On the inner portions of these rolls of embossed vinyl faux grasscloth , but only on the outer edges , was this odd pink tint . It seems to be only in the center of the roll – closer to where it was wrapped around a rod, perhaps?It seems to be only on the outer edges .This is disconcerting, because there are substances that can bleed and stain wallpaper, and vinyl is especially prone. This shade of pink happens to be the same as mold , which will stain and grow … but it doesn’t fit the irregular growth pattern of mold. I’m hoping it’s something from the factory that that is harmless, like a water-based paint or pigment that got onto the rolling apparatus and transferred to the paper, or some other innocent anomaly . It didn’t appear to have infiltrated the vinyl surface of the material , so I went ahead and hung the paper . Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this substance remains inert , and the wallpaper looks pristine for years to come.
While waiting for my order to be ready, I couldn’t help but notice problems …. Wallpaper starting to curl at the seams. Wallpaper twisting in corners as the building shifts and drywall moves. This is pretty common in Houston. Other signs of poorly maintained building and/or climate control issues. Seam curling back. I believe this to be a lower-end solid vinyl wallpaper on a gritty paper backing – one of my least preferred types. When the walls are not prepared correctly, and the paper is not hung properly, and when there is a lot of humidity (door left open, steam from kitchen getting into waiting area, A/C not running or turned off at night), humidity can enter into the seams and be wicked up by the paper backing. The paper expands and pushes away from the wall, causing the edges of the wallpaper to curl back. The next step is that the vinyl surface can actually delaminate (come apart) from the paper backing. This is pretty impossible to repair. At the very bottom, you can see the vinyl separating from the paper backing. The wallpaper has been wrapped around this outside corner, and a new piece of paper overlapped on top of it. When this is done, with vinyl material, you’re supposed to use special vinyl-over-vinyl ( VOV ) adhesive, because regular wallpaper paste isn’t formulated to adhere to vinyl / plastic . But even if the installer had used the correct adhesive, under humid conditions or with improper wall prep, the odds are that this wallpaper job will start to fail. Also note dirt along the ceiling, and along the chair rail in the previous photo. General lack of maintenance and I am really suspecting lack of climate control.The black smudges appear to be mildew coming from underneath the paper. Again, probably related to humidity. Vinyl wallpaper is a sheet of plastic, and moisture can be trapped behind it. That can be a breeding ground for mold and mildew. So why use vinyl wallpaper? Mainly because the surface is much more washable than most other types of wallpaper. In a business, washability is attractive. But these property owners chose a low-end vinyl product, most likely skipped proper wall prep such as a wallpaper primer, and have not provided a hospitable environment for the paper. There are other vinyl wallcoverings that would have held up better. For instance, vinyl on a scrim ( woven fabric ) backing, or the newer backing called non-woven , which has a 20% polyester content, and therefore less likely to wick up humidity.
Before, with new Sheetrock on the wall to the right, and some of the paper removed by the contractor around areas where he was working. He added crown molding at the top of the wall, so removed a few inches of wallpaper below the molding. This is preferable to him putting the molding right on top of the wallpaper.
What a pretty room this was, when I finished it just two years or so ago. But a few months ago, the homeowner noticed a pink spot low on the wallpaper. I told her it looked like the dreaded shade of pink linked with mold.
Turned out it was. Somehow or other, moisture had gotten inside the wall and allowed mold to grow, and it was working its way through the drywall and wallpaper. A contractor ripped out the wall, repaired the problem, and then it was my turn to replace the wallpaper.
Since one whole wall and parts of two others were affected, and because crown molding had been added which changed how the pattern hit the top of the wall, replacing all the paper in the room made the most sense.
I stripped off the remaining wallpaper, primed the areas of new drywall, and rehung the room.
The pattern is called Gisele, and is by Thibaut, one of my favorite companies.
The home is in Cypress, a far northwest suburb of Houston.
I hung this paper maybe a year before the Pandemic. It was a pretty new home, in the Towne Lake are of Cypress (NW Houston). Now, two or three years later, this pink patch has developed on the lower part of the powder room wall that backs up to the garage.
To me, my experience says this is mold.
There’s gotta be moisture inside the wall coming from somewhere.
The homeowner has already contacted the builder (thank goodness for warrantees!) and it’s certain that much of this wall will be torn out. Once the leak is fixed, the mold has been remediated, and the drywall patched, I will come in and replace the wallpaper.
This will entail either the one wall. Or possibly redoing the entire room.
The wallpaper is by Thibaut, and is called “Giselle.” The homeowner will replace it with exactly the same pattern and colorway.
Look to the right of the can. Notice the tiny spots of red. This is rust, and rust is bad because it (along with certain other substances, like ink, tar, oil, tobacco, water stains, wood sap (knots), mold, mildew) will bleed through wallpaper. Maybe not immediately, but, over time, it will work its way through the primer and the paper and to the surface, leaving a spot that cannot be washed off.
Actually, there was a whole lot of rust along the entire height of this wall’s corner. An air conditioning leak had kept the drywall wet for a period of time, and rust had formed along much of the metal corner – called a “bead.”
I skim-floated over the affected area with joint compound, and that buried the rust … for a while. But rust (and other substances), will eventually work their way to the surface, leaving spots on the wallpaper.
So a stain blocker was called for, which will prevent any stains from bleeding through. For this I love KILZ – but only the “Original” oil-based version. The water-borne products just don’t measure up
Some reasons I skim-floated over the area was to provide a buffer space between the rust and the sealer in hopes that the rust would not make it all the way up to the surface, to create more material over the very corner itself that could soak up the sealer, and because the stain blocker would soak into the porous smoothing compound more so than to the sharp corner of the metal bead.
These little specs of brownish red, and also circular patterns of a powdery grey/black substance, were dispersed throughout the backing of the Serena & Lily grasscloth I hung today.
What worries me is that they look like mildew that I have encountered in homes that have moisture problems. And mold and mildew can work their way through wallpaper, causing discoloration, and even interfering with adhesion.
Possibly the factory is not climate-controlled, and mildew was able to get a foothold on some of their product??
Let’s hope that my worries are unfounded. Only time will tell.
Well, this has been a month of issues with stains on walls! I was smoothing these textured walls with joint compound, and noticed some red splotches on the paint. I studied them, but decided they were paint, which is stable and not a problem. But a little after I had skimmed over the spots, I looked again and noticed that the red color had bled through.
Evidently it was ink, or lipstick, or child’s crayon, or some other such substance. Along with rust, blood, water, oil, mold and mildew, and a few others, these materials will bleed through paint and wallpaper. It might not happen right away, but eventually you will notice stains on the paper.
These stains can be sealed with a stain-blocker. I like oil-based KILZ Original, but the shellac-based BIN primer is good, too. Water-borne sealers may be environmentally-friendly, but I don’t trust them to work as well.
But in this case, I preferred to just get rid of the questionable areas. I took a knife and dug out the part of the wall that had the red spots. Those are the chips I am holding in my hand. Then I skim-floated over the area to smooth it, and proceeded with my wall prep and wallpaper installation.
You can clearly see the mildew on the wall that was revealed when I removed the wallpaper. It shows up as the black rings / circles.
The mildew was caused by moisture trapped in the wall by both a leak in the roof or siding, and a leak from a bathroom that crept under the floor – compounded by being trapