How To Wallpaper Tips

If only somebody had told me this before!

Tricks Of The Trade
Did you ever start a project, and find out about the "tricks of the trade"
after you had finished? Knowing the shortcuts and correct procedures makes
the job a lot easier, so here they are; the first strip is the most important.
Carefully plumb it, as all the other strips will follow the first.

Preparing The Wall
To check the wall for imperfections, shine a flashlight at an angle; this will cast shadows from imperfections. Once you have located them, they can be dealt with. The key steps to preparing a room for wallpapering is, it must be clean, dry and smooth for the best results.
Preparationis one of the secrets, of a good-looking wallpapering project. The approximate Time in preparing a room for wallpapering will be at least half a day, including filling and smoothing of old plaster.

Wallpapering requires patience and careful measuring,Measure Twice - Cut Once. Work with very sharp safety razor blades, use new ones, replacing them as they dull. Dull blades rip the paper, making a real mess. Make sure you have enough razor blades on hand before you start the job. When you work with wallpaper the glue can be messy. Always have a pail of clean water handy to wash your hands and any glue on baseboards, floor and window and door frames. Have a towel handy to dry your hands on and a bucket to throw scrapes into

Best Advise
The best advice for wallpapering, is to use a pre-adhesion on the wall. Use a product such as Shur-Stik. This treatment allows you to remove and reposition the wallpaper a number of times and still retain an adhesion quality. This small container of 57g when mixed with water will produce 7 liters of adhesion. The correct procedure in mixing and applying to a wall is as follow. Take 1 liter of WARM water and add Shur-Stik mixing it to a slurry thick cream, then add 6 liters of WARM water. Mix toughly and LET STAND for 30-45 minutes. Stir again and apply to wall using a brush or roller. LET DRY 2 HOURS before hanging wallpaper. 7 liters will cover 400-600 sq. ft.
Sizing seals new walls and old wallpaper to be covered over. Sizing keeps any porous surface from absorbing the adhesive.

Choosing The Wallpaper
Choose your wallpaper wisely. If the wall are not straight (leaning) choose a wallpaper without lines, stay with patterns that will not emphasize the crookedness when you get to the corners of the room. When you hang the wallpaper, position it, then with a damp rag start working from the center outward pushing all the air bubbles out. Work out wrinkles and humps caused by wall imperfections. You can also remove the air from bubbles by poking it with a pin. By going over the complete wallpaper with a damp cloth will help the wallpaper to bond with the wall. Don't worry about small creases that you could not work out; as they will reduce significantly as the wallpaper dries. With patterns, work alternately with two rolls, this will reduce waste.
When the last wallpaper strip meets the first, any mismatch in pattern, will show. For a successful papering job, choose the spot where the mismatch will take place. Choose a spot adjacent to a door or window frame. This way only a short section of wall paper will be revealed. The ideal point is often above the entry door into the room.

One other tip isAvoid getting any glue into telephone jacks. If the water and glue mixture get into any telephone jack, it will be destroyed by the electric current present. The tiny contacts will turn black or green and short out the line; the telephone set cord contacts will also be destroyed. This will cause a hum, no ring or no telephone service in the house at all!
Cover all telephone jack plug in with masking tape before wall papering!

Save Yourself Steps
Wear an inexpensive carpenter's apron when wallpapering; this will save you needless trips up and down ladders. Store all the small wallpapering tools in the pouches.

Finding Covered Nail Holes
To find nail holes that will be covered over with the wallpaper, place tooth picks into the holes and allow them to stick out beyond the wall about half an inch. As you wall paper over the holes allow the tooth picks to stick through. After the wall paper has dried remove the tooth picks and re-hang the pictures etc.

Too late? Already got glue into a telephone jack? - Click here for repair tips

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Disclaimer
You resume all responsibility for any problems, damage, injury or loss,
you may have resulting from these instructions!

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Wallpapering tips that save you time, frustration and money