getting red biro off wallpaper - any possiibilities?

Any solvent that will get red biro out will be aggressive enough to make the ink spread. Try anything you contemplate on ordinary paper and then on a sample of a similar wallpaper to the one you need to clean.

Wetting it with a fine brush dipped in acetone and dabbing it dry quickly would be my first try. Then either MEK or meths. In the old days I would have trichlorethylene but these days it is banned.

I suspect the latter would have got it without damaging the paper (provided that the latter contains no plastics).

Touching out the damage with colour matched acrylic paints. But you could mess it up even more by attempting this.

Meths will dissolve biro ink providing it hasn't been there for long, but not after it's been there a while and fully dried. However, I really doubt anything will get it off without damaging the wallpaper.

I have successfully used meths after washing a favourate shirt with a red biro in the top pocket. Didn't cause a problem until the fast spin...

Try biological washing powder solution.

applied how?

Jim K

Things with high ammonia content can work well on some inks. Look for a glass cleaner or similar with a strong ammonia wiff!

Bread? Ordinary white bread formed into a sort of putty-like mass can pick up quite a lot of things like inks.

The spreading will be the problem. Does the OP have the biro available for solvent testing? To save having to test on the wallpaper itself?

If lighter fluid will lift it I'd start with a small pad of kitchen roll moistened with that, and gently place it on and quickly lift straight off. The idea being to loosen the top layer of ink and lift it away on the pad. Repeat with a moistened *clean* pad *every* time, possibly waiting for the lighter fuid to evaporate from the wallpaper a bit first so the capillary action doesn't drawn the ink into/across the paper.

I suggest lighter fluid as it is very pure and volatile, it will completely evaporate and leave no residue. But I don't know if it will shift biro ink...

Meths and dab with a blotting paper to lift the ink. Try somewhere non-prominent first.

Tipp-Ex.

sorry..

Just use a clean soft cloth and wipe gently.;

Not at all. That is almost certainly going to damage the paper long term. pH of biological washing powders is very alkaline and the enzymes used are intended to zap fats and proteins not cyclic aromatic dyes.

Most effective & cheapish thing I found on well set biro was oblas oil. I find it hard to believe you'll ever get biro ink out of paper without major damage though. Perhaps a suitably sized picture could be hung?

NT

Angle grinder.

Doh! ;-)

Jim K

No - that was my suggestion... :-)

Pah - beaten to it... :-(

only way is pad of sbsobent material AND solvent. And hove it dissolves and absorbs MOST of it.

Stick a patch of new wallpaper over the damaged bit

Reduce lighting in room so the mark isn't visible, low energy lamps were designed for such applications

Alternatively a piece of duct tape, or a post it note, a picture, a plate. a fire axe, or a panic button.

Hopefully you did keep a roll or two of "spare" paper when the room was decorated...