How to easily remove woodchip wallpaper

Struggling to remove stubborn woodchip wallpaper? We’ve rounded up our best tips and tricks to help ease the pain of woodchip wallpaper removal.

Removing woodchip wallpaper can be hard work. Woodchip, also known by the manufacturers name Anaglypta, has a unique composition and adhering process, which, although visually striking and satisfyingly sturdy, can be a pain to get rid of if you fancy a change of decor.

Woodchip wallpaper is also usually designed to be paintable, meaning any given woodchip wall will often have at least one coat of paint covering it, which you might have found if you’re in the process of doing up an older house. This can, unfortunately, make the removal process trickier still.

However, with the right tools, anything is possible. If you’re looking for tips and tricks to remove your stubborn woodchip wallpaper, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve rounded up our best pieces of advice to help ease the pain of woodchip wallpaper removal.

(FYI: you can also apply everything in this blog to other types of textured wallpaper, as these work in a similar way to woodchip!)

How to Remove Woodchip Wallpaper

There are several tried and tested methods you can use to remove woodchip wallpaper. Here, we’ll go through the three go-to’s:

Scraping

This is the traditional method of removing wallpaper – it’s cheap and cheerful, so you won’t need to go hunting for a huge list of materials. However, it can be quite labour and time intensive when it comes to removing woodchip.

The most important tools needed here are a scraping device and some sort of wallpaper removing solution, whether that’s shop-bought or homemade. All you need to do is work your way around the room, spraying your solution and scraping as you go, taking care not to disturb the wall behind the woodchip. Woodchip wallpaper requires a lot of moisture in order to break down and become scrapable, far more than other kinds of wallpaper, so keep this in mind as you go.

Start with a small corner that you can build up from, and try and rip off as much as you can before you go in with your scraping tool. Afterwards, make sure to give your walls a quick clean with a damp sponge to make sure you’re not left with any residue.

Steaming

For this method, you’ll need to get your hands on a good steamer. You can usually buy them in any good DIY shop, or, if you’re only stripping one or two rooms, they are also available to hire. Steamers are incredibly time-saving and efficient, but they can also be messy. It’s worth investing in a good device if you want to get the best results.

With steaming – and especially steaming woodchip – it’s important to remember to scour the surface of your wallpaper with a scouring tool before you do anything else, as this will cover your walls with microtears that will allow the steam to perforate underneath the surface of the material and work its magic.

To strip your walls with a steamer, all you have to do is hold it down against the wall for around 10 seconds, then lift it off and scrape away the woodchip paper, which will now be moist and should easily lift away from the wall. Keep moving the scraper under the paper, lifting as you go, until you’re at a point where you can go in with your damp sponge and clean up any residue, just as you would with the first method.

Gelling

With this method, rather than applying a liquid to the wall like water or soap, you instead use a gel or paste – this adheres to the wallpaper, sticking in place and soaking through the paper to penetrate the glue that sits on the other side. After around an hour or so, this glue will have weakened and become loose, at which point you can then go in with your scraper and strip the woodchip away.

Gelling your walls requires far less effort than steaming or the traditional scraping method, but might take up more time. The gels can also be more expensive than traditional wallpaper remover solutions, so this is something to consider when deciding which method is right for you. There is no single ‘best way’ of removing woodchip wallpaper – it might take some trial and error before you find what works for your walls.

Removing Woodchip Wallpaper From Your Ceiling

A note of caution: removing wallpaper from your ceiling can be physically demanding, and potentially dangerous. As if removing woodchip wallpaper wasn’t already enough of a challenge, tackling the ceiling can be something of a hazard due to the overhead angle and the potential for falling debris. We always recommend taking care with all aspects of DIY in the home, and removing ceiling from your wallpaper is no exception.

Make sure you’ve got some proper safety gear, including goggles and gloves, as well as a sturdy stepladder and someone to assist you and for those extra tricky jobs, enlisting the help of a professional is always a good idea.

Removing Woodchip Wallpaper From Plasterboard

Despite the fact that woodchip wallpaper needs a lot of moisture to come away from the wall, plasterboard and water are not friends. Excess moisture can damage the structural integrity of plasterboard, causing it to go soft and flimsy, so you’ll want to avoid steaming these areas if you find yourself saddled with the task of stripping woodchip from plasterboard.

If you’re worried about potentially damaging your plasterboard with a traditional metal scraper, it’s a good idea to get your hands on a plastic scraper, which will prove much less of a potential threat to the more delicate areas of wall that you’re working on. Keep the knife as flat as possible while you scrape to limit the force you’re exerting on the wall.

What to Do After Removing Woodchip Wallpaper

With woodchip, the cleanup can be a bit more of an arduous process than with other types of wallpaper. Whatever method you opt for, the fibres in the material quickly turn to mush when they come into contact with water, so you’re going to want to plan ahead and lay down some proper protective coating on your floorboards or carpet to avoid any damage to this area. Try to find some thick plastic sheeting, and spread this over your floor before you go in with your steamer or stripper.

If you’re on the hunt for the perfect wallpaper to replace your old woodchipped walls, feel free to browse our stunning selection of designs today, or get in touch with one of our helpful team to learn more about how we can help you transform your home with the magic of wallpaper.