Vinyl wallpaper
 

The edges of the vinyl wallpaper in my bathroom are curling up around the door and the shower enclosure. (The wallpaper is about 8 years old).

What's the best way to un-curl the wallpaper so I can re-stick it to the walls?

I should preface by saying that I have an idea, but I've never done this befo

I remember reading the instructional booklet that came stuck to a gallon of Weldbond:



years ago. Normally, Weldbond is used as a wood glue, but it can be made to work just like a contact adhesive.

You apply Weldbond to both surfaces you want to stick together, and allow them to dry. Then brush mineral spirits (aka: paint thinner) onto the dry Weldbond on both surfaces and allow a minute for the mineral spitis to make each surface tacky. Then, just press them together.

The mineral spirits acts like a coalescing solvent, causing the polyvinyl acetate resins on both surfaces to get soft and sticky. When you press them together, the soft sticky resins on each surface will stick to each other.

You just hold the wallpaper in place (with painter's masking tape, maybe) until the mineral spirits evaporates. You should be able to pull the painter's masking tape off within an hour or so (or just leave it overnight that way for certainty).

Maybe Google Weldbond and find out if there are usage instruction on the manufacturer's web site. If not, see if they have a 1-800 customer service phone number where you can get more details on that process.

You can buy Weldbond in various sizes.


Maybe buy a small amount of it to see how well it works in your application.

Vinyl wallpaper
 

On 5/4/2013 2:13 PM, gary wrote:
The edges of the vinyl wallpaper in my bathroom are curling up around the door and the shower enclosure. (The wallpaper is about 8 years old).

What's the best way to un-curl the wallpaper so I can re-stick it to the walls?


You might be able to flatten it with heat, like sponge on hot water or
use hair dryer (carefully). It also might take stronger adhesive than
wallpaper paste, somethink like Elmer's. I had to do repairs in a
long-neglected bath, including grinding out some of the rusted corner
bead around the shower....where the drywall joined the tiled shower
wall. There was also damage along the outside of the tiled curb at the
shower opening....I took great pains to put rusty primer on the
remaining bead, spackle, allow everything to dry and cure, then primed
it prior to painting and papering.

This was in conjunction with regrouting the shower. I painted the
ceiling and drywall with alkyd semi and later papered the wall. Where
the paper came up against the tile, I masked off all but a fine line the
width of grout joint along the paper-tile edge and put on white caulk.
Also made fine line of caulk around the edges and bottom of the
wallpaper (not on seams, of course) and there was no longer any worry
about condensation loosening the wallpaper. We also installed a timer
on the wall switch for the vent fan so we could count on it removing all
the moisture after showers.

When bathroom doors and baseboards start peeling paint, I think it is
often from condensation running down and then wicking into raw wood
under the edges.