What is the most effective way of removing 30-year old wallpaper?

There is a tool you can buy, called a Paper Tiger, that perforates the wallpaper with depth-adjustable blades. Then you wash the wallpaper with a solution that can then soak into the cracks, loosening the glue. The Paper Tiger won’t damage Gyprock surfaces underneath the paper. It comes in two sizes — single head, for smaller surfaces, and triple-head, for covering larger surfaces in a time-efficient manner. They cost about $25 and $45, respectively. Or you could hire a steamer for about $30 a day. A steamer often creates the least amount of damage to the wall behind. However, in rare cases, the wall may have been properly prepared, and most of the paper will simply steam away.

DIY rendering

Mixing the render “ingredients” is ideally done with a cement mixer; you could use a wheelbarrow but it’s a lot of elbow grease. The Sydney Building Information Centre says the materials themselves are not expensive — about $5 a square metre for a 10mm-rendered interior wall; paying someone adds about $30 a square metre to the cost. But it might be worth it: for rendering, it’s essential you get the proportions of cement, sand, time and certain other ingredients just right. Otherwise the job could be unsafe. Visit the Cement & Concrete Association’s website (www.cement.net.au) for more information.

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