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Prepare Steamer and Wall for Removal

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How to remove wallpaper. Tips removing wallpaper with a steamer.

What happens here

Before starting the steaming process, remove all electrical outlet and switch plates from the wall using a screwdriver. Once the area is clear, plug in the electric wallpaper steamer and fill its reservoir with water. The steamer has a black cap on top that unscrews for filling. It also features a full indicator to show the water level. Allow approximately 15 minutes for the steamer to heat up and produce steam. While working, ensure the drop cloth is positioned directly against the baseboards to absorb any steam or water running down the wall, preventing it from soaking into the carpet or flooring.

Goal: Get the steamer ready and protect the surrounding area from water damage.

Tools and materials

  • Drop Cloth — Floor protection
  • Screwdriver — Removing wall plates
  • Tupperware Container — Transferring water to the steamer reservoir
  • Water Tap water — Generating steam in the steamer

What they say

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the drop cloth up against your baseboards at all times, so the steam and water that's running down will actually be absorbed into the drop cloth and not the carpet. You got to be patient. You just hold the steamer in one area and it's going to actually steam, soften up the glue, soften up the paper. You begin scraping that area and then move your steamer over. Removing wallpaper is um a long task. Takes patience. Doesn't come off fast. Doesn't come off easy. Typical 10 by 12 walls take approximately 2 hours. This has been about an hour and 45 minutes on this wall here. When you're using a potty knife, you want to make sure the paper is nice and soft. Use the putty knife when you put it up against the wall. Make sure it's flat so it doesn't gouge the walls. If you make too many gouges and marks, you're going to have to retexture the walls. About 50% of the walls that you remove wallpaper from, you're going to have to retexture the walls. That's pretty common. See, she's holding the rough paper removal tool with one hand, taking the paper off with putty knife with the other hand. She'll switch it back and forth. Use both hands. That way you're one hand doesn't get tired doing all the work picking the paper off. You can see the dark layer is the vinyl layer. The lighter layer is the paper layer that has the glue on it. If you patiently remove the wallpaper, the wall should look nice and clean just like this. the steamer. Once you load the steamer wrap with water, it'll take about 15 minutes for it to heat up. So, as soon as you get to the job site or or where you're going to remove wallpaper, you want to actually fill up the steamer with water. We use just a little Tupperware container that we fill up with water. Then, you empty it into the steamer. The steamer itself has a black cap on the top right here. This black cap will just unscrew. Just fill it up with water and then you just plug it in to any 110 outlet. Actually has a full marker. We actually go a line to show it where it's full. But it there's an indicator right there that tells you how much water is left in the steamer. Occasionally you're going to have to fill the steamer up with water.

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