wallpaper

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Amy, as long as it hasn't been on for a really long time--say 40 years, has not been painted or papered over and the paper was applied to a correctly prepared wall, the paper should come off easily. If you don't take the old paper off, you or someone else will have a real difficult time removing the old paper for the next change of paper. One other issue is that it becomes harder to fix the little dents and dinges that all walls get as the paper gets older. Spackling or patching papered walls will not get them as flat as your drywall or plastered walls can be. Processes like spackling, since the spackle can contain water, may actually cause problems by partially releasing the paper.

I have a feeling that many of the reported problems that we see on this forum about removing wallpaper are because the paper is vinyl faced. If you are aware that the paper is vinyl faced, the removal can be a lot of fun. About any 4 year old kid can remove the vinyl facing and many have. Once the facing has been removed, removal of the remaining paper is really easy. Removal of vinyl faced paper without removing the facing is almost impossible but, as I said, removal of the facing is easy and fun.

You can use vinegar or DIF to aid releasing of the glue but really hot water, with or without these, is the bigger problem-solver. For some of the really old paper, which used different glue that is commonly used today, you may have to resort to using a steamer for removal.

Henry in MI