Treating Water Stains

This window had leak issues ( rain , sprinklers ) some years back, which have been solved by replacing the window, and doing other repairs.  In the photo, I’ve applied my light blue wallpaper primer to the top half of the wall but not yet the bottom portion, so that’s why the color difference

Even though the leak has been stopped, vestiges of it are still appearing.  Water that entered the wall left vertical streaks on the drywall .  All these years later, after the paint and texture have been removed , the stains remain.

Water stains , along with some others, such as blood , rust , ink , marker , grease , oil, cosmetics , and the like, will bleed through joint compound , primer , paint , and wallpaper , creating new stains on the surface .  It may take a couple of months , but they will make an appearance . In this photo, I’ve already applied my blue primer. It only took a half an hour for these stains to work their way through.

This is the top right corner of the window , where the bracket for the mini-blinds is attached to the wall.  Note the stains on the underside of the window . 

To prevent these stains from working their way through the new coating / paint / wallpaper , it’s imperative to thoroughly cover them with a stain blocker .  And – trust me – water-based products won’t work, despite what the label claims.  You need an oil-based product like this KILZ Original , or a shellac-based like BIN by Zinsser .  Both are prone to splatter , so be sure to cover your floor and baseboards with dropcloths .  KILZ has strong fumes and can make you high , so ventilate or wear a respirator mask .  It’s a hassle cleaning the liquid out of the brush , so I use a cheap-ish disposable “ chip brush ” from Home Depot or Sherwin-Williams .  The products usually dry pretty quickly.
Note that wallpaper paste won’t stick to most oil-based primers , and shellac is too glossy for good adhesion , so I’m going to go over the stain blocker with my usual Roman Pro 977 Ultra Prime wallpaper primer , which sticks to just about everything , and creates a good, matt finish surface for the wallpaper to cling to.  

Wrong Electrical Boxes for These Sconces

This is the mounting bracket for a sconce / light fixture . The fixture itself is exactly the same size as the bracket.
So it’s unfortunate that the electrician used an electrical box that is too large . As you can see, the blue box shows on both the left and right sides of the light fixture.
(I will also add that I think this light fixture is narrower than most – I suspect it was made overseas where boxes and codes are different from here.)
In addition, the blue box juts out from the wall and will create a bump under the wallpaper , plus prevent the paper from adhering tightly to the wall . The jaggedly cut drywall will leave impressions under the paper, too.

Here the plastic electrical box is recessed better into the wall. But there are still gaps on the left and right sides of the bracket.
To get the wallpaper around the brackets without gaps showing , I removed the brackets, and then brought the wallpaper in to cover the electrical junction boxes by about 1.” (no photo)
If the electrician needs more space for his wires , he can always trim the wallpaper back a little.
In the instance of the box in the top photo, there will still be wallpaper that can’t sit tight to the drywall , but once the sconce is replaced you really won’t notice.
I also had the option of leaving the mounting brackets in place and then placing the wallpaper over the metal plates. But first of all, I think this is against building Codes. And second, if the sconces are changed out later, or if someone needs to access the electrical connections, removing the mounting plates would most surely tear the wallpaper in the process.
So, best to have the wallpaper behind the plates, rather than pasted on top of them.

Wallpaper and Toilet Paper Holder

I usually do my own prep, but this time the homeowner had her contractor strip the existing wallpaper. This photo is to show you the toilet paper holder close up. You’ll have to imagine it without the wallpaper, as it was when I arrived to start this project.

Fixtures like this, including towel bars and rings and many light fixtures , can be removed by loosening the recessed set screws , which are usually on the bottom of the fixture. They will take either a very small flat-head screwdriver , or a small allen wrench . These sit very close to the wall, so you have to be careful not to let your tools scratch or mar the wall as you work.

Here’s a close-up of the underside of the fixture, showing the recessed set screw. In this case, an allen wrench was needed. Most fixtures take the same size wrench. Here I’m using my American set. But you occasionally will need a metric set.

Once I got the holder off, I discovered that the contractor had not bothered to remove the toilet paper holder, but had cut around it. In doing this, he also left some of the original wallpaper. Also, by cutting around the fixture, he scored into the wall, which is not good because it breaks the surface and creates a potentially unstable surface that can come apart over time. In addition, it took them a whole lot of time to work around this fixture to remove the old wallpaper and then repair and smooth the wall.
The whole business makes little sense, because it’s ultimately easier and faster to simply remove the thing. No damage to the wall, and then wallpaper can go behind the fixture leaving no cut edges around it.

Here I’ve hung the wallpaper and marked the holes for the screws.

Mounting bracket back in place.

Toilet paper holder reattached.

What’s Wrong With This Picture? Unhappy Mix-Up

You are looking down into a paper grocery bag. At the bottom are an assortment of screws, mounting hardware, switch plates, towel bars, escutcheons, and more (some have been pulled out of the bag already).

When I get ready to hang wallpaper, I “undress the room” … meaning, I remove light fixtures, towel bars and toilet paper holders, light switch plates, window treatments, mirrors, etc. I set all the hardware and screws that go with these items near the spot where they will be reinstalled, with all these elements in a certain order, and collated to their respective holes and fasteners and brackets, so it will be simple for me to put everything back in its place, once the paper is up.

But on this job, the wallpaper had to be sent back due to a defect, so it was a couple of weeks before the new paper arrived and I was able to return to finish the job.

In the meantime, the homeowner, understandably, wanted a tidy room, so she picked up these things. And threw them all together into one bag.

Arrrgh!

But not insurmountable. It took a little digging and fitting and futzing, but I was able to sort out what went with what, and I got all the fixtures back in place.