This wall treatment is exactly what I asked the homeowners for during our initial consult a few months ago. This bathroom in an original older home in the Riverside neighborhood of Houston has been gutted to the studs and remodeled , including new drywall / Sheetrock . Here the drywall has been finished to what the industry calls a Level 4 . This means that the wallboard is up, joints have been taped and floated and sanded smooth , and nail / screw holes and other uneven areas have been floated over. You can learn more about the five levels of finishing drywall by Googling . The blue areas are where the guys went back and fixed little imperfections . They add a little pigment to their joint compound , so when it’s dry they can spot it and go back and sand it smooth . You also frequently see a bright pink . On Level 4, no primers or coatings of any kind are applied. That makes me happy, because primers that painters use, especially the PVA based primers , are not suitable for use under wallpaper . Also, painters rarely take time to remove dust before spraying on their coatings , and dust can be dangerous if trapped under wallpaper. More on that in a minute . This Level 4 scenario is ideal, because it lets me prep the wall exactly as I want to, from start to finish.
Here’s another part of the room, also at a Level 4.
The walls have been sanded smooth , and the resulting dust has been vacuumed up. But as I run my hand over the wall, it’s clear that residual dust is still on some sections of the wall. Drywall guys and painters don’t bother to remove dust. And they don’t have to. Because paint primers and paint itself simply dry and sit on top of the surface. But wallpaper is different. As wallpaper paste dries, the paper shrinks and pulls tight against the wall. If the surface underneath is unstable / dusty , the wallpaper can pull away from the wall. Think about it – It’s like when your grandmother floured her cupcake tins. That flour’s purpose is to let the cupcakes release easily from the baking tin. Same thing with wallpaper – If dust is under the primer , the tension caused when the wallpaper dries and shrinks can cause the surfaces to come apart – delaminate . It’s not the wallpaper itself coming off. It’s the layer of dust underneath, along with any primer or other coating that’s been applied on top of it.
So I take a damp sponge and wipe the entire wall surface , to remove dust . The sponge fills up quickly, so I keep a 1-gallon bucket of water handy, and rinse the sponge frequently . Then the wall has to dry before applying a primer .
Gardz by Zinsser is a wonderful sealer for drywall and for joint compound on the floated areas. It’s thin and watery and it soaks into the surface , dries hard , and binds everything together .
Here the Gardz has been rolled on and cut in at the edges on the top 1/3 of these walls. Note how nicely it has soaked in. The top edge of the wall has paint on it, from where the roller with the ceiling paint got bopped against the side walls. Gardz is best on porous surfaces , so won’t adhere as well to this paint, so I’ve tried to not get too much on that area, as I will be following up with my wallpaper primer – which will stick to the ceiling paint.
Gardz is an excellent sealer for porous surfaces. A lot of my colleagues hang wallpaper right on Gardz. But I find it a bit too hard and glossy , and I prefer my wallpaper to have a matt finish to grab ahold of. So I’m going to top-coat the Gardz with my preferred wallpaper primer – Pro 977 , Ultra Prime , by Roman . It will adhere to the gloss of the Gardz, and then dries with a matt finish. But it also has a “crystal”-like surface, which provides additional nooks and crannies for the wallpaper paste to grab a secure hold of. (We installer s refer to wallpaper pastes and primers by their numbers.) 977 is lightly pigmented , so provides a bit of opacity for an even color under your new wallpaper. Too much pigment would interfere with its ability to hold those seams down. Because most people have white walls these days, I have my paint store ( Murphy Brothers in the Rice Village of Houston ) add a little blue tint , to help me see where I’ve applied it on a white wall. In the photo above, I’m using a fan to speed dry time . The area under the window has been Gardz’d but has not been primed yet . Here is the wall , ready for wallpaper .
This wallpaper is made of what we call a British pulp material – a classic used in England for decades. It has a beautiful matt finish . But it has no protective coating , so it’s susceptible to stains . There are other issues with pulps, and you can learn more by doing a search here and reading previous posts. The staining you see along the top of the backsplash is from water , splashing onto the wallpaper and also beading up along the top of the backsplash and then wicking up under the wallpaper. But look more closely, and you’ll notice a general overall dirty cast . It looks to me like these shadows and stains are coming from under the wallpaper.
First, let me point out what a nice job the installer did in centering the pattern on this wall behind the toilet. But next, notice the staining . The marks are obviously working their way out from under the wallpaper. It’s interesting that the stains seem to follow a vertical path – I believe along where the drywall screws and joints were floated over with joint compound. I also believe the wall was not primed or painted before the wallpaper went up. In other words, the wallpaper is sitting directly on sections of joint compound and bare drywall .
