Tried using a heat gun instead of a putty knife to remove old wallpaper in my bathroom

I spent like 3 hours scraping wallpaper in my tiny bathroom last weekend and got maybe 4 square feet done. My buddy suggested I try a heat gun on a low setting so I grabbed one from Harbor Freight for $15. Held it like 6 inches away for a few seconds on each section and the paper just peeled off in huge strips without any damage to the drywall underneath. The whole room took me under an hour after that. Has anyone else had good luck with heat for stubborn wallpaper or did I just get lucky with the type of glue they used?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat_murray166d ago

Dude you just discovered the cheat code for life.

elizabeth_gonzalez6d ago

Idk, maybe it's just me but I had a totally different experience with a heat gun on wallpaper. Tried it on my kitchen and it melted the vinyl coating into this sticky mess that was harder to scrape than the original paper. Plus I got a little too close on one spot and bubbled the drywall compound underneath, which meant I had to patch and sand before painting. Maybe the type of wallpaper or glue makes a huge difference, cause yours sounds like a dream compared to my disaster.