I used a steamer a long time ago and it seemed to work. I never tried chemicals so I can't make a comparison. I peeled the outermost layer off first then used the steamer for the rest. You have to be patient and allow the steam to penetrate. It may not be faster than what you're currently doing, but it is likely less damaging to the walls.

home depot rents steamers

About 10 years ago, my son purchased a home with wallpaper on every wall, put over unprepared drywall--AWFUL! We tried many methods but the steam worked best. Like amj0517 said, it is slow but permitted us to take off larger portions of the wallcovering at a time. They did also have to hire a drywall finisher to correct the damage done, though.

For my own home, I removed some wallpaper from my laundry room with vinegar and water and a scorer.

My opinion toward wallpaper in general is: Just say "No". The shelf-life of most designs is too short for the time it takes to remove.

I had a house full of wallpaper and the best method by far is to buy or rent a steamer. Will save you lots of time and aggravation. Not a fun job but the payoff is worth it.

Good luck:)

If you can grab a corner and try to peel off the top layer with the design and then just the paper backing is left on the wall it makes it a lot easier. I have always removed paper this way instead of trying to get it all at once. Then use a steamer, remover or fabric softener and that paper backing comes right off.

I agree with the above postings regarding the steamer, had a house full with unprepared walls. I would also say, cleaning as much goop of while using the steamer is a help too. It all dries later.
If you have only one room to remove wallpaper, might not make sense, but the cost of the steamer was pretty low. That might relieve the pressure a bit.
Best of luck to you, it will be worth your time and great to have behind you.

When we realized that our newly purchased home had 2 layers of wallpaper over unprepared drywall we immediately hired a pro. It was certainly worth the money. We had tried removing it in the laundry room and realized that we were only damaging the walls.

But I'll never forget the day I happened to open the door to the bedroom while he was steaming and there was a 2' cloud of steam over his head.

We purchased a home that had wallpaper in almost every room and some rooms had wallpaper on the ceiling. I used the paper tiger (to score the wallpaper) and sprayed with vinegar and water. I found the trick to this method was to spray it on and leave it for about 30 minutes in order to penetrate and soak into the base layer. It would then scrape off rather easily. The home was older but not sure how long the wallpaper had been up. Good luck. I feel your pain. I recently tried to strip the front door and door surround on our 1872 built home and it was agonizing. I ended up hiring a professional and it was money well spent I have to admit.

I've been there and done that, and I feel for you.
Took me many days to remove wallpaper from four rooms.
The walls had not been primed prior to papering, so removing it did damage them.
I tried everything mentioned above, but nothing stands out as helping all that much.

Oh my goodness yes get the steamer for sure! Been there, done that. Tried the spray stuff. Ended up in tears. Got the steamer and wondered why I hadn't done so in the first place. Worked the best. Make sure you have a nice, large tray (the part Yo hold against the wallpaper) and also a good assortment of scrapers. A wide one and narrow, too for small spaces.

Several years ago I had one wall of paper to remove (two layers). All the but backing of layer #1 came off. Tape and bed guy looked at it and said "leave it". If it's that hard to get off, it's not going to be a problem. When I get done with it you'll never know it was there. He textured right over it. If he did anything before the texture, I don't remember. I'm sure he hit some high spots with a sanding brick. That was 10 years ago and it looks EXACTLY like the other three walls with NO paper under them.

I removed wallpaper applied by others the same way that joaniepoanie did with great success. If you put new wallpaper up, give it a quick coat of wallpaper primer that's readily available and really cheap from the nearest big box store first. It makes wallpaper removal completely trouble free with nothing but undamaged walls left behind.

Quite a number of years ago I had to remove wallpaper from unprimed wallboard in several rooms. The wallpaper was vinyl coated, and after trying several methods, I found the best way was to gently sand off the vinyl surface, leaving the paper backing. (I used an electric sander). Then I used either chemicals or a steamer to remove the paper backing. The sanding was messy and I used a face mask, but it worked really well.

This post was edited by Kellysar on Wed, Nov 12, 14 at 0:22

I have rented a steamer too. Works very well