Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

The Guardian, Saturday 11 December 2010

My walls are covered in Anaglypta paper (the pebbledash kind). If I try to remove it, the whole house will need replastering, and I am 72 and can’t face much upheaval. Do I just carry on applying fresh emulsion?

“Stripping and replastering is the best option, but there would be a lot of upheaval,” says DIY expert Julian Cassell. “Your next best option is to improve what you have, which will be quicker and less expensive. There are no products that smooth the textured surface of wallpaper, but a good decorator should be able to deal with it sympathetically. Lifted seams, dried-out overlaps and bubbling areas can all be stuck back with overlap adhesive, holes filled and sanded, and stains given an oil-based undercoat or stain blocker before the topcoat goes on. To give walls a fresh lease of life, try new colours: the World of Colour range from Focus DIY mixes old favourites with newer ones (about £12.99 for 2.5L).”

If you’re thinking of buying a wallpaper stripper – wallpaper steamer, steam stripper, or steamer (there are just so many terms for this tool!), you’ve clearly had enough of sponges and buckets of warm water, products in bottles that promise they make stripping so much easier, and scraping away till the small hours and cursing the fact that you keep digging holes in the wall. We’ve all been there, and to be honest, unless it’s a very small area of paper, I won’t even entertain stripping walls without having a wallpaper stripper to hand. read more »

Wallpaper seams and edges tend to lift and peel because the paper was not properly stuck down in the first place. When wallpaper is applied it is essential to check that all the edges have had sufficient paste applied, as even the smallest ‘dry’ patch will soon begin to lift or curl away from the wall. Lifting also commonly occurs on overlaps. read more »

Before wallpapering a room it is essential to prepare the walls so that they are in as good a condition as possible for hanging the wallpaper. If you need to strip the walls of their existing paper, see my guide ‘Stripping wallpaper‘. Fill any small holes in the walls with all-purpose interior filler. When dry, sand smooth and sand the remaining wall surfaces to remove any rough areas. The smoother you get the walls, the better the finish. If you are painting the ceiling and woodwork in the room, do this first, as it is much easier to wipe excess paste off painted surfaces than paint off wallpaper surfaces. read more »

It is always best to strip the existing wallpaper before repapering as it is often difficult to guarantee that the old wallpaper surface is sufficiently sound to accept a new layer. A steam stripper is the most efficient way of removing old wallcoverings. However, you can just use a bucket of warm water and a sponge to soak the paper before scraping it off. Take great care when using a steam stripper as you are effectively working with boiling water and steam. read more »