Wallpaper. To paste the wall or paste the paper?

What’s the stw hive opinion? If the paper says paste the wall do you follow it as gospel? I’ve always followed my dads guideline of pasting the paper and not the wall.

I’d go with what it says on the paper. If it said nothing then I’d paste the paper

If it says paste the wall, you can do either, won’t make any difference.

If it says paste the paper, then paste the paper, it needs to soak in.

If it says nothing, then paste the paper.

Depends on the paper. RTFM.

Paste the wall if the paper lets you, it’s much easier, and some of the paste the wall papers are thiner and will get over soaked if you do the paper, leading to ripping.

If it’s paste the wall or paper wallpaper then I’d paste the paper. Pasting the wall means you are having to paste neatly up to the last one you put up as the paste on the wall is drying. Normal wallpaper always needs the paste on the paper as it needs time to expand.

I’m not convinced by paste the wall. Tried it once, seemed more of a faff that usual.

Just papered a couple of walls this evening. I hate wall papering.

Sometimes on awkward sections it’s good to do both as it make it easy to slide the paper to line up.

Agree with Drac- it’s maybe not best practice but it makes it easier to get good results (your wall, paper and paste may vary). I bloody hate hanging paper so I’m up for anything that makes it easier.

I bastard hate paste the wall shite. If I’d have known when I got it, I’d have pasted it the ‘normal’ way.

Hateful stuff.

paste the paper….. the paper needs a slight soak to get max adhesion. paste the wall is terrible and a poor arsed effort imo. size the walls first if plastered and then run lining paper horizontally pref 1200 grade. this makes less chance of top paper peeling off and no risk of overlap.

ensure paper is same batch numbers. ive done this for a very long time and im actually sick of going out to “feature” walls that are peeling away or bubbling or creased due to “paste the wall” paper or diyers having a bash.

take your time invest in a plumbob and a sharp snap off knife and a good paper brush.

For best results, paste your overalls, hands and face.

I like paste the wall paper and if you take your time, which you have to do anyway, a very neat finish can be achieved. I wonder if the quality of the paper makes a big difference. All the ones I’ve done have been sized plus lining paper. You can overlap the paste onto the last sheet, you just need to wipe it down.

Paint the wall?

Whatever the instructions on the paper tell you to. Paste the wall can be awesome and fast. Apply the paste to the wall with a medium pile 9″ roller. In fact if hanging paste the paper I apply the paste to the paper with a roller too. Much faster and more even coverage than any pasting brush.

Some papers have a backing that needs to be pasted and needs time to expand, so paste it 🙂

Some have a backing that doesn’t need to expand so that you can get on with hanging them quicker. Some will have a finish on the face that can be damaged by paste, you can paste these papers but it’s your risk

I’d slways go for paste the paper. I put up some wallpaper at my daughter’s place recently. That was paste the wall stuff. Awful. The paper would expand once it had soaked up the paste causing the joints which were flat to rise up. It was tricky to move the paper and if you lifted it up to remove bubbles, or after trimming the ends it wouldn’t stick that well again.

Daughter was pleased, but Mrs Z would have made me re do it, I’m sure.

Get someone else to do it

Plaster and paint.

^ This. We’re gradually going through the house removing lining paper, skimming and repainting.

Lambchop thats not a bad idea. Do you put the paste in a roller tray I guess?

Seal walls well before pasting for best results, Zinsser Gardz is excellent for this. It will A: Make the paper dead easy to maneuver B: Reduce the amount of paste needed and C: The paste wont soak into the surface too fast
Something I have noticed with this new style of paper is the need to make the background a similar colour, i very often measure out where the edges are going to be and paint strips on the wall with a matching colour beforehand. The reason for doing this is because you cannot stretch this new stuff, so if an edge is open because of poor trimming (at the factory) or uneven walls then the edge stays open and there’s sod all you can do about it.

Some papers have a backing that needs to be pasted and needs time to expand, so paste it

This – I’ve always found that the paper expands by a couple of mm once the paste has soaked in. And I use dilute paste to size the walls first.

10 Paste wall
20 Paste paper
30 While paper expanding paste next bit of wall.
40 Hang paper
GOTO 20

Tinribz are the numbers like a time plan?

No, more like a ZX81 style instructions. Oh the fun we had in Dixon’s.

Big Yim, yep in a roller tray or skuttle just like paint. I like to brush overlap adhesive into the wall/skirting transitions as a belt and braces way of ensuring no peelback. Been doing it this way for paying customers for years with no call backs!

Size the wall. As in make a very weak mix of normal wallpaper paste and paste the whole wall with it and allow to dry. This will in effect seal the wall so when you paste the wall to apply the paper the paste is not all sucked in by the plaster and drys too quick. If the paper says paste the wall do it. It actually gives you quite a bit of time to play with the paper and get the position right. As said above buy or make a plumb line to get a straight line for the first piece. Get a decent sweep or brush to smooth your paper with. A knife and flat edge to cut along are far easier than using scissors if you don’t paper a lot. Put some mellow tunes on and don’t stress.

Paste the wall type papers do not expand, and because of this don’t need soaking.

Get a zinsser smoothing tool (or similar) and use a trimming knife with snap off blades. Don’t use a stanley blade type knife as they are a pain in the rear.