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Classic paper and washable vinyl wallpapers fit into any interior. Finishing material is inexpensive and looks good on walls and ceilings. Fills the room with cosiness and creates a unique atmosphere. But when it comes time to update the repair, the wallpaper makes the apartment owners nervous. Both paper and vinyl varieties firmly adhere to the plaster or concrete surface. How to save time and quickly clean the walls?
Preparatory stage
It is impossible to remove the finishing material without dust and crumbling plaster. Furniture from the premises in which repairs will be carried out is transferred to free rooms or put on the balcony. Massive wardrobes, sofas and other objects are shifted to the center and covered with plastic wrap. The floor is covered with old newspapers, and plinths are sealed with wide construction tape.
It is advisable to disconnect the apartment. Electric wires are hidden under the wallpaper, which can simply be touched with a spatula or wet, causing a short circuit.
You can not do without a stable stepladder, comfortable old shoes and clothes that you do not mind stain. A drill with a grinding nozzle, sandpaper, a bucket of warm water and a package of glue will come in handy.
Spatula and kitchen knife
With a finishing coating that is more than 6-7 years old, tools with a sharp blade will cope. Old wallpapers separate from the walls due to dampness and time. You need to find swollen areas, peel off the peeled paper with a kitchen knife or the edge of a spatula, and then slowly pull. Paper varieties become dilapidated, so they can not be pulled sharply. Pieces, eaten into the plaster, pry off with a wide spatula. Islands that could not be separated from the base are treated with water or a grinder.
Vinyl and non-woven options are easier to remove. The canvas with a water-repellent coating is cut in the middle and pry off with a spatula edge. The lower half is pulled by hand, then the upper half is removed, and the remnants of the paper base are brushed off with a stiff bristle brush.
Caution: Do not rub the plaster or concrete wall too intensely, especially in old houses and apartments. The material crumbles and falls away, holes and dents remain. You have to spend extra time and finances on priming and leveling walls for new wallpapers.
Water treatments
Fresh finishing cloth, which is up to 4-5 years old, is pre-soaked. The liquid dissolves the glue and softens the paper, protects the plaster from destruction. Warm or hot water is suitable.
Wallpaper with a water-repellent coating is treated with a roller with sharp spikes. If the house does not have such a tool, a regular knife is useful. A sharp blade makes wide cuts around the perimeter. The more holes, the easier it is for the fluid to seep inside the paper layer.
Special solutions will cope with the wallpaper that ordinary water could not soften. The cloth glued to the wall using PVA is treated with laundry soap. The bar of detergent is crushed, poured into a pan. Pour 3-4 liters of water and, stirring, bring to a boil. In a hot billet, a roller or foam sponge is wetted. They impregnate the finishing material with liquid and wait 20 minutes for the soap to work.
Cloths with water-repellent properties are impregnated with a solution prepared from a fabric softener. 200-300 ml of chemical component is added to a bucket of liquid. The concentration is increased if there are several layers of finishing material on the wall.
Construction glue and PVA will dissolve table vinegar.Combine a bucket of hot water and 400 ml of the product. Chips from laundry soap are added to the mixture if the plaster is crumbling heavily, and the wallpaper is literally eaten at the base.
The solution is applied to 1.5–2 square meters. m. finishing material. It is impossible to process the entire room at once, because part of the room will dry out, and you will have to repeat the impregnation to clean the walls of wallpaper. Water softens the paper base of the rolls in 20 minutes; solutions work twice as fast.
The liquid agent is applied with a paint roller, a soft cloth or a large foam sponge. Wallpaper in old houses is sprayed from a spray bottle so that less liquid gets onto the walls. If you apply too much water, it can soften the plaster and putty.
Wet cloths are tucked away with a wide-blade trowel. The remaining pieces are sprayed from the spray gun and cleaned with sandpaper with a water-repellent coating or a metal brush. Choose varieties with stiff bristles.
The remains of wallpaper and plaster immediately sweep into a pile, so as not to trample the dirt on the floor. It is advisable to wipe the walls treated with soapy water with a sponge dipped in clean, warm water. The liquid will remove the remnants of powder and fabric softener. Household chemicals are absorbed into the concrete base and interacts with the glue, worsening its properties. New wallpapers will not hold well, they may swell and fall away on the first day.
Steam cleaning
High-quality glue, which could not be dissolved with water, is steamed with an iron. It will take a sheet or a thin towel, a bucket of water and an assistant to hold the fabric:
- A rag is dipped in a container with liquid, twisted and applied to the wall, covering pieces of finishing material.
- The iron is turned on and set to maximum temperature.
- With a hot device, iron the sheet several times.
- The rag is removed and quickly removed with a spatula, the remains of the wallpaper.
The paper web is softened with a steam generator or a steam cleaner. Household varieties are useful in the household. Devices eliminate dirt from outerwear and upholstered furniture. Construction steam generators have limited functions, which is why repair technicians buy such equipment.
Using a steam cleaner, iron the wall with a clean, dry sheet under the device. If you do not use a rag, dust and dirt get into the equipment, which can provoke damage.
Paper wallpaper is easier to work with. Ironed and took off. If you are steaming vinyl varieties or non-woven ones, it is recommended to first remove the water-repellent film, and then turn on the iron. Particles of paper that could not be removed in this way are scraped off with coarse sandpaper or a spatula.
Hot steam penetrates the putty, so the cleaned walls are dried for several days, and then primed and painted or glued new wallpaper. If finishing material is applied to a damp base, mold will appear.
Special compounds
People who do not have time to scrape and steam are recommended to buy a tool for instant wallpaper removal. The product is sold in hardware stores. Usually it is a powder or thick jelly that needs to be diluted with water. The most popular are Atlas Alpan and Quelyd Dissoucol.
In the solution prepared from the powder, the roller is moistened and the wallpaper is treated. On canvases with a water-repellent coating make small incisions. It will take 2-3 hours to dissolve the glue and soften the paper layer. Wallpaper will begin to lag behind the concrete base on its own. The canvases are tucked with a spatula or hands and stripped from the wall.
Manufacturers claim that solvents are safe and do not emit toxic fumes, but it is best to wear rubber gloves. Make sure that the product does not fall on open skin and mucous membranes.
Wallpaper pasted in several layers is treated with a special solution.Not only powder is added to the water, but also glue, so that the mass becomes thick, like jelly. Such a tool is better absorbed and softens all paper substrates.
Fancy options
Liquid wallpaper is one of the best inventions of mankind. Finishing material does not need to be scraped off and peeled off. The walls are sprayed with hot water and wait 2 hours. Wallpaper gradually absorbs moisture and swells. Some areas fall off on their own, others are easily removed with a wide spatula.
Cullets cannot be removed without special washes. The solution is treated with finishing material and left for several hours. When the canvases swell, they arm themselves with a spatula or kitchen knife and clean the wallpaper from the walls. After the procedure, the concrete base is dried, putty and primed.
Non-woven and vinyl wallpapers do not have to be removed completely. Tear off only the top layer with water-repellent properties. The paper bottom is left if the walls are even, without cracks and holes. New cloths are glued on top of old wallpaper.
Drywall
Concrete walls are not afraid of water and the grinder. Plasterboard partitions are covered with a paper layer. You can’t remove it, otherwise you will have to throw away the old plates and buy a new finishing material.
To clean the drywall base from wallpaper will help cheap construction glue. Several packages of powder are diluted with warm water. Stir so that there are no lumps, and apply a thick mass on paper or vinyl sheets. Leave for 3-4 hours. The product dries slowly, absorbed into the wallpaper. They swell and soak, so they are easily separated from drywall.
The glue should be thick so that it does not spread over the entire wall. The solution is applied in a thin layer, otherwise it will be absorbed into drywall. Sometimes a little primer is added to the workpiece. The tool will make the liquid to dissolve the wallpaper viscous. The mortar will dry more slowly, plus a primer will prepare the drywall walls for further repairs.
If in the closet there are old wallpapers of grandmother's times, rolls are not thrown away. The canvases are cut off and glued to the walls treated with glue with a primer. Old wallpapers soften and stick to the top layer. You just need to pull the edge of the canvas, and the walls will become clean. You do not have to get a spatula and turn on the drill.
Key recommendations
Thin paper sheets that could not be peeled off with water and special solvents are cleaned off with a drill. A brush with iron bristles is put on the tool and the concrete base is ground. The bumps remaining after removing the wallpaper, it is recommended to close up with acrylic putty. It is inexpensive and of high quality, suitable for leveling walls. The putty is applied with a stainless steel trowel so that it lies flat on the base.
Plasterboard plates will have to be replaced if the wallpaper was glued using PVA. In this case, neither a solvent, nor a sharp spatula, or a drill with a grinding nozzle will help.
Modern washable wallpapers are easy to stick on and take off. Old paper varieties will have to tinker with, but solvent and sandpaper will solve the problem. The main thing is not to forget to dry and prime the walls after removing the finishing material, so that the new wallpaper fits well and lasts more than one year.
Video: how to shoot old wallpapers correctly and quickly
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