"Eric Cartman" wrote in message
om...
OK, I'm really into plain interior walls, love the clean unbroken
look. Now the house I have just bought, once all the paper has been
removed will need skimming.

The cheaper alternative for me would be heavy lining paper and I would
have a go at this myself (never wallpapered before). The only thing
that puts me off is the fact that I have never seen a house that,
after a few years, has the odd place here and there where the paper
has started to come away from the wall at seam lines and the paper has
become hard and brittle.

Is there a foolproof way of getting paper on the wall, hiding the
joins *and* have it stay on the wall over time? Would be really
interested to hear if you have solved this as lining my walls may be
an option if this can be solved.

Cheers.

My worry would be that if the walls are bad enough to require skimming after
the paper has been stripped, then even 1200 weight lining paper won't mask
the defects....

However, continuing on, I have used 2 techniques for unbroken joins in
lining paper.

1. hang paper leaving 3 or 4mm gap between the drops. When fully dry, go
over the gaps with a gritty filler, mixed from powder, such as tetrion or
polyfilla. Run an electric sander over the joins to make sure they are
flat.

2. overlap the drops by 1cm or so, then immediately run down the centre of
the overlap with a _very_ sharp blade, and peel off the excess. This
guarantees exact butting-up of the drops. Make sure the blade really is
sharp, and clean it off after every use, otherwise you might catch and tear
bits of the paper.

One coat of decent trade matt white emulsion as a first coat, and then 2 of
decent flat paint as a colour coat later and you'll not see the joins (this
pretty much also applies if you perfect your hanging technique so that you
don't need to do 1 or 2 above).

To avoid peeling joins, first make sure you don't have damp problems. If
you do you're onto a loser and will always get peeling joins, IME.

Secondly, make sure the wall preparation is up to scratch, and the wall is
properly sized before you start to paper.

Thirdly, make sure your paste coverage is adequate and right up to the
edges. You shouldn't paste and then hang the lining paper immediately
afterwards, but leave it to sit for 5 or so minutes so that the paper
absorbs some of the moisture. Use a paper hanging roller on the joins when
you're hanging the paper.

--
Richard Sampson

email me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk