Painting Tips and Tricks: Hanging Lining Paper

This is the third hub in decorating a room where I'll cover Hanging Lining Paper. In the last Painting Tips and Tricks hub we painted the ceiling now it's time to look at the condition of the walls.

The first thing is to decide is weather or not to remove the old wall paper.
If it's still stuck down firmly and nothing is peeling or has air bubbles in, it's quite possible to paper over the old paper. If anything is peeling stick it down with wallpaper paste, pop any air bubbles by cuting a cross through the middle of the air bubble with a stanly knife, peel it back paste it and stick back down. Once all the loose paper is stuck down you'll need to give the whole wall a coat of oil based undercoat (add a little white spirits to help it flow) this is to seal it so when you put the new paper on it wont bubble up with the wet paste.

Ideally you should take the old paper off just in case there some under lying problem, and especially if there's one or two lots already on the wall.

The most inexpensive way of removing old wallpaper is just get a bucket of hot water, add a little washing up liquid, erect your steps and plank against the wall your going to strip, take your 6” paste brush and cover the top of the wall with the water, the washing up liquid helps to stop the water running off the wall to fast. You'll have to do this about three times then just scrap it off with your scraper. Move your steps out of the way and repeat along the bottom.

Tools of the Trade: Here you see a Wallpaper Steamer, not a bad price, again why not share within the family. There's not much to them really it's just like a large kettle; you fill it to the water level, plug it in, switch on and the steam runs up the tube to the square despenser which you just hold against the wall for about 20 sec then you scrape the paper off with your scraper.
I've actually taken RTEX off using  the same stemer. A nice set of tools on the right, to nearly compleate a job.

Alternatively hire a steamer from your local hire shop, there not to expensive just make sure, and this go's for when ever your hiring anything, you get your money's worth out of it. Decide exactly what your going to do with it, your next project may be a bedroom where the paper needs removing, do it in the same hire period.

So you've taken off the wallpaper it's a good idea at this point to have a clear up remove all the paper you've taken off the walls.
As with the ceiling, cracks and wholes have to be filled, go round the whole room removing all the loose plaster from the cracks and holes and fill; wait for the filler to dry then sand down all the walls with a rough sandpaper and hoover up the dust.
Now check out the walls to see what condition there in, where you removed the paper even though you have filled all the cracks and holes the wall will still have little dints in all over from using the scrapers; although it may look ok, if you paint thw wall they'll all show up so it's best to put lining paper on.

Mix your wall paper paste to the directions on the packet you'll probably find there's different amounts of water for the different types of paper, lining paper will be the most amount of water. Gradually continuously pour the paste into the water giving it a good stir at the same time; leave for 10 minutes then give it another good stir and that's it.

Ordinary sandpaper comes in three grades fine, medium and rough.

You'll need all the tools you see to create a good finish.
Shears are a must for wallpapering. The smoothing brush for puting the paper on. The chalk line set is essential for hanging lining paper and papering ceilings and a pasting table is much better than messing about on the kitchen table and you'd probably get your money back if you set it up at the local car boot sale.

(I'm sure the price of the Amazon table is wrong the one on the right is £18.00 is that about $29.00)

Put up your pasting table, or use the kitchen table. It's much easier and less mess to use a proper pasting table; you should buy with the view that you will have it for years or buy one with a member of the family and you'll both have one for years.
Time to measure the walls; ordinary wallpaper goes on vertical where as lining paper go's on horizontally to make sure the joints don't coincide. Measure the wall giving an extra 2” at each end; then take a roll of the lining paper and without taking it out of it's packaging hold it vertically on the wall touching the ceiling, put a pencil mark at the bottom of the roll and repeat until you get to the bottom; this will tell you how many peaces of paper you'll need at the length you measured. Measure the first piece of paper cut it to length and use that as a template to cut the rest.

With your plank and steps in place take whats left of the roll of lining paper and again hold it vertically at one end of the wall touching the top of the ceiling, put a pencil mark at the bottom repeat in the middle of the wall and at the other end of the wall; take a piece of string the length of the wall and holding the string between your thumb and a piece of chalk pull the string through so it's covered in chalk; now engage another pair of hands and hold the string on the two marks you made at each end of the wall, pull it tight making sure the string is on the marks' now just pull the string away from the wall a little and let it snap back you should be left with a chalk line along the wall; go to the centre mark if the mark is inline with the chalk line that's fine, if the mark is below the chalk line that's ok to; it means you'll have to cut a little off the top of the paper because there is a dip in the ceiling. If the mark is above the line it means you will have a gap at the top because the ceiling is dipping in he corners. That can not happen; measure the distance from the chalk line to the mark (lets say it's 1") now make a mark 1" above the two marks at each end put the string back on the new marks and create another line making sure you rub out the firstchalk line.
That's the strait edge for the first piece of lining paper.

