Help!!… I've done one room through hardwork and steaming, now got about 50M squared more to go in the rest of the house… and the wifes pregnant and been told not to be in the rooom when a steamers in use… it's soul destroyin I tells ya.

Any pro tips so I can get to ride my bike once this winter??

I just used a big two handed scraper and did it dry to get th ethick off then just sponged the remains with warm water. Worth putting some gloves on to stop the spliters getting under your nails.

Did you actually witness a medical professional telling her not to be in the room with the steamer?

Not that I'm suspicious or anything, but it sounds like the best excuse ever on her part!

As for advice on removing the bloody stuff, get yourself one of the long handled scrapers with replacable blades – wickes sell them… much sharper and heavier duty than the standard ones and will get a lot more off. Failing that, I quite often chisel the plaster off and replaster… less ball-ache in the long run!

Dave

I've got a house full of the stuff that was put directly onto un-skimmed plasterboard back in the 70's. Using a steamer, good scrapper and lots of hard work are one way to get rid. When I do the living room I'm just going to pull the plasterboard down and re-board it then get the walls skimmed. More expensive but a far better result and easier for me.

woodchip and artex are going to big for 2010. Leave it on a be ultra trendy for the rest of this year.

Failing that, I quite often chisel the plaster off and replaster… less ball-ache in the long run!

Not a bad plan, depending on the state of the plaster underneath, this might be a plan.

I assume the woodchip has been painted, meaning that the steamer struggles to get through it? If this is the case, then scoring (diagonally) every inch or so with a stanley knife and criss-crossing across the wall means the steamer penetrates the back of the woodchip a little more easily.

It's a nightmare! I had 4 rooms in the last house to do, best thing was that the f'ing celings were woodchip too AND it had about 5 coats of silk paint over it. Spent a solid week (9am till 7pm every day) scraping that stuff off.

No tips apart from steamer, scraper, gloves and loads of dirty words to shout at the walls. It'll give you strong arms though.

IME woodchip is normally used to hide whatever is underneath so remove at your own risk 🙁

Send wife away for the weekend then rip through with the steamer??**
Whatever you do – don't even contemplate full removal of the offending item until you have scrapped all the wood chips off…. PITA, and it does feel like 'doing the job twice' but it leaves lots of 'openings' then for warm water / steam to penetrate and do it's job – makes it much easier in the end 😀

**This is in lieu of a large donation to The Bank of Brownie Points*

*If Bank of Brownie Points has been shut down due to the economic slump you may at least be avoiding a large deposit arriving at The Bank of Earache!! 😉

Or – go for Brownie Points Blowout – send her away and get trusted friends to give you a hand to turn the room right around for her return – in a Changing Rooms styleee? ?

EDIT – beaten to it with 'scrape chips off first' advice – sorry..

Here you go

http://www.wallwik.co.uk/

I'll take my finders fee in £,$ or €
No need to pay now just as soon as you've realised that I've saved your sanity will do 😉

add some fabric conditioner to the water in the steamer. this makes it

a) smell nice
b) easier to strip the wallpaper

Burn your house down.

Seriously, I know it sounds drastic but it will be much easier in the long run.

Artex over the top?

That's the opposite of what was done in our house. At least the woodchip was easy to strip off the artex as it wasn't stuck to much.

Thanks for the tips.. burning down and starting over has been seriously considered.

Even the boy can't be cajoled into helping, the novelty wore off rapidly and he's back to gnawing the furniture.

Uplink – thats the stuff. I KNEW I'd found something once and lost it again… going to give it a go I think, after trying fab conditioner in the steamer.

When we moved in we thought that changing our taste or waiting for Ikea to push 70's fashion was the saner choice. We've even got a cork wall! WTF was that about??

Actually, balls to it, I've ordered the kit.. could this be the new DX light sensation???

I feel for you, I really do! Woodchip – The Devils own wallpaper! 😆

Why is it every time I do some chipping at a work I always seem to get woodchip in me undercrackers.

Ha Ha!

Just the same prob as us!

It's scrap! Scrap! Scrap! I'm afraid.

I used an old bee hive tool which was streets better than an ordinary scraper. THEN steam off!

I then filled the worst dings with polyfilla and over-covered the walls with Polycell thick paint stuff(cream cheese) (sometimes x2) then painted. Its not 100% perfect, If you want that then I'm its a hack and re-plaster job!

Hope that's of use?