less convenient to use.
Wallpaper has a multilayer structure, so when you remove them, you can save the wall without damaging it. Using one of the above tools, you need to perforate the top layer of the coating. As soon as this was done, the wallpaper must be moistened with water. You can add impurities to it, such as dishwashing detergent or a special liquid.
Recommendations for work
Quite often, owners of apartments and houses wonder about how to remove vinyl wallpaper from the walls quickly. Do not neglect the recommendation about the need to add special solutions to water. In this case, the composition on which the wallpaper was glued will dissolve easier and faster.
To wet the surface, you can use a spray bottle or an ordinary rag. However, do not use excessively large amounts of water, as you can damage walls and flooring. Once the material is saturated, you can proceed with the removal. Better to move up and down. The remaining pieces of material should be removed with a spatula.
If the finish does not lend itself, then it must again be moistened with water, this must be done as the surface dries. In some cases, the masters decide to leave a layer of vinyl wallpaper on the wall, this is true when the finish is held pretty tight.
Remove wallpaper using steam
If during the repair you also came across the question of how to remove old vinyl wallpapers from the wall, then you can resort to an alternative solution - the use of time. However, for this it will be necessary to find a steam generator, the simplest solution is an iron that has a steaming function. This method can be applied only after perforation of the protective decorative layer, only then you can start processing the surface with steam.
Under its influence, the glue will begin to swell, so the wallpaper can quickly be removed. Having resorted to this method, you not only clean the walls quickly, but also without dirt. You can supplement the effect of steam on the wall with a wet rag. In this case, the walls are heated with an iron through a wet rag. The effect will be the same as from the steam.
Use of wallpaper glue
If you have a question about how easy it is to remove vinyl wallpaper from the walls, then you can consider another technology that involves the use of wallpaper glue. Not only it is added to the water, but also a special liquid for removing vinyl wallpaper. This method is relevant when the old finish does not want to move away from the walls. The resulting composition must be treated with a surface and left for a couple of hours.
After the wallpaper, you can remove the whole stripes. You can remove the coating with a metal brush, sandpaper or a grinding machine. These methods, however, are more labor intensive. It is necessary to use them with maximum accuracy, because there is a possibility of damage to the walls.
Removing vinyl wallpaper from drywall
Quite often, novice home masters ask themselves the question of how to properly remove vinyl wallpapers from walls. Such a task can be posed even in the case when the wallpaper was pasted on drywall sheets. This material copes quite poorly with moisture.
Even if you used moisture-proof drywall, then excessive moisture for it can be traumatic. Old wallpaper in this case must be removed very carefully. Their top layer is perforated and wetted with water. It is better to use special tools. The technology remains the same as with water, but in this case its volume should be significantly reduced.
It will not be necessary to solve the question of how to remove vinyl wallpaper from the wall if the surface was previously covered with putty. Therefore, before starting repairs, you need to take care of this. Non-woven wallpaper in some cases can be stratified by removing only the top layer, which does not allow moisture to pass through. To do this, you need to pry the edges with a spatula or knife, but the base in this case is removed by soaking. If PVA glue was used for wallpapering, it is unlikely that it will be possible to maintain the integrity of drywall.
Specialist recommendations
In order to easily cope with the work of removing the old decorative coating, which no longer looks like before, you must first determine on what basis the wallpaper was created. In addition, you do not need to wet the entire surface of the walls at once, only small areas need to be processed. Otherwise, the wetted material will dry quickly, and the work will need to be carried out again. Solving this issue no longer means better. It is necessary to moisten abundantly, but you should not overdo it. This rule especially applies to drywall walls.
Conclusion
Removing vinyl wallpaper from walls is not too difficult. However, sometimes it is monotonous and time-consuming. In order to quickly begin to rejoice in a new repair, it is necessary to remove all things from the room and cover heavy items of furniture with polyethylene or newspapers. We should not forget about safety, for this the electricity is turned off. The use of special fluids will simplify the task; their purchase should be taken care of in advance.