I believe that some component in one of these materials is working its way up through the wallpaper and showing on the surface. Another theory is that the original installer used clay based paste . This paste is tan in color, and actually made from red clay. It’s very sticky, so many installers like it, especially for commercial use on heavy vinyl wallcoverings . But I won’t use it, because I’ve seen way too many times where it has worked its way through wallpaper, leaving stains like this. OK, full disclosure … aside from the commercial uses, there are certain wallpapers that call for clay based paste, specifically some colorways of the Bradbury & Bradbury brand. Cool Victorian and Arts & Crafts and more designs. Google them.
These stains are dangerous, because they can continue to bleed through anything you put on top, such as paint or new wallpaper. This is one of the very few situations where I plan to hang the new wallpaper over this existing paper. That’s because, since this paper was hung on bare drywall, it’s bonded to the surface, and will be very difficult to strip off. And the clay based paste will still be under there, which is nearly impossible to wash off completely. So, to save me time and to save the homeowner money, I’m going to leave the paper on the wall. I’m going to seal it off with a good coat of stain blocker , such as this oil-based KILZ Original , or another good product is shellac-based BIN . Note that latex or water-based sealers – no matter what they claim on the label – will not adequately seal off stains . IMO. KILZ has fumes that will make you high. BIN won’t set you adrift in a yellow submarine, but it does have a strong smell. So ventilate the room, and consider wearing a chemical respirator. Both of these splatter and drip, especially the BIN, so cover floors , baseboards , and other surfaces.
Wallpaper paste won’t adhere to an oil-based product, and BIN dries too shiny for the paste to grab a good hold of. Besides, they’re not designed to hold wallpaper. So you’ll need to topcoat the stain blocker with a primer made for wallpaper. I like Pro 977 Ultra Prime by Roman . It sticks to just about anything, and makes a great surface for wallpaper, easing installation now and removal later, and working to hold the seams down tightly without gapping as the paper dries and shrinks .
Oh, my! – I hung lots of these chintz florals, ” satin ” look (the design of the dark green at the bottom of the wall), and dark colors back in the ’90’s . Sure enough – this home was built and wallpapered in 1994. IIt’s still a good look, IMO, and the homeowner still likes it. But she’s just gotten tired of it. So – time for an update ! She also decided to eliminate the chair rail , so the new wallpaper will go ceiling to floor . Here you see some damage to the drywall where the chair rail molding was removed . What a change! Now the room’s look is quiet and fresh . The buffet , topped with a decorative mirror , will go on this wall . That’s why I centered the pattern in between the windows , so it will fall evenly on either side of the furnishings . I also plotted so that a full “Moroccan lantern” (that’s what this style of trellis pattern is called), would balance out between the crown molding and the window molding. There were several of these 12.5″ high areas all around the room, so this placement of whole “lantern” motifs gave the room a pleasing look. It also worked out that the lanterns were evenly placed and kept whole between the crown molding and the baseboard. See the second following photo to see what I’m talking about As a note – just this one window wall took me about five hours to measure , calculate , and hang . Getting the pattern to go over, around, and under the two windows , and still line up and match correctly , took some time and futzing. The material was thick and stiff , and a bit tricky to fit into corners and trim around the decorative window molding . In the foreground you see my work table area . The homeowner has let me put protective padding on her dining room table and then set my work table on that. This saves space and allows plenty of room for my ladder and other tools as I work around all four walls. So that I could center the pattern on this wall , I had to start hanging my first strip in the middle of the wall. I was lucky this time, that the pattern was centered exactly on the edge of the wallpaper roll . Sometimes (as in the one I did yesterday – see previous post ) the center of the design motif is a to the right or left of the edge of the wallpaper . This, naturally, means you’ve got to do more measuring and plotting and double-checking , to be sure the center of the design falls down the center of the wall . Back to the photo above … that dark block on the right side of my work table is my laser level. It’s shooting a perfectly plumb red line onto the wall. Here I’m lining up my first strip of paper butted against this red line . Switch topics … Back in 1994, the original installer did a very nice job of hanging the wallpaper. But … he didn’t prime the new drywall first. That lack of primer / protective layer means that the wallpaper will actually bond to the drywall. I tried, but was unable to get the existing wallpaper off . Eventually, you need to factor in time , damage to the wall , paste residue left on the wall, and take a different tac if called for. So I skim-floated over the seams , so they wouldn’t show under the new paper , and also floated over the damaged drywall where the chair rail had been removed . Sanded smooth , and then primed the patched areas as well as the original wallpaper, with Roman Ultra Prime Pro 977 . This stuff will adhere to the light