One very easy and effective way to tell if wallpaper glue is removed is by spraying the wall with water and allowing the water to soak the wall.

Run your hands on the damp wall. If the wall feels slimy or sticky, there is still wallpaper glue left on the wall. If all the wallpaper glue is removed, the wall will feel smooth. 

Before you can paint or apply new wallpaper to the wall, remove all glue stains and residues. 

Don’t worry; this isn’t hard to do with the right tools and steps. 

Keep reading to learn how to remove wallpaper glue from the wall easily. 

Before You Remove The Wallpaper Glue From The Wall, Don’t Forget To Do This

Before diving in to remove glue residue and wallpaper adhesive stains from your wall, you must take some preparation steps. 

Cover all electrical outlets and switches on the wall you will be working on. 

Taking care of the electrical outlets and light switches on your walls is a very important step. 

You can work with multiple homemade solutions that effectively remove wallpaper glue from the wall. But each of these adhesive-removing solutions will be wet. 

Because your wall will get wet, whether entirely or just partially, we need to properly cover all electrical outlets and light switches on the wall as a safety measure to prevent any unwanted electrical incidents or accidents. 

Here is how you can properly cover all your electrical sources on the wall.  

1. Grab painter’s tape to securely and fully cover them up
2. When you apply the glue-removing solution to the wall, and you are working close to the electrical outlets and switches, don’t over-saturate the wall with the solution
3. Dab the wall gently and sparingly – it is better to take longer and do this safely

If you have the possibility, turn off the power from the breaker. Leave the power off while working on the wall and until the wall fully dries. 

Protect your flooring and carpet by covering them up in your working area.

If you have a smaller carpet in the room or a couple of small ones, these are easy to roll up and take out of the room while you work on the wall with the wet glue-removing solution. 

This may be difficult to accomplish with a large, heavy carpet or a carpet glued to the floor. 

But even if you can move your carpets out of the room, you still have your flooring to think about and protect from accidental glue stains or wet spills from the solution. 

It is very easy to protect your carpet and flooring. 

Find a big enough plastic cover. It is better to use one thicker as it will be more resistant to wear and tear. 

Find a size that can cover your entire flooring. You can also use multiple smaller pieces to get this done. 

Grab the painter’s tape to secure the plastic cover so it won’t move and expose your flooring or carpets. Running the tape across the edges of the plastic cover and securing it in place will prevent it from moving, but it will also seal the edges. 

Sealing the edges with tape will prevent dust, debris, or accidental spills from getting under the cover onto the carpet or flooring. 

If necessary, also cover up any furniture sitting close to the wall.

Furniture is also important to think about. 

If you have heavy furniture close to the wall, you should cover it up, so no accidental spills fall on it. 

Use the same method as with the flooring. 

Use plastic covers to cover up your furniture fully and painter’s tape to secure it. 

How To Remove Wallpaper Glue From The Wall Easily And Effectively 

Now that you have taken care of the safety measure steps, covering your electrical outlets, covering up your carpets and flooring, and even furniture, if that’s the case, your next step is to prepare the solution. 

You can use a bowl or a bucket to prepare your solution, depending on how much wallpaper glue you need to remove from the wall. 

If you don’t have a bucket but need to apply the solution to a large portion of the wall, you can easily re-mix the solution as often as you need to. 

To prepare the solution for removing wallpaper glue, you will need the following items:

• Hot water 
• Liquid dishwashing soap 
• Distilled white vinegar 
• Baking soda 
• Bucket or bowl (one for the solution and another one for cleaning) 
• Protective gloves 
• Spray bottle or sponges for application and another for cleaning the solution off the wall (if you have the option to use a cellulose type of sponge, then use this as it the best for this job)

Follow these steps to mix the adhesive-removing solution:

1. In a pan, heat up about one gallon of water (or enough to almost fill up your bucket)
2. When the water is hot, carefully pour it into the bucket 
3. Add 1 teaspoon of liquid dishwashing soap 
4. Add 1-2 cups of white distilled vinegar
5. Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda
6. Mix well 

You can add the glue-removing solution to a spray bottle. This will make it very easy to apply. You spray the solution onto the wall, working through the glue residues in small sections. 

If you don’t have a spray bottle or prefer not to work with one, apply the solution to the wall using the sponge. 

To remove the wallpaper glue, follow these steps. 

Golden Tip #1: Always start from the top of the wall and move downward. 

Golden Tip #2: Work in small sections.  

Do not apply the solution to the whole wall all at once. Work in a small area first and move on to another section when all wallpaper glue has been removed, and that area has been cleaned. 

As much as you can, keep the solution warm. If it cools down, it might not be as effective, and you may need to scrub harder and longer. 

Follow these steps to remove wallpaper glue with the solution you just finished preparing:

1. If you are using a spray bottle, spray the solution on one small area of the wall 
2. If you are working with a sponge instead, dab the sponge in the solution (don’t squeeze it too hard so it stays wet, just make sure it isn’t dripping)
3. Use the sponge to gently rub the solution into a smaller section of the glue on the wall in a circular motion 
4. Soak the glue residues or glue stains thoroughly with the solution 
5. Use a clean cloth to wipe off the adhesive from the wall. You may need to rinse the cloth frequently, especially if glue residue gets on it 
6. If the glue is very stubborn still, you can try scraping it off with a putty knife or scraper 
7. Continue this until there is no residue left
8. Dampen a clean cloth in warm water and wipe off that area of the wall to clean the solution off the wall 
9. Move on to the next smaller section 

If the wall feels smooth, you have removed the wallpaper glue. 

If the wall still feels sticky, repeat the above steps. 

Before you do anything else with the wall, wait for it to dry fully. You can let it air dry or speed up the drying process by increasing airflow, using fans to circulate the air, or using heat sources to increase the temperature in the room.

If you are removing wallpaper glue from drywall, be careful with this.

Drywall is more sensitive to water and wet solutions. 

If the drywall gets too much water or wet solution on it, the more it soaks in, the greater the damage can be. 

The damage can be beyond repair, meaning you must replace your drywall. 

This can sound scary, and you may think you should leave the drywall the way it is, with wallpaper glue all over it. But this isn’t the case. 

You can still use the glue-removing solutions to remove the wallpaper adhesive from drywall; you will need to be patient. Only use small amounts of the solution, scrub it gently, and be careful not to wet the surface too much. 

Here Is Why It Is Necessary To Remove The Wallpaper Glue Before You Can Paint The Wall

If wallpaper glue is left on the wall when you paint it, it will cause the paint to peel off, as it will prevent the paint from adhering to the wall. 

Wallpaper glue prevents the paint from sticking to the wall the way it needs to. It may seem fine at first, but over time chips and cracks may appear in your paint job. 

What happens if stubborn wallpaper glue cannot be removed, or at least not totally?

Does this mean you can’t paint your wall and have to let it look like that? No, you can still paint your wall, but you need to do this. 

Before you can paint your wall that has unremovable glue on it, apply an oil-based primer to the wall. But only after your wall is fully dried. 

The oil-based primer will act as a protective barrier between the glue and the paint, preventing the glue from potentially soaking in the paint or causing it to peel off. 

Conclusion

If you are unsure whether wallpaper glue is removed from the wall, spray it with water and let the wall soak in the water. 

Run your hand on the wall and look for how it feels. 

If the wall feels smooth, the wallpaper glue is removed. 

If the wall feels slimy or sticky, you still have wallpaper glue on the wall that needs to be removed.