Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?

I've just put up a plasterboard wall and I'm wondering how well I will
be able to join the two boards (see other thread). Since I'm hoping to
wallpaper the wall, it seems silly to pay a plasterer hundreds of
pounds to put on some plaster that will be covered. I thought I might
just paper straight on top of the (sealed) plasterboard. Do you think
it would be a good idea to use lining paper too?

The wall, being new, is pretty flat but it depends how well I fill the
join or if the odd screw is proud!

TIA

Stephen coughed up some electrons that declared:

Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?

Hi

Thicker paper would be useful to hide imperfections. Too thin might be
painful to hang as it would tend to tear easily.

I've just put up a plasterboard wall and I'm wondering how well I will
be able to join the two boards (see other thread). Since I'm hoping to
wallpaper the wall, it seems silly to pay a plasterer hundreds of
pounds to put on some plaster that will be covered. I thought I might
just paper straight on top of the (sealed) plasterboard. Do you think
it would be a good idea to use lining paper too?

Well... You could. The advantage of plaster would be to allow you to scrape
the wallpaper off again one day without destroying the plasterboard.

But I agree, several hundred quid is a lot to plaster if you think you can
get away with it. OTOH you could spend the same few hundred and go on a 2
weekend course, DIY the skim and you'd be setup for life

I think, if it were me, I'd give the wall a couple of coats of white
emulsion first, maybe some PVA sealant first... Just an idea - wallpaper
will stick fine and might be possible to remove it again and keep the wall
intact. I haven't tried this mind.

The wall, being new, is pretty flat but it depends how well I fill the
join or if the odd screw is proud!

You won't have any proud screws - you can always drive them under the
surface and fill the head.

Cheers

Tim

Tim S wrote:

I think, if it were me, I'd give the wall a couple of coats of white
emulsion first, maybe some PVA sealant first... Just an idea - wallpaper
will stick fine and might be possible to remove it again and keep the wall
intact. I haven't tried this mind.


I have - it works just fine.
I would never consider papering over plasterboard, without first
painting it.

Tim S wrote:
Stephen coughed up some electrons that declared:

Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?

Hi

Thicker paper would be useful to hide imperfections. Too thin might be
painful to hang as it would tend to tear easily.

I've just put up a plasterboard wall and I'm wondering how well I will
be able to join the two boards (see other thread). Since I'm hoping to
wallpaper the wall, it seems silly to pay a plasterer hundreds of
pounds to put on some plaster that will be covered. I thought I might
just paper straight on top of the (sealed) plasterboard. Do you think
it would be a good idea to use lining paper too?

Well... You could. The advantage of plaster would be to allow you to scrape
the wallpaper off again one day without destroying the plasterboard.

But I agree, several hundred quid is a lot to plaster if you think you can
get away with it. OTOH you could spend the same few hundred and go on a 2
weekend course, DIY the skim and you'd be setup for life

I think, if it were me, I'd give the wall a couple of coats of white
emulsion first, maybe some PVA sealant first... Just an idea - wallpaper
will stick fine and might be possible to remove it again and keep the wall
intact. I haven't tried this mind.

The wall, being new, is pretty flat but it depends how well I fill the
join or if the odd screw is proud!

You won't have any proud screws - you can always drive them under the
surface and fill the head.

Cheers

Tim

I assume you used square edge plasterboard? The tapered edge stuff might
have made it easier for you. Something for next time... :-)

Lightweight lining paper might be OK in the hands of experts, in mine,
medium to heavyweight is definitely to be preferred.

One old trick - if you overlap or wrinkle a bit as you are hanging the
lining paper, let it dry thoroughly and sand it down using ordinary
medium/fine sandpaper and a block.

--
Rod

Hypothyroidism is a seriously debilitating condition with an insidious
onset.
Although common it frequently goes undiagnosed.
www.thyromind.info www.thyroiduk.org www.altsupportthyroid.org

I've just put up a plasterboard wall and I'm wondering how well I will
be able to join the two boards (see other thread). Since I'm hoping to
wallpaper the wall, it seems silly to pay a plasterer hundreds of
pounds to put on some plaster that will be covered. I thought I might
just paper straight on top of the (sealed) plasterboard. Do you think
it would be a good idea to use lining paper too?

Well... You could. The advantage of plaster would be to allow you to scrape
the wallpaper off again one day without destroying the plasterboard.

There are plasterboard sealers which you are supposed to use
before papering onto plasterboard. They are supposed to avoid
the destroying the wall problem when you come to take the wall
paper off some years later. I don't know if they work, as
decorators rarely bother what problems they might cause years
later (or even minutes later).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?

Lining paper even at 800 covers a multitude of sins as long as you get the
joints filled.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?

Lining paper even at 800 covers a multitude of sins as long as you get the
joints filled.



IME the thinner stuff is actually easier to use, and much more forgiving
if it needs to be stretched here and there on uneven walls. The joins
are also less pronounced

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:51:12 GMT, Stuart Noble wrote:

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?

Lining paper even at 800 covers a multitude of sins as long as you get the
joints filled.



IME the thinner stuff is actually easier to use, and much more forgiving
if it needs to be stretched here and there on uneven walls. The joins
are also less pronounced

Aren't you supposed to leave a small gap between lengths of lining paper?
Also nobody's mentioned which way - vertical or horizontal - it should be
applied. I've always understood it to be the latter.

Appelation Controlee wrote:
On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:51:12 GMT, Stuart Noble wrote:

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?
Lining paper even at 800 covers a multitude of sins as long as you get the
joints filled.


IME the thinner stuff is actually easier to use, and much more forgiving
if it needs to be stretched here and there on uneven walls. The joins
are also less pronounced

Aren't you supposed to leave a small gap between lengths of lining paper?
Also nobody's mentioned which way - vertical or horizontal - it should be
applied. I've always understood it to be the latter.

Me too, on the basis that then you avoid joints between the two layers
of wallpaper being in synch. However, I've never really understood the
logic behind that one - surely you always plan out where the drops are
going to fall before starting to paper a wall, eg to avoid having a 2"
strip going into a corner - so if there were going to be any overlapping
joints you'd spot them then and move the paper accordingly.

Never even tried horizontal papering, but it must be far harder than
vertical, and why?

David

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:19:27 +0000, Lobster
wrote:

Appelation Controlee wrote:
On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:51:12 GMT, Stuart Noble wrote:

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?
Lining paper even at 800 covers a multitude of sins as long as you get the
joints filled.


IME the thinner stuff is actually easier to use, and much more forgiving
if it needs to be stretched here and there on uneven walls. The joins
are also less pronounced

Aren't you supposed to leave a small gap between lengths of lining paper?
Also nobody's mentioned which way - vertical or horizontal - it should be
applied. I've always understood it to be the latter.

Me too, on the basis that then you avoid joints between the two layers
of wallpaper being in synch. However, I've never really understood the
logic behind that one - surely you always plan out where the drops are
going to fall before starting to paper a wall, eg to avoid having a 2"
strip going into a corner - so if there were going to be any overlapping
joints you'd spot them then and move the paper accordingly.

Never even tried horizontal papering, but it must be far harder than
vertical, and why?

David
On a reasonable surface like plasterboard I've always used 1200 grade
lining paper, hung vertically. The lining paper is usually a bit wider
than normal wallpaper, so the joints won't coincide (unless your very
unlucky). Don't leave a gap between lengths. With 1200 grade it's
quite easy to get a good butt joint. If you do end up with a bit of an
overlap, wait until fully dry and just sand off the bump. If there a
small gap, again wait till dry, a bit of fine surface filler, and sand
off.

If you can fill and sand the plasterboard (joints and screw holes) to
get a good surface, much better just to seal it, and then paper
straight on top. Properly sealed, the paper will come off when needed,
without damage to the plaster board.

David

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:19:27 +0000, Lobster wrote:

Appelation Controlee wrote:
On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:51:12 GMT, Stuart Noble wrote:

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Stephen wrote:
Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?
Lining paper even at 800 covers a multitude of sins as long as you get the
joints filled.


IME the thinner stuff is actually easier to use, and much more forgiving
if it needs to be stretched here and there on uneven walls. The joins
are also less pronounced

Aren't you supposed to leave a small gap between lengths of lining paper?
Also nobody's mentioned which way - vertical or horizontal - it should be
applied. I've always understood it to be the latter.

Me too, on the basis that then you avoid joints between the two layers
of wallpaper being in synch. However, I've never really understood the
logic behind that one - surely you always plan out where the drops are
going to fall before starting to paper a wall, eg to avoid having a 2"
strip going into a corner - so if there were going to be any overlapping
joints you'd spot them then and move the paper accordingly.

Agreed re. planning, and it shouldn't be that hard to avoid unhappy
coincidences.

Never even tried horizontal papering, but it must be far harder than
vertical, and why?

It's not that difficult, provided you are able to walk then length of the
wall being covered. This can obviously be an issue when doing the higher
bits, if you don't have the appropriate access equipment.

Stephen wrote:

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades
(I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know
which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to
be safe?

Simply, the more lumpy the underlying wall, then the thicker the lining
paper you need.

I've just put up a plasterboard wall and I'm wondering how well I will
be able to join the two boards (see other thread). Since I'm hoping to
wallpaper the wall, it seems silly to pay a plasterer hundreds of
pounds to put on some plaster that will be covered. I thought I might
just paper straight on top of the (sealed) plasterboard. Do you think
it would be a good idea to use lining paper too?

No personal experience of papering unskimmed p'board but others' advice
sounds sensible. TBH if you properly prepare the p'board - filling in
joints and sanding down etc - I would have thought you'd get away
without using lining paper at all. Put it this way, I wouldn't use
lining paper on a freshly-skimmed wall, and a new pboard wall should be
just as flat and smooth.

David

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:26:36 +0000, Lobster
wrote:

Simply, the more lumpy the underlying wall, then the thicker the lining
paper you need.

Sorry for the late reply to this thread. I was concerned about the
join between the two plasterboard sheets but I didn't do a bad job of
the plasterboard wall for a first attempt, the join was invisible once
filled, and so as you all advised, the wall did not need lining. I'm
still puzzled how you translate lumpiness of wall into lining grade if
you ever need to buy lining paper though.

Stephen wrote:
On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:26:36 +0000, Lobster
wrote:

Simply, the more lumpy the underlying wall, then the thicker the lining
paper you need.

I'm
still puzzled how you translate lumpiness of wall into lining grade if
you ever need to buy lining paper though.

Well, if you had a wall with lots of blemishes and then wallpapered it
with, say, tissue paper, clearly all the blemishes would show through.
However, if you used 1mm thick cardboard instead, then they wouldn't!
It's no more complicated than that...!

David

On Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:01:22 +0000, Lobster
wrote:

Well, if you had a wall with lots of blemishes and then wallpapered it
with, say, tissue paper, clearly all the blemishes would show through.
However, if you used 1mm thick cardboard instead, then they wouldn't!
It's no more complicated than that...!

That I understand, normal "top-coat" paper is like the tissue paper so
you need the "cardboard" of the lining paper underneath to hide the
blemishes. So far so good. What I don't understand is why there are
different grades of lining paper and how you can tell from looking at
a wall whether you need 800, 1000, 1200, or 1400 grade. What are those
numbers: weight per square metre?