acrylic (slick) surface of the original wallpaper, as well as protect it from moisture from my paste on the new wallpaper. ( Moisture could cause the underlying original wallpaper to expand , creating bubbles that will look bad, or loose areas that will pull away from the wall, creating a bubble or pocket.) My primer is also lightly pigmented, so it helps block out the dark color and busy pattern of the original wallpaper . This particular new wallpaper is quite opaque , but not all of them are, so a pigmented primer is important , IMO . Left corner of the buffet wall. Here you can see how the lantern motifs are placed between ceiling and floor. The background has a lightly mottled effect, that mimics grasscloth a bit, and also adds more depth and warmth than just a plain solid color . Been havin’ more than a fair share of defects lately, especially this week. This paper had on both front and back sides, incidences of these black flecks . They seemed to be maybe charcoal , so I wasn’t too worried about their black bleeding through to the surface , like ink or any oil-based substance will do. Most of them were embedded in the material itself, so could not be wiped off , nor dug out with a razor blade . Some I had to cut around and discard the affected paper. Others were so small as to not be noticeable once the paper was up on the wall and all the furniture and artwork was back in the room. There was also one 3′ section of wallpaper that had an odd streak or arc running across it. It wasn’t ink . It was more like some kind of compromise to the substrate . I noticed it was I was pasting the back of the paper . I turned it over and, sure enough, you could see it a little on the surface. (see photo in previous post) It’s the kind of thing that was subtle, but would catch your eye when looking at the wall from a distance . It was minor , but I discarded that strip . Good thing I have the homeowners purchase a little extra wallpaper . The manufacturer is Designer Wallcoverings , which is a good quality brand (aside from the printing defects I described earlier ). It was a non-woven / paste the wall material , which is pretty user-friendly . It will strip off the wall easily and in one piece when you redecorate . Stain-resistant , and ” breathable ” in humid conditions . The home is in the West University neighborhood of Houston . Dining room installer
This wallpaper is dry-strippable, which means that it is coming away from the wall with just a gentle tug, rather than needing water or a lot of time and various steps to remove it.
This is partly because of the type of paper and the paste used by the previous installer. But it has more to do with the fact that he hung the paper on the porous surface of a newly-floated (smoothed) wall, and didn’t bother to prime / seal the walls first.
In fact, the wallpaper was failing and coming away from the wall on its own, long before I arrived to replace it.
A simple primer, a few dollars, and about an hour’s time would have prevented this.
Yesterday’s post showed you the extremely heavy texture on the walls that needed to be smoothed before wallpaper can go up. In the first photo above, you see the walls after I applied the first coat of smoothing compound.
Once that had dried overnight, I sanded it. Since it started out so thick and uneven, it was impossible to sand it completely smooth, as you see in the second photo. Some paperhangers would hang on this, but I want the walls to be a perfectly smooth as possible, so no bumps show under the paper.
So floated the walls again, this time with a very light skim coat. It dried relatively quickly, and I sanded the walls a final time. The third photo shows how smooth they turned out.
A lot of work, some sore muscles, and SIX BOXES of joint compound!
The homeowners wanted a contemporary, textured look in their powder and master bathrooms, so hired a faux-finish company to create this striated look.
Unfortunately for all, they were not pleased with the look. They decided to go with wallpaper instead; one thing about wallpaper – you get a sample or look in a book and so pretty well know what the finished project will look like.
But, before the new wallpaper can go up, the walls need to be smoothed. This will eliminate ridges from showing under the new wallpaper, and will provide a smooth surface for the new wallpaper to grab onto.
So I “skim-coated,” or “floated” over the previous texture with joint compound (“mud”), let it dry, sanded it smooth, wiped dust off the surface with a damp sponge, and then primed with a clear penetrating sealer called Gardz (by Zinsser and available at Benjamin Moore paint stores). Now we have a good surface for the new wallpaper.
Note: The areas at the bottom of the second photo show some vertical lines – these are remnants of the striated surface below. The spaces between the ridges have been filled in with smoothing compound, and the whole surface is smooth. The scissors is there to give a reference as to scale.
A hole got punched into the Sheetrock, and the contractor put in a new piece of drywall, taped, and then floated with 20-minute joint compound. That was yesterday. Well, I got to work this morning, and the patch is still wet. (White is dry, around the edges, grey is wet, over the new patched in piece.)
Doesn’t make sense, as 20-minute mud is supposed to dry in … 20 minutes; even a deep patch would be dry overnight.
Anyway, I could not repair the wallpaper, because the patch was too wet to sand or seal with primer or hang paper on … too many potential problems.
We will hope it dries sometime soon, and I can go back and make their wall look a little nicer.
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