Good Question: Removing Wallpaper Glue?

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This question comes from our friend Kathy:

I'm removing 15-year old wallpaper in my kitchen. I've gotten it all down, but now I can't get the glue off the wall. I've tried straight vinegar and TSP, and have scrubbed the walls multiple times, but the glue isn't budging. I don't want to use anything too toxic, but I'm getting desperate. Any suggestions?

We consider ourselves lucky: We've never had to strip wallpaper. Has anyone else out there had a similar problem? How did you get the glue off?

image via Mark Wiewel; Flickr.com

Comments (8)

I'm no expert, but if I were to have this dilemma, I would try steaming and scraping it off with a putty knife. Or putting on goggles and a mask and sanding it off.

PS. Cute wallpaper.

DIF is an enzymatic gel that eats away the paste. I don't know how "green" it is, but it's probably better for the environment than TSP. You could also rent a wallpaper steamer.

soak it in fabric softener (downy) and wait until it's saturated and it'll peel right off.

DIF works quite well, so does Dawn diluted in water. Either one of those require lots of water and scraping and scrubbing with a very stiff brush. If the wallpaper was on drywall rather than plaster, you'd be better off putting up 1/4 sheetrock on top of the surface, because the water will damage the drywall.

Try Krud Kutter. It's a pump spray format. I've removed old tape residue, grease, pen marks among other things with it. Spray and let it sit for a bit. May require more than one application, but I've had great success with it.

We used a steamer to take down 2 layers of painted over wallpaper in our guest room. It was hot work, but it worked like a charm. Even the glue came off.

I've had success with an industrial strength "goo gone" type product when i was taking down closet shelves that were glued up with "tough as nails" (which, btw, IS tough as nails, and will rip chunks out of the drywall before it actually SEPARATES from the drywall).

In any case, it claims to be all-natural and seems to be really just orange extract of some sort (so it actually smells good). I found it in the hardware store, and its taken off just about any stubborn substance i can think of so far (grout, glue, caulk, etc).

We just finished taking down three layers of 30 year old painted over wallpaper. What a pain! The only thing that worked for us was a wallpaper steamer and a 6-in-1 Painter's Tool. We had to leave the steamer over the paper for 30-50 seconds before the glue would release, and scrape the paper and glue off before it became tacky.

Just be careful. We were very unfortunate to find that the first layer of wallpaper was put over bare drywall. We managed to get it and the glue off without damaging the drywall paper, but had to use a special primer called GARDZ to seal the drywall and ensure that it wouldn't crumble under the weight of texture and paint.