Remove the annoying wallpaper borders

Wallpaper borders are the craze in the 80s and 90s. They are the perfect finishing touch to your home with the different designs available. However, nowadays, wallpaper borders are no longer in trend and can be an eyesore. Removing them can also be annoyingly difficult. Sometimes, a single method of removing them is not enough to completely clean your walls.

How to remove wallpaper borders

In general, there are three ways in removing the wallpaper border. Here are the ways and steps on how to remove them:

(!) Hair Dryer Method

• Set the hair dryer to its highest setting, plug it and blow the hot air at the corner and edge of the wallpaper. Heat it for around 30 seconds. This is to loosen the adhesive that was used to attach the wallpaper on the wall.

• Loosen the edge of the wallpaper with the use of a knife. Lift the edge of the wallpaper and peel it slowly. If the wallpaper is loose, continue peeling until it resists.

• Continue heating the unpeeled portion of the wallpaper border and slowly peel it away until the entire piece of wallpaper has come loose from the wall. Never rip the wallpaper off in strips. It will be more difficult to remove in the long run, since there will be pieces of wallpaper on the wall.

• If the wallpaper is not completely removed from the wall with the use of the hair dryer method, then another method may be used.

(2) Spray Bottle and Scraper Method

• With the use of spray bottle, fill it with stripper solution. Stripper solutions come in different solutions such as apple cider vinegar and water; liquid fabric softener and water; manufactured wallpaper stripper; warm water.

• If the wallpaper border is made from vinyl, score the border with the use of perforating tool. Without perforating it, the liquid solution may not be able to seep in. Scraping the scoring tool over the wallpaper border for several minutes will produce hundreds of tiny holes. Bear in mind that the perforating tool is made of plastic to prevent damaging the underneath surface. If perforating tool is not available, a plastic knife is suffice enough to make criss crossing pattern across the border.

• Spray the solution all over the wallpaper border until it is saturated. Allow the solution to saturate the wallpaper border for around 15 minutes.

• With the use of scraping tool, lift the edge of the wallpaper and start scraping it away and peeling it simultaneously. If the wallpaper is not peeled easily, spray more solution and let is stand for five minutes. Continue scraping and peeling the wallpaper until all of them come off.

(3) Steamer Method

• Wallpaper steamer is needed in this method. However, steamers like this are expensive. Therefore rent one, however if you feel that you are going to use it again in the near future, then you may purchase one.

• Run the steamer along the border so that the adhesive will loose. Start from the bottom to the top edge. Lift the border with your hand as they come loose.

• Continue steaming the border until it comes loose and lift them simultaneously.

• Clean and make sure that all traces of wallpaper and adhesive are removed from the wall. Remember that any remnants may ruin your paint or wallpaper job.