You can never have to many scrapers and this one looks a little fierce. Nine times out of ten you'll find yourself needing a screwdriver to loosen wall fittings, light switches or plug sockets so you can create a good finish when papering round them so if you need to buy any make sure there Insulated screwdrivers,

Ok so this is how to paste wallpaper with out getting paste all over the place, arrange the middle of all the lining paper in the middle of the table so you have paper hanging over both ends of the table; now push the paper away from you so you can see 4” off the table on your side' take the top piece of paper and bring the end of it in line with the end of the table on your right, then pull it towards you so you can only see 1” of the table.
Load your 6” paste brush with paste and starting at the end of the paper in the middle; push the paste out to the far edge and lift the brush bringing it back to the centre and pushing out to the edge again, going down the length of the table, when you've done the far side pull the paper to the edge of the table on your side, load your brush and from the middle pull the paste to the edge.
Make sure you have plenty of paste on the paper don't skimp.
You now need to fold it into a concertina, take the end of the paper and fold it to the other end of the table where you finished pasting; then pull it back to the middle, lift the whole thing and pull it back up the table so you can paste the next bit; when you have to do the next fold lift the section you've folded already and just put it on top of the section you've just pasted; carry on in the same mode until you have finished.

You never put a piece of wallpaper on a wall as soon as you've finished pasting it; if you put water on paper it expands, same with any wallpaper, and different papers have different lengths of times before you can hang them on the wall.

The rule is, the thicker the paper the longer you wait, with vinyl being the thinnest at 10 minutes waiting time, with lining paper at 15 minutes; at the other end of the scale, thick embossed paper is around 25 minutes.

A professional will paste his next two piece as soon as he's done his first which gives it time to expand before he starts hanging it on the wall.

Painter caulk in conjuntion with hand mixed filler gives you versitility and speed to get the job done.   If your about to finish a the job and you take a step back to look how it is; knocking a tin of paint over the floor you will need a hammer, quickly grab your hammer, run out side and start knocking hell out of the garage door. A hammer always comes in handy on any job.  

You've got plenty of paste on your paper, you've folded it in to a concertina and you've waited 15 minutes for expansion; now get your self on your plank, and starting from the right hand side of the wall holding the concertina in the middle with your left hand and take the end of the paper with your right and offer it up to the corner, over lapping the wall by 2" and just butting the celling check your chalk line, the bottom of the paper should be on it; now with a paper hanging brush or a clean cloth smooth out any air pockets and move along the wall letting the concertina out with your left hand and smoothing with your right; making sure the bottom of the paper is on the chalk line until you get to the end, where you should have a 2" over hang. Feed the paper into the corner with your hands so there's no gap behind the paper, run a pencil down the corner; pull the paper off the wall from the bottom and cut up the line you just drew or be professional and just run your scissors down the corner it will make a mark on the paper and cut, don't forget to cut the waste of the other end.

Your next peace of paper will be a lot easier, your line is the bottom of the first piece, just butt your second piece up to it, making sure you don't over lap it. Now just repeat the process until you get to the bottom. When it comes to your last piece it may be just 10" wide so you will have to cut the last piece it's full length. Take three measurements, both ends and the middle, which ever's the longest that's the width of your last piece.
This time only paste the first 11". Take the right side end and fold it to the other end of the table; making sure both edges meet each other when you fold it, pull it up the table, paste the rest of the near edge and fold that from the left to the middle. So the whole thing is pasted down one edge and both ends are folded into the middle; Working from your left pull the whole paper to the edge of the table, take your tape measure and using the edge of the table as a guide pull out you tape 10" holding your tape with the finger and thumb of your left hand place a pencil or your scissors at the end of the tape run your left hand, tape and marker down the length of the paper; cut down the mark and then put your 10" wide piece of lining paper on the wall. Finished

There are a lot of good tools here for hanging wallpaper especially the set at the top of the page which might go down as the best buy but the most important tool is the 'Plumb Bob' or chalk line, with out this most of the rest is obsolete.

The Plum Bob makes sure your first piece of wallpaper goes on strait wall or ceiling.