Dif Zinsser Wallpaper Gel, Concentrate, Paper Tiger Review part #1

This is NOT a paid post.

I received no compensation for this post at all in any way shape or form. I bought these products for removing wallpaper in our stairwell and landing. I bought these three specific products after reading many, many posts and articles about removing wallpaper, especially wallpaper that had been painted over.
(I *wish* I was/had been compensated for this post as we’ve spent approx. $50 on these products so far).

One of my Spring projects is to finally tackle our staircase and upstairs landing. I can’t even begin to explain how bizarre our landing is. Our house was owned by a family that ran a home repair business and they apparently liked to get creative when doing home repairs on their own home. A few years back we got rid of the outdoor porch lantern that was the wall light fixture (complete with brass eagle on top) and we slapped on some paint and wallpaper as a quick fix. Yes, we painted over wallpaper. At the time we just were not equipped on any level to tackle these areas of the house.

It finally got to the point where I could  no longer ignore it, and oh how I’ve tried.  The first part of the project is to strip the old wallpaper off on the landing. I got the top of the wallpaper off but that left the backing still up.  I spent hours with a  spray bottle of hot water and a scraper which kinda worked. I tried our steamer which worked a little better but was such a pain to keep refilling that it wasn’t worth the results I was getting.

I read that people had good luck using vinegar and water in a spray bottle or fabric softener and water in a spray bottle. Some people said it worked well, others said it didn’t work for them. I was so fed up with removing wallpaper by that point that I bypassed those solutions and moved on to ones that people seemed to have better success with.

I looked around online and saw that some people said that the Dif  Zinsser Wallpaper remover gel worked.

“Zinsser DIF Wallpaper Stripper Spray Gel is a ready-mixed, non-drip blue gel that clings to surfaces. The advanced GEL/Enzyme formulation works quickly”

I needed to by a new wallpaper scraper this morning so stopped by Walmart and bought a set of plastic scrapers(which did not work at all but it’s o.k. as I am using them to spackle) and a spray bottle of this gel. That’s another thing, scrapers. The best scraper we found was a 2″ putty knife that I bought at the dollar store. It had a slight edge to it and was the right size. Similar scrapers were 4-5 dollars at Walmart and Home Depot.

I read the directions on the spray bottle which basically say spray it on wait 15-20 minutes and then scrape. Easy enough. I sprayed liberally to make sure there was a good coating. The gel ran a little but not too badly, mostly it stayed in place. It had no smell, didn’t irritate my skin (you don’t have to wear gloves, it says it’s Safe to use, non-toxic, water-based)

I then sat down and watched a few minutes of Shameless until 20 minutes had gone by.

I have to say that the scraping was easier after using this. I tried it on an area that I had scraped yesterday that had a few sections left and I tried it on an area that I had not scraped at all and it worked well in both sections.

I was really skeptical about  one area of wall that I had an impossible time getting the wallpaper off yesterday. I  was really thinking that  I would have to scrape as well as I could and then sand the remaining bits down smooth.  The Dif Gel even loosened up that hard to scrape area and I managed to get almost all of the wallpaper off. I think one more application should do it.

It does take a lot. I’m doing a very small area and it took 3/4 of a bottle to do only some of the walls. (my hand/arm started cramping up from  all the spraying) I think it’s going to take at least another 2-3 bottles to finish the landing.

For a room this size I think it’s worth it as it’s preserving my sanity, a larger room and I think it might get too expensive. I ended up going to Home Depot where they had one gallon containers for about $15 -  much more economical.

************************************* read my second review installment for an update about this product.************************************