Figuring Out How To Remove Old Wallpaper Was No Picnic For Me

Figuring out how to remove old wallpaper was no picnic for me. I have heard that wallpaper removal is supposed to be easy, but it was not the case in my house. The problem with removing wallpaper is that you never know exactly how it was put up. Back in the day, the philosophy with wallpaper was to use glue that was as strong as possible. Wallpaper removal in these houses is next to impossible, because it is attached so thoroughly. Basically, you will want to put new wallpaper over the old wallpaper instead of removing any of it. Removing it, after all, is likely to cause you to scar the walls.
When I first started doing some home renovation, I thought that I could probably handle wallpaper removing by myself. It turns out that I could not. Wallpaper removal is tricky. I ended up causing so much damage that it would've made sense to hire some wallpaper removal experts. I just could not get it off, no matter how hard I tried. I tried every trick that I could find. I treated the wallpaper, soaked it, used different kind of scrapers, but nothing worked. By the time I decided that it might be more efficient to just paint over it, there was already enough wallpaper removed that I would have messed up the painting job. It would have come out lumpy and lopsided. That would never do!
The problem is that painting over wall paper is often no better than wallpaper removal. Sometimes, if the wallpaper is a bright color or if it is textured, you need so much paint that it takes about as much work as removing it would take. But it will not look good - it will look slathered on because it will be so thickly coated. After you put three or four coats of paint on and can still see the wallpaper under it, you will understand just what I mean. By then, however, it will be too late. There are some colors of paint that are hard to paint over, but wallpaper is even harder.
I actually learned some valuable lessons from my adventures with wallpaper removal. I realized that it makes more sense - especially if you have old, thick wallpaper - to put up new wallpaper than to remove the old wall covering and paint over it. It will look just as good, and it would be a lot less effort that way.