Fix It Britain

Knowing how to strip wallpaper properly is the difference between a wall that’s ready to paint by the weekend and one that’s gouged, torn and needs a plasterer. Most paper comes off with water, patience and the right scraper; a steamer handles the stubborn stuff. This guide walks you through identifying what’s on your wall, picking the right method, and leaving the surface clean enough to decorate.

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At a glance

• Difficulty: Easy to moderate – easy for peelable paper, slower for painted woodchip or many layers
• Time needed: Roughly half a day to a full day for an average bedroom, plus overnight drying before you fill or paint
• Best time to do it: Any time of year, but autumn and winter suit it well – it’s an indoor job, and you can open windows to clear the steam
• Best for: Anyone redecorating a papered room, especially older houses with woodchip, painted paper or several layers

Know what you’ve got before you start

Pick a corner near a door frame or behind where a sofa sits, lift the edge of a seam with a scraper and see what happens. Most wallcoverings in UK homes fall into one of these groups:

• Peelable vinyl (two-layer): Common in kitchens, bathrooms and newer builds. The plastic top layer peels away dry, leaving a thin paper backing on the wall. The backing then soaks off with water.
• Ordinary (non-vinyl) paper: Plain or patterned printed paper. Warm water with a little washing-up liquid usually does the job – practicalDIY reckons this method is enough for most plain and patterned papers.
• Washable paper: Has a thin protective coating that water beads off. You’ll need to break that surface (scoring or abrading) before water or steam can get through.
• Woodchip and painted paper: Very common in houses decorated in the 1970s and 80s, and often painted over several times. Paint seals the paper, so these are the slowest to remove and almost always need a steamer.
• Lining paper: Plain paper hung to smooth out poor plaster, often painted. If it’s sound and well stuck, you may be able to paint over it.

Next, check what’s behind the paper. Knock on the wall: a solid, dull sound usually means plaster on brick or block; a hollow sound means plasterboard (drywall), which is normal on stud walls and in many houses built from the 1970s onwards. Plasterboard has a paper face of its own, and if you soak or steam it too hard, that face can soften and tear away with the wallpaper. On plasterboard, use less water, keep steaming brief and keep your scraper as flat as possible.

An important safety check on older textured walls. Wallpaper itself isn’t an asbestos risk, but textured coatings such as Artex can be. Textured coatings applied before the year 2000 may contain asbestos, because white asbestos wasn’t banned in the UK until 1999. If you find a swirly or stippled textured coating under the paper (or the paper is stuck over one), stop. Don’t score, scrape, sand or steam it. Get a sample tested first and follow the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on asbestos in the home.

What you’ll need

• Dust sheets (polythene is best for wet work, with a cotton sheet on top to stop it being slippery)
• Masking tape or decorator’s tape
• A wide stripping knife (75–100mm) and a narrower one for edges
• A bucket, large sponge and warm water with a squeeze of washing-up liquid – or a garden pump sprayer
• A wallpaper scoring tool or coarse abrasive paper (for washable or painted paper)
• An electric steam wallpaper stripper (bought or hired) for painted, woodchip or multi-layer paper
• Wallpaper stripping solution (optional, helps on stubborn paste)
• Rubber gloves, safety glasses and long sleeves
• Strong bin bags, a step ladder or hop-up, and clean cloths

Step 1: Prepare the room and make it safe

Move furniture out, or into the middle of the room under a sheet. Lay polythene sheeting along the skirting and tape its edge to the skirting board so water and soggy paper can’t creep underneath onto carpet or floorboards. Take down pictures, curtain poles and shelves.

Water and electricity are the real hazard here. Checkatrade recommends taping over all sockets, and it’s wise to go further: switch off the power to that room’s sockets and lights at the consumer unit while you’re wetting the walls near them, and use the steamer from a socket on a different circuit (via an extension lead, if you need one, kept off the wet floor). Never loosen socket or switch faceplates to get paper from behind them – that’s work for a qualified electrician if anything looks damaged. Open a window – steam can set off smoke alarms.

Step 2: Peel off anything that will come off dry

Always try the easy route first. Lift a bottom corner of each length with your scraper and pull. If it’s peelable vinyl, the top layer should come away in long strips. Keep your pull low and slow – if the strip starts narrowing to a point, change direction and pull sideways to widen it again. Bag the strips as you go so they don’t become a slip hazard.

Whatever’s left – usually the backing paper – gets soaked in the next step. Don’t paint over backing paper – it was designed to release and tends to bubble under wet paint.

Step 3: Score or abrade washable and painted paper

Water can’t soak through a washable coating or several coats of emulsion, so you need to open the surface up. Run a scoring tool lightly over the wall in overlapping circles, or rub with coarse abrasive paper in small circles roughly every 10mm, as practicalDIY suggests. Light pressure is enough – you’re breaking the surface, not the wall.

Don’t score paper that doesn’t need it. On plain paper it just makes the paper come off in shreds and risks marking the plaster. Only score if water still runs straight off after a few minutes.

Step 4: Soak the paper and give it time

For ordinary paper and vinyl backing, wet a section of about a square metre with warm water and a little washing-up liquid, using a big sponge or a pump sprayer on a fine mist. Start at the top and work down, so water runs behind the paper below. practicalDIY suggests leaving it for around half an hour, then re-wetting any areas that still feel tight for another 15 minutes.

The paper is ready when it looks dark and evenly soaked, and the paste has softened – press it and it should feel loose rather than firm. If you’re using a stripping solution such as Zinsser DIF, follow the label: its technical data sheet says most paper is ready two to ten minutes after application, with a further 15 minutes and a second coat for stubborn patches. On plasterboard, wet smaller areas at a time and don’t let the board get saturated.

Step 5: Use a steamer for stubborn, painted or woodchip paper

Fill the steamer with clean water only (no washing-up liquid), stand it on a level spot and let it heat up – this usually takes several minutes. Rest the plate on a heatproof board between uses.

Start at the bottom of the wall, because steam and heat rise and will start softening the paper above. Hold the plate flat against the paper; thin paper may soften in 5–10 seconds (Checkatrade’s figure), while heavily painted woodchip can take closer to a minute. Lift, scrape the softened patch, then move on. If you hear a pop or see plaster crumbling, you’re holding it there too long – over-steaming can blow old lime plaster and soften plasterboard’s paper face.

Be careful above head height: hot water condenses in the plate and can drip, so stand to one side rather than directly under it, keep sleeves down and wear glasses. Never refill the steamer while it’s hot; switch it off, unplug it and let it cool first, exactly as the manual says.

Step 6: Scrape with the blade almost flat

Technique matters more than force. Hold a wide stripping knife at a shallow angle – practicalDIY suggests about 30 degrees – and push it under the softened paper in short strokes. If the knife is skidding or digging in, the paper isn’t wet enough yet: stop and re-soak rather than scraping harder.

Use the narrow knife around light switches, sockets and window reveals. On plasterboard, if you see brown paper coming away with the wallpaper, you’ve gone through to the board’s face – ease off, and treat that patch in Step 8.

Step 7: Wash off the old paste

This is the step most people skip, and it’s why new paint cracks or new paper won’t stick. Old wallpaper paste left on the wall can stop emulsion bonding properly. While the walls are still warm and damp, wash them section by section with hot water and a sponge, rinsing the sponge often and changing the water when it gets cloudy. A dilute stripping solution helps shift stubborn paste.

Run your hand over the wall when you’ve finished. If it feels slippery or slimy, there’s still paste there – go over it again. When it feels clean and slightly grippy, it’s done. Then leave it to dry, at least overnight.

Step 8: Inspect, repair and get ready to decorate

Once the wall is dry, look at it in raking light from a torch held flat against the surface. Small dents and holes can be filled and sanded once dry – see our guide to filling holes in plasterboard.

Where plasterboard’s paper face has torn and gone fluffy, don’t paint straight over it – water-based paint will make it bubble. Seal it first with a stabilising primer designed for damaged plasterboard paper, let it dry, then fill and sand. If the walls are bare, newly exposed plaster, the usual approach before emulsion is a thinned “mist coat” that soaks in and gives the top coats something to grip. When you’re ready for colour, our guide on painting a room without streaks picks up from here.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Scraping before the paper is soaked. Dry scraping tears paper into tiny pieces and gouges the wall. More water and more waiting is nearly always the answer.
• Scoring everything by default. Only score washable or painted paper. On plain paper it just makes the job slower and can mark the plaster.
• Over-steaming one spot. Holding the plate too long can blow plaster or soften plasterboard. Keep moving, and stop if you hear a pop.
• Soaking near live sockets. Tape over sockets and switches, and isolate that circuit at the consumer unit while you’re working with water near them.
• Leaving paste on the wall. It stops paint bonding and can cause cracking and peeling. Wash until the wall no longer feels slimy.
• Disturbing old textured coatings. If there’s Artex or similar under the paper, don’t scrape, sand or steam it until a test confirms it’s asbestos-free.
• Painting too soon. A wall that feels dry on the surface can still be damp underneath. Give it overnight at least.

When to call a professional

Call in help if you find a textured coating that could contain asbestos (an asbestos surveyor or licensed contractor), if large areas of plaster come away from the wall or sound hollow when tapped (a plasterer), or if sockets and switches are cracked, scorched or loose once the paper is off (a qualified electrician).

Frequently asked questions

What is the easiest way to strip wallpaper?

Try peeling first – a lot of modern vinyl paper is designed to come off dry. For anything left, warm water with a little washing-up liquid, applied generously and left to soak for around half an hour, is the easiest and cheapest method. Save the steamer for painted, woodchip or washable paper that water alone won’t shift.

Can you strip wallpaper without a steamer?

Yes. Most unpainted paper comes off with soaking alone, and a stripping solution helps with stubborn paste. It just takes longer; heavily painted woodchip is where a steamer really earns its keep.

How do you strip wallpaper from plasterboard without damaging it?

Use as little water as possible, work in small sections, keep steaming short and hold the scraper nearly flat. If the board’s brown paper face starts lifting, stop in that area. Seal any torn patches with a stabilising primer made for damaged plasterboard before you fill or paint.

Should I strip wallpaper or paint over it?

Stripping almost always gives a better, longer-lasting finish, because water in emulsion can make old paper bubble and seams show through. Sound, well-stuck lining paper is the main exception and can usually be painted.

How long should walls dry after stripping wallpaper?

Leave them at least overnight with good ventilation, longer if you used a lot of water or steam, or if the room is cold. Bare plaster should look an even, pale colour with no darker damp patches before you fill, mist coat or paint.

Related guides: How to Paint a Room Without Streaks · How to Fill Holes in Plasterboard Walls