Super Eco

Photo credit: baboon, flickr

Our old house didn’t have any wallpaper in it. Thank goodness in the 90 years the house existed, no one had been fool enough to apply wallpaper to plaster walls. Such was not the case with Chateau Travolta, our 1977 fixer-upper. The former owners, they loved their wallpaper. And I needed to get it off, safely and STAT.

Not only did the former owners love wallpaper, they loved borders. Borders graced all three bathrooms. Two bathrooms have since been freed of their sticky necklaces and one remains trimmed in sailboats. Although we hired a team to remove the full-scale country roses, I scraped off the borders myself, learning a lot about wallpaper removal in the process.

Wallpaper and Asbestos

Wallpaper applied before 1980 may actually contain asbestos, which, among other nasty things, can cause mesothelioma (a disease in which your tissues become inflamed and disrupts your internal organs).

Be environmental, but also be safe:

• If you can afford it, hire a professional who will take proper precautions to remove your wallpaper.
• If you can’t, invest in a respirator, which will protect you from particles in the air.
• Make sure the area in which you are stripping wallpaper has proper ventilation. Open a window (and a door).
• Immediately bag the stripped wallpaper and wallpaper backing instead of tracking it all over your house on your way to dispose of it.

Removal Strategies

About three months after moving in to Chateau Travolta, I couldn’t stand the lavender master bathroom for one more minute and decided to remove the borders, which were stuck on to the drywall solidly. Initially I bought a harsh chemical remover, but when I got it home and started reading the label, I saw a warning stating that the state of California said this product could cause cancer. I literally can’t believe this product is still on the shelves. If you want to check the chemicals in your wallpaper stripper (or any other household chemical) for hazards, check out the CDC’s Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards.

I opted to use hot water in a 99-cent spray bottle and a paint scraper instead. I found that using the wallpaper scoring tool created more work, because then the border wouldn’t come off in strips. I sprayed off the area I wanted to strip and followed it up with hot water on a towel until the area was thoroughly saturated. Wallpaper has two elements – the shiny part with the pretties and a paper backing. If you can get the shiny part off, the paper will peel right off with hot water.

The paint scraper was really my best friend in this process. I recommend keeping two or three around, as the glue and paper start to coat the edge of the tool after a while, making it difficult to insert under the edges of a new strip. As the scrapers start to get gunked up, you can toss them in a sink of hot water to soak until you’re ready for the next one.

Some people recommend mixing vinegar in with water used to remove the wallpaper. I found I didn’t need the vinegar and hate the way it smells, but vinegar is an environmentally safe and effective cleaning agent. Here's a site dedicated to cleaning with vinegar.

If you have a more recently applied border and you can’t catch an edge with your scraper, you may have to use a steamer. Steamers can be rented at most equipment rental (such as Sun Belt Rentals, which is nearly nationwide) or big-box hardware stores by the hour or by the day.  Using a steamer is faster than a water bottle, because you don’t have to keep reheating your water. And did I mention? It's nontoxic.

For the Wallpaper Lover

Not all wallpaper is evil – some new designs look nothing like the repetitive patterns of yesteryear and are shockingly stylish.

Wallpaper design and construction has come a long way from the asbestos-loving past, as well. Wallpaper made from recycled materials is available from companies such as LSI Wallcovering and the very hip Earthwhile. If you want to be really eco-friendly, here’s a recipe for making nontoxic wallpaper paste out of cloves, water, flour and alum.

If you apply new wallpaper yourself, you’ll probably end up with leftover wallpaper paste. Most wallpaper paste is water-soluble and can be disposed of safely, but if you prefer to really reuse and recycle and aren’t into mixing up your own batch in the kitchen, sell what you have left over on Craig’s List or Ebay. It’s a good idea to buy any supplies you can in this fashion, as well, so what’s floating around already in America doesn’t get thrown away.

After your walls are looking spiffy, recycle the leftover scraps or donate them to a church or daycare for kids to use for craft projects. If you're crafty yourself, check out these cute gifts to make with leftover wallpaper scraps.