How to Remove Wallpaper from Walls that Are Not Primed

Drag a wire brush across the wallpapered wall in a horizontal movement, barely breaking the surface of the wallpaper into slashes. Cover the wall with the brush slashes.

Cover the floor with a plastic tarp. Place layers of newspaper on top of the tarp. Put on rubber gloves. As the newspaper becomes waterlogged during the removal, discard the top layers. Replace the newspaper as needed.

Mix the wallpaper remover solution with hot water according to the chemical remover's instructions. Wallpaper remover is an enzyme that is absorbed by the wallpaper. The enzyme then dissolves the wallpaper paste.

Pour the wallpaper remover into a pressurized sprayer, such as one used for watering or weed-spraying a garden. You can rent a pressurized sprayer at home improvement stores. Spray the wallpaper remover solution all over the wallpaper. Keep the wallpaper saturated with the wallpaper remover solution until the wallpaper is soggy enough to scratch away with the putty knife. According to The Natural Handyman, if the wallpaper is vinyl, tearing the vinyl wallpaper from the wall is really your only choice because the wallpaper remover solution won't be absorbed.

Peel and scrape away the wet wallpaper with your fingers and a putty knife. Remove stuck-on wallpaper adhesive by spraying the wall lightly with the solution and scraping the paste away with a putty knife. Allow the drywall to air dry. You will need to repair the damage to the drywall because the paper surface has been damaged by the original wallpaper adhesive, as well as possibly by the wallpaper remover.

Wrap sandpaper around a sanding block and sand the drywall surface lightly to remove pits and bubbles. Vacuum the walls and area with a wet/dry vacuum cleaner.

Paint the walls with a water-based sealant created for repairing and sealing damaged drywall. This sealant is available at hardware and home improvement stores. According to Ask the Builder, the sealant is blue when first painted onto the damaged drywall so you can see that the sealant is covering the entire wall, but as it air dries, the sealant turns clear. Allow the sealant to dry.

Paint the sealed drywall surface with a layer of oil-based drywall primer. Allow the primer to dry. Oil-based drywall primer is available at hardware and home improvement stores.