Primsong
Oregon
Posts: 1719
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| Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:33 pm Post subject: Removing old wallpaper |
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We are in the process of getting a condo ready for a friend to move into, so this evening I had to go rent a steamer and spend several hours steaming off old wallpaper from the bedroom walls. Well...first I had to figure out the steamer, lol... I've never used one before. Thankfully they're not too complex. I found the steamer worked well enough to soften the old paper and let it be pulled off, then I scraped the undercoating with a plastic scraper (a putty knife was recommended, I used a car ice-scraper, lol...).
The wallpaper had been there who-knows-how-long, it was a peachy-pink floral calico type pattern, rather yellowed with age. My guess was it had been there about as long as the condos, which would make it 30+ years old.
As I went along slowly peeling and scraping and steaming I noticed the ugly gold wall underneath had odd smears of white, not quite like patching... and then realized I had two letters. L and V.
More steaming and peeling and behold... a message, large painted in white across the gold began to appear. L - O - V - E.
Well, I thought, Love is a nice thing to have on the wall. Certainly better than other graffiti I've seen... maybe they were hippies....
Steam, steam, scrape, scrape, peel...
Y - O - U
Hm!
Steam, steam... and sure enough, an I appears to one side, then a comma.
B.
P.
I finally cleaned up all the sticky bits of steamed gluey paper and could behold the finished result. A gold wall with patching where the nails were and large white letters:
I LOVE YOU, B.P.
Who was B.P.? Were they the lover or the lovee? What had become of them? Were they yet living, and if so did they ever remember how they had left, perhaps on some sunny day in their impetuous youth, this cheery message upon a wall "because no one will ever see it anyway, it'll be under the wallpaper"?
Modern archaeology. Stories we'll never know.
And now, that being done, I am facing stripes of extra wallpaper glue still on the wall. I have been told that TSP might take it off - or maybe floor-wax stripper? Anyone have thoughts on what concoction to attempt next before I have to go mix it up?
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Droopy
 Regular Plants Contributor
Western Norway
Posts: 9272
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| Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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A wonderful find, I'm quite touched by it.  We found nothing like that underneath the old wallpaper. Just more wallpaper.
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The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
-Bertrand Russell
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eileen
Forum Moderator
Scotland
Posts: 18013
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| Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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After just having to scrape the wallpaper and paint off the bathroom walls all I found was some hideous old paper covered in what looked like buttercups!!! 
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kuntrygal
Texas ~ Zone 8
Posts: 3436
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| Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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That reminds me of the HGTV show "If Walls Could Talk". You can imagine many scenarios to the writing. 
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Gaylyn ~ 2277 ~
"I'm so far behind, I thought I was first"
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, It's about learning to dance in the rain"
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StarLiteFarms
Oklahoma, Piedmont
Posts: 134
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:44 am Post subject: |
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if your state/country is like ours, you can see privious owners names on deeds thru your local county's office.. we just gotta search on websites (; (kinda skeery)
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Horses and Cows and Chickens OH MY! Manure anyone?! (;
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stratsmom
Southern Oregon
Posts: 2282
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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That's just too cool  What a sweet story. I've never stripped old wallpaper. I've put plenty up and then moved before it was time to change it
Deanna
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CritterPainter
Washington State
Posts: 1425
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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What a fun mystery!
OK, dampen the wall with hot water mixed with vinegar. Press newspaper against this and sponge more hot vinegar-water on that. Let it sit for awhile and it should come right off. TSP cleans things up but has quite a few nasty side effects, I only use it after trying other things.
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Mary 
I have a mind like a steel...sieve
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Primsong
Oregon
Posts: 1719
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| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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The vinegar helped, though we did end up with some TSP also - thanks Critter. I had to start painting it over with primer last night, so I took a picture first. 
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qphomedecor
Broken Arrow, Ok
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 6:34 am Post subject: |
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That is an awesome story, you never know what you might find under there. It would be really neat to know who wrote it and what became of them.
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cezz
philippines
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:27 am Post subject: |
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Vinegar is very useful!! We also use vinegar in removing old wall paper.. But the suggestion of Critter is much easier and effective because he suggest hot vinegar while we just use warm vinegar and we didn't boil it. nice so what color you choose in your wall?
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Dave
Lagrange Indiana
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:25 am Post subject: |
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Nice story I never found any thing but more paper like 3 layers and paint in between making the task much harder. But the finished product was wonderful. You said you were priming then painting so thank you for taking all the steps to a proper finished product. Hope your friend enjoys your hard work for many years. Great project.
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