How do you remove stickers?

We are frequently asked these questions;

How do I remove the stickers after use?

Are the stickers easy to remove?

How do you remove stickers that won’t come off?

Firstly, there are different sticker products available in the market, these have differing adhesives, so this is definitely worth considering when ordering your stickers. These adhesives vary from high tack (which is often used on plant hire equipment etc..), Permanent adhesive (the most popular choice) and removeable (which will take on more permanent properties the longer it is left). Many window stickers are printed on a static cling material that has no adhesive, so it is simple to remove, leaving no residue behind. Whilst the range of adhesives are similar for floor stickers, we sell outdoor floor stickers that are printed on an aluminium media that can easily be peeled up after use without leaving any residue. However, it is likely that if you are reading this article it is because you have a sticker that you can’t remove rather than thinking of how to remove the sticker that you haven’t yet bought!

How do you remove stubborn vinyl stickers? How do you remove strong adhesive?

There are a lot of suggestions available on the internet, offering ideas of what is the best way to remove stickers, but here is our advice. We would suggest that you simply warm the surface of the stickers gently, to do this we would recommend using warm air e.g. a hair dryer (obviously not too hot or too close so you don’t melt things!). This warm air will soften the adhesive and as it warms up the pvc this will enable it to stretch and be removed. If you try to remove the sticker whilst it is cold it is likely that the pvc will have become brittle and may break (especially if it has been stuck on for a considerable period of time).

How do you get stickers off walls and doors? How do you remove stickers from wood?

Vinyl stickers will have been stuck to a variety of surfaces; wood, glass, metal, plastic (again this is something that is worth considering when purchasing), however warming the adhesive is the method we would suggest to remove them (however how you warm it may need to be considered with the type of surface that it is stuck on).

What can you use to remove the sticky residue? What is the best adhesive remover?

Once you have removed the sticker, it is likely that it will have left a sticky residue on the surface so how do you remove this? There are various products on the market e.g. tar and glue remover, however, we would suggest using a solvent to remove this build up. Lighter fuel is one suggestion (for use on glass but not on plastic) but please consider the surface that the residue is on and only if this is a safe suitable option.

Some of the questions we have been asked regarding removing stickers and residue:

Does vinegar remove adhesive?

This is a question we are often asked (especially for window stickers) regarding the left-over residue and the answer is we have no idea; we’ve not tried it to find out.

Is WD40 good for removing stickers?

Another question we have been asked in the past but again it’s not something we have tried ourselves, so we couldn’t comment, we presume that you would need to spray the surface of the sticker allowing time for the WD40 to soak through and loosen it so maybe a consideration for paper stickers but our advice for removing vinyl stickers would be to gently warm the adhesive and then to use a solvent to remove any residue.

Does alcohol remove adhesive?

Like with vinegar and WD40 this is another suggestion, although using alcohol applies more to removing the residue left behind by the sticker rather than the actual sticker itself.

If you have any further questions or would like any advice regarding stickers, please call our team on 01347 823230.