How do I use a wallpaper steamer?

A steamer removes wallpaper faster than anything else and damages walls faster than anything else, and the difference between those outcomes is a matter of seconds per patch.

Safety

Step by step

1. Protect the floor and clear the room.Wet paper falls in heavy strips. Polythene taped down over the whole floor, since soaked paper and paste stain carpets and are hard to lift once dry.
2. Turn off the electrics in the room.At the consumer unit, then tape over sockets and switches. Steam gets behind faceplates and it is the one genuinely dangerous part of the job.
3. Try stripping a corner dry first.Some papers, particularly modern non-woven ones, peel off dry in whole strips. Ten seconds of trying saves several hours of steaming.
4. Score non-porous papers.A scoring tool or a wallpaper tiger over vinyl, painted or washable paper. Steam cannot pass through the surface, so without scoring it does nothing at all.
5. Score lightly.Just through the paper. Pressing hard punches into the plaster and leaves hundreds of holes to fill, which is a common and tedious mistake.
6. Fill it with hot water.It reaches working temperature far faster. Follow the instructions, do not overfill, and never let it boil dry.
7. Work from the top down.Steam rises, so working downwards means the area below is being softened while you strip above it. It is meaningfully faster.
8. Hold the plate flat for ten to fifteen seconds.Flat against the wall, then move on. That is enough for most papers. If nothing lifts after twenty seconds, the problem is scoring rather than time.
9. Steam one area while stripping the last.Hold the plate on the next patch with one hand while scraping the previous one with the other. It roughly halves the time and the paper strips best while hot.
10. Do not over-steam one spot.Prolonged steam saturates the plaster behind. On old lime plaster and on plasterboard it blows the surface off, and repairing that is far more work than the wallpaper was.
11. Use a broad stripping knife at a shallow angle.A wide flexible blade, held almost flat. A narrow blade or a steep angle gouges the plaster, and every gouge is a fill-and-sand job later.
12. Expect several layers.Older houses often have four or five. Take them one at a time rather than trying to steam through the lot, which needs so much steam that the wall suffers.
13. Wash the wall afterwards.Warm water with a little washing-up liquid to remove residual paste. Paste left on the wall stops new paper or paint adhering properly.
14. Let the wall dry fully before doing anything else.Days rather than hours, with ventilation. Filling or painting damp plaster traps the moisture and the repair fails.
15. Consider hiring rather than buying.A hired commercial steamer is far more powerful than a budget domestic one and costs little for a weekend. For one or two rooms it is the better option.

Tips

• Steam the next patch while you strip the current one. Two hands working together roughly halves the job.
• If steam is not working, it is nearly always scoring rather than time. Vinyl and painted paper need the surface broken first.
• Hire a proper steamer for a whole room. Budget domestic ones run out of steam constantly and turn a day into a weekend.

Common mistakes

• Holding the plate in one place too long — It saturates the plaster behind and blows the surface off the wall, particularly on old lime plaster and plasterboard. That repair is far more work than the wallpaper.
• Scoring too hard — It punches through into the plaster, leaving hundreds of small holes that all need filling and sanding. Score just through the paper.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask