Tried a shortcut for removing wallpaper, ended up tearing drywall in 3 rooms

I bought a cheap steamer from the hardware store on Cedar Street for about $40 and thought I could speed through the job. After two hours of steaming and scraping, the paper came off but pulled chunks of the drywall paper with it in almost every spot. I had to skim coat all three rooms before painting, which cost me another $60 in joint compound and a whole weekend. Has anyone else had bad luck with those handheld steamers, or did I just use it wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_tara7d ago

Wait, did you let the steamer sit on the paper long enough? I used to swear by those cheap handheld steamers because my buddy said they worked great. But then I tried it on my hallway and yeah, same thing happened to me. I think you gotta hold the steamer on one spot for way longer than youd think, like a solid 30 seconds minimum, before you even touch the scraper. If you rush it and the glue isnt fully soft, the paper pulls the drywall facing off instead of coming clean. That extra weekend of patching is a hard lesson, I feel your pain.

xena_williams7d ago

My buddy did the exact same thing with a Wagner steamer in his bathroom and honestly the damage was way overblown. Like yeah the paper ripped in a couple spots but he just knocked down the little fibers with a quick sanding and threw some primer on it. You don't need to patch unless you gouged deep into the drywall itself. Most people overreact when they see the brown paper come off but that's just the facing, not the core. I think some of these horror stories get blown way out of proportion because nobody wants to admit they just didn't prep right.