When it comes to decorating, the removal of old wallpaper often leaves plenty of glue on the walls. This can be very hard to remove, yet doing so is essential to making sure you can get a much cleaner, smoother finish at the end. If you want to paint or even re-wallpaper the wall, the best finish will come from getting rid of old glue. How, though, do you go about making this arduous task a little bit easier?
Getting started
First off, make sure you get rid of all of the wallpaper in terms of the top layers. Once you have stripped the paper, you should just be left with the glue to remove for the most part. Start by emptying the room of all contents as best you can in terms of furniture and objects that might get in the way or block your work. Cover up anything you cannot remove with tarp or dust sheets.
Also, be sure to cover up any electrical outlets with a painters tape. The glue cleaning solution is pretty moist, and you want to avoid that getting into the electrical sockets and causing faults. You might even wish to turn off the electrics entirely in that area you are working. Prior to getting mixing to clear the glue, be sure to cover the flooring with some dust sheets and/or tarp – though tarp should be secured in place otherwise it’ll be getting caught up in your feet!
Creating & using the solution
Start off by taking a large mixing bucket and put in a mixture that contains one gallon of hot water, and a teaspoon of washing up liquid. Also, add in some white distilled vinegar, and mix this extremely well. You might need to keep on mixing and it might also have to be remade if the water goes cold. You need hot water to ensure the best results.
You will also need a second bucket, smaller in size, that simply have clean hot water within. This will be used to wipe all of the walls down after you have gotten rid of the glue. Try and wear gloves, too, so you avoid the risk of scalding your hands as you clean.
To wipe down your walls, you will need a stepladder to give you the length needed to reach each part of the wall. Start using the solution on the wall from top to bottom, making sure you are catching as many sections as you can. You could do this with a simple sponge, dipped into the solution until it is wet. With this solution, the glue should start to peel off with little resistance.
After a few moments of allowing the mixture to seep in, using a microfiber cloth that is damp with the solution. Wipe on the glue areas and it should begin to really peel off now. You might need to keep on going back at it, perhaps even adding in some baking soda to the microfiber cloth, to get off the most stubborn wallpaper glues.
Finishing up
Once finished, you should rinse the wall with the warm water that is free from solution. Once done, dry the walls down with a dry set of towels and cloths, and then come back the next day to see how it looks. You should notice a pretty major difference, with all of the glue that was rubbed at gone. Happy peeling!