Hot Water and Dish Soap Soak

Apply very hot water with a few drops of dish soap to scored wallpaper to soften and release the adhesive using the simplest possible ingredients.

How It Works

Hot water alone softens most wallpaper adhesives, which are typically starch-based and water-soluble. Adding dish soap introduces surfactants that reduce the water's surface tension, allowing it to penetrate scored wallpaper faster and reach the adhesive layer more effectively. This is the most basic and universally available method.

Instructions

1. Prepare the room with drop cloths and disconnect electricity to outlets and switches in the work area
2. Score the wallpaper with a scoring tool across the entire surface
3. Fill a garden sprayer or spray bottle with the hottest water available and add a few squirts of liquid dish soap (approximately 1 tablespoon per quart)
4. Saturate a manageable section of wallpaper (about 4 feet wide) from top to bottom
5. Wait 10-20 minutes, keeping the surface wet by respraying as needed
6. Begin peeling and scraping from seams, edges, or any spot where the paper has started lifting
7. Work across the section, then wet and repeat on the next section
8. Clean the walls with fresh hot water and a sponge to remove paste residue

Tips

• This is the best starting method to try before investing in specialty products — it works on the majority of standard wallpaper
• A kettle or pot of boiling water mixed into the sprayer keeps the temperature high
• Using a garden pump sprayer allows you to pre-pressurize and spray continuously without hand fatigue
• The dish soap is not strictly necessary but noticeably improves how quickly the water wets through the paper
• Work from top to bottom so the solution drips down and pre-soaks lower sections

Common Mistakes

• Using lukewarm water instead of very hot water — temperature is the most critical factor
• Skipping the scoring step, especially on vinyl or coated wallpapers that are designed to repel water
• Not being patient enough — adhesive needs a full 10-20 minutes of saturation to release
• Using too much soap, which creates excessive suds that are messy and harder to clean off the wall