How to Remove Wallpaper With Wallpaper Glue & Water

Remove the furniture from the room, or move it to the middle of the room and cover it with plastic tarps or dropcloths. Lay dropcloths down over the entire floor surface--this is a messy job.

Locate a seam in the wallpaper (check the corners of the room). Using your putty knife, pry up as much of the wallpaper from the seams as you can. Remove the wallpaper slowly to avoid tearing: the more wallpaper you can remove with just the putty knife, the less mess you will create.

Gently score the sections of wallpaper that remain with your utility knife or wallpaper scoring tool. If using the utility knife, take care not to cut too deeply, or you will scratch the wall underneath. The wallpaper scoring tool is designed to prevent this problem.

Soak your sponge or paint roller in warm water. Wring it out a bit, and then apply to the stubborn sections of wallpaper that remain. The goal is to get these areas wet enough to loosen the wallpaper glue, but not to soak them.

Attempt to remove the wetted sections with the putty knife. Some areas may require repeated wettings before they loosen. For very old wallpaper, consider using a chemical wallpaper remover, available at any hardware store. The wallpaper remover will work more quickly than warm water alone.

If any areas of wallpaper remain, simply sand it off using 80-grit sandpaper. Wash the walls with a mixture of TSP (available at any hardware store) and water to remove any invisible traces of wallpaper glue.