Remove glass fiber wallpaper yourself - instructions in 6 steps

• Problem - fiberglass wallpaper
• Remove fiberglass wallpaper
  • 1. Soak glass fiber wallpaper
  • 2. Apply scraper
  • 3. Remove fiberglass wallpaper
  • 5. Sand down the glass fiber wallpaper
  • 6. Dispose of fiberglass wallpaper
• Fiberglass wallpaper has thinned

Removing fiberglass wallpaper yourself can be quite easy, but is often fun for yourself. This manual will give you a step-by-step plan that will also get you a time-honored thick-layer fiberglass wallpaper off the wall.

Very old fiberglass wallpaper can sometimes be softened with water from the wall, subtract quite new fiberglass wallpaper sometimes in one go. In between, there are glass fiber wall coatings that have reached the thickness of a plaster layer over time with adhesive and multiple coating over time. You will also get them from the wall with the following instructions, and if in extreme cases not much wall (plaster) is left, the plaster will be presented, creating a dreamlike living environment:

Problem - fiberglass wallpaper

The fiberglass wallpaper consists of glass fiber, an artificial mineral fiber made of bottle glass or window glass, sand, soda, lime and various chemicals. These glass fibers are interwoven on a huge weaving machine for fiberglass wallpaper, then fixation is then still finishing, adhesive, paint (with other chemicals). Glass fiber wallpaper is of very dense structure and virtually indestructible, the material is shockproof, unbreakable, waterproof, fairly fire-resistant and rot-proof. It withstands effort for up to three decades effortlessly.

Even the glass fiber wallpaper alone can bring a pretty thick layer on the wall and if the three-way composite of glue, wallpaper and paint is already getting a bit old, it is perhaps already by the painting over the six-composite (maximum 12-composite, Fiberglass wallpaper should be able to be painted over 10 times), which has inseparably connected.

Imaginative people are already shaking moderately when they think about removing the fiberglass wallpaper, but it gets even better, with the pollutants that could "fly around" your ears when you remove them:

• Fiberglass wallpaper is not carcinogenic
• From cut, cracked, cut wallpaper creates fine glass dust, which is possibly respirable
• Glass dust can irritate the skin

When removing glass fiber wallpaper, you should therefore provide adequate protection (safety goggles, appropriate respiratory mask, full-body suit that is disposed of after work, gloves, etc.).

Skirting boards, doors and windows should be masked beforehand to protect the material from damage when applying the filler.

Remove fiberglass wallpaper

Removing fiberglass wallpaper can sometimes be quite easy (but usually it is not), so you grope your way to the cause:

1. Soak glass fiber wallpaper

If you are dealing with a really old fiberglass wallpaper, it could be paper-backed on the back. Perforate a corner and soak it with water + some rinse, after some time you can check if the wallpaper comes off. If so, you've got the jackpot and can now start fetching the fiberglass wallpaper with water and rinse from the wall.

You can use additional wallpaper peelers from the trade, but it should bring little more than Spüli (except for more costs).

But not everyone gets the main prize, usually the wall coating consists of pure fiberglass, glue and paint. Thick glass fiber wallpaper, solid adhesive, possibly several layers of paint, water, Spüli, - soaking brings nothing here.

The variant often proposed at this stage, simply repainting the glass fiber wallpaper, is at best for people interested in healthy living environment when the glass fiber wallpaper is on a single wall (more on this see "fiberglass wallpaper - outweigh advantages or disadvantages"> 2. Apply scraper

First of all, you do not need more than a simple spatula, with which you put on one edge of the wallpaper and carefully remove a piece of the wall.

If you have replaced so much wallpaper that you can grab a web well, then you continue with the exploration of the best way to peel off the fiberglass wallpaper.

3. Remove fiberglass wallpaper

As you have just learned, the normal method of removing paper wallpaper - wet, soak, peel off wallpaper - usually does not align anything with the glass fiber wallpaper, neither glass fabric glue nor wall paint suitable for glass fiber wallpaper is usually water soluble.

However, there are several circumstances that may cause you to easily pull the wallpaper off the wall:

• the wall is very firm and smooth and the glue under the wallpaper rather not so good
• The wallpaper has already been painted over so often that the adhesive of the lower layers already shows signs of aging
• For really old houses, even the fiberglass wallpaper could hang and crumble for decades

If the fiberglass wallpaper can really be pulled off, you'll be doubly fortunate: You'll save yourself tedious work and you will avoid a violation of the "chemical bond" that you just pull from the wall. They first work around the room with a spatula to loosen the wallpaper in the area of ​​the baseboards, doors and windows, and then pull it off the wall train by rail.

5. Sand down the glass fiber wallpaper

If you notice at first draw that the extremely durable wall cladding, fiberglass wallpaper, glue, paint, has also been extremely firmly attached to the wall itself, neither muscle power nor the use of the spatula will do much. At most they would hold large parts of the wall in their hands, whole plasterboard, broken pieces of plaster or plaster.

Get down with the spatula, which will solve without any problems, and then the grinder is set. So you have landed in the above problem, the grinding can degenerate already in Sisyphus work.

Not quite harmless Sisyphus work, the work can certainly put your health, fine glass fibers and the dust of all sorts of chemicals that swirl through the air when grinding, can add to your lungs, irritate the skin and piking long.

The older the wallcovering, the more critical the pollutants that are blown into the air during grinding can be. It is not too long ago that in the production of wall paints also really toxic heavy metals such as lead could be mixed.

Therefore, good work protection when grinding is absolutely recommended, from the work glove to the long-sleeved work suit, from the side-closed goggles / face mask to the breathing mask of a sufficient degree of protection.

Furniture and flooring should also be protected, covered or best removed, the sanding of a thick fiberglass wallpaper is at least a mean mess. If there is not enough space available, you can collect the furniture in the middle of the room and cover it with a tarpaulin; in case of emergency, the garden furniture can help out.

• Wall grinder (long-neck sander) can be borrowed at the hardware store - costs from 50, - € per day

6. Dispose of fiberglass wallpaper

If you finally have the fiberglass wallpaper from the wall, it must not be thrown into the garbage can (or in front of the house anyway due to house conversion).

Fiberglass wallpaper is made of artificial mineral fiber, and Artificial mineral fibers are according to the European Waste Catalog " hazardous waste", which must always be recorded separately and may only be disposed of in a facility approved for this purpose.

So: either have it disposed of by a company, which then usually provides you with a suitable collection container, or collect in garbage bags (or even get Big Bag) and explore the public garbage collection your community how to dispose of them.

If the glass fiber wallpaper has been peeled off the wall and disposed of, the wall can be prepared for the subsequent design.

Fiberglass wallpaper has thinned

Whether young families and single-parent households (who are tired of looking for a place to live in the city), student cliques (who still have five in the three-room flat in the fourth semester), senior citizen communities (our old people's shelters certainly not want to see from the inside) or people from all walks of life (the city life just annoying) - Purchase and own renovation of old houses (in rural areas) is the trend of our time.

When a fiberglass wallpaper appears in such an old house, it usually hangs on the wall for a very long time. Therefore, it is not entirely unlikely that the poor person who has to get them from the wall, in between gets a tantrum and creates a wall with more or less holey plaster. The other - in old houses also quite common - variant is that the plaster comes down in pieces with the glass fiber wallpaper.

Certainly annoying, but maybe an opportunity: On average, the people who renovate old houses are rather well informed about our environment and their damage; usually the old house after the renovation should provide a healthy living environment.

Since the "disaster wall" could just come right, because you could simply "sweep" the old plaster altogether and create a really breathing wall with lime plaster or even loam plaster.

Lime and clay plasters are among the oldest building materials and are experiencing a major renaissance in the design of interiors, as many people today want to live in a healthy environment (or live in a healthy environment, because they already suffer from diseases that cause them to die) caused by residential toxins or other pollutants in the environment). Lime and loam stand for healthy living, both regulate the moisture in the living room and thus create a comfortable indoor climate.

Lime plaster has an open-pore structure and therefore good diffusion properties, its absorbency is so great that it can even absorb a certain degree of liquid water. Moisture is later released evenly into the room air, lime plasters do not emit any pollutants. And they are because of the high pH insensitive to mold infestation, not unimportant in some old house.

Clay plaster can store a little more moisture than lime plaster, but costs more and is softer. This softness can be seen on the wall but later also, it creates a very decorative effect:

Both can also be covered with vapor-permeable paints or wallpapers, woodchip or other paper wallpapers, lime lime paint / lime paint / lime, clay paint, clay plaster and more.