DIF Gel Ready-to-Use Wallpaper Stripper

Due to the recommendation of a fellow reviewer (and a 5$ rebate form I had), I bought Dif Gel Spray to remove the wall border surrounding the bedroom of my new house. The wall border "picture" pulled off easy, but I could tell the glue part was gonna be an issue. I was looking for any solution and this Dif Gel (at only $5.47 a bottle) seemed like just the thing! I didn't expect it to work after hearing so many negative things about wallpaper removal on the net. I wished it would work, but I still had my doubts! I'm happy to say I was wrong! The stuff works great!

The Stuff
Dif Gel comes out sort of liquidy, yet sort of solidy. This means that it sprays on pretty easily, but it doesn't drip much as long as you are careful. The gel is blue so you can easily see where it has been applied which makes the final clean up really simple.

How much do you need? I payed attention so I could write this review! I finished 1 wall and still had only used about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bottle! Once 3 walls were done, I still had like 1/4 of the bottle left! I started to be annoyed that I had bought two bottles, but I did have that rebate so I got 5$ back. In the end, it only took me 1 bottle to remove my wall border and I gave the other away. At first I was being stingy with it, but once I saw how much was left, I started to apply it very liberally. This made it even easier to peel off and I still had a ton left! Granted, if you are doing an entire room full of wallpaper you might want to be more stingy with it, or you may need to buy a different size or variation of Dif!

How it works
The directions say that if you have a hard time peeling off the "picture" part of your wall border, you may have to do more work. This basically includes putting slits into the pictures, then using dif once... then after the picture part comes off, using dif again. Fortunately my picture peeled off very easy without the use of dif! However, even if I had to use dif to do it, I don't think it would have been that huge of a deal.

My abstract basically explains my process. I worked in sections because I don't believe in taking on too much at one time. Dif said to protect areas near where you were spraying, so I spent about 2 minutes taping paper towel underneath each section of wall border. Next, I sprayed the area which takes about 2 minutes if you are being careful. Please note, you don't need to spray a ton. Just make sure there is gel on every area and you'll be good to go. It's easiest if you spray in a pattern.

The next step requires you to .... go take a break! It says to let it sit for 15-20 mins but I found 22 to be the best. Next, pause your movie and go scrap. You start at one side and scrap left to right as opposed to up and down. Scrap slowly and you'll find a few pieces will start to stick up so you can grab them. Pull these strips and suddenly you'll be pulling off most of the border! Go back and scrap any missed areas. Finally, get a wet towel and wipe down the area to remove any excess gel - and throw away the tape and paper towel.

Move your ladder to the next section and repeat! As you can see, I rested more than I worked and you know I like that.

My thoughts
Easy to use - This product was very easy to use. There was no diluting needed, just spray, wait, then scrap it off! It's not rocket science, that's for sure. Even a home improvement novice can figure this out.

Fast and effective - It was very quick to remove the border, besides the 22 min break time. I could have easily finished the whole room in one day, but I instead decided to do it over a 4 day period to give my arms a rest. Reaching up gets tiring, no matter how little you do. The border glue was completely removed and didn't leave residue as long as I had sprayed the Dif well.

Non-Drip - It did drip a little, but only when I over-sprayed because I wasn't being careful. However, most of the gel stayed where I sprayed it. Anything that did drip came off quickly and easily with some water and a Scott towel.

Clean - I didn't need to protect my floors and walls, the DIF only got on the border where I sprayed it. When peeling, I just had to be careful to get the scraps into the garbage, but other than that there was no worry of messing anything up. I imagine that even if this had gotten on my clothes, it would wipe off easily.

Did I mention fast? - Yes it was fast! I had been dreading removing the border since I had read how hard it could be, so I was ecstatic that this stuff worked so fast!

Conclusion
If you've been putting off removing that old and ugly wall border or paper, go out and get some DIF today. The small Gel type works great for small jobs, but if you have a large job you might want to get the bigger variations. Some come where you just have to add water, others come in a spray.

Also check the dif website at http://www.zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=17 for coupons and information on the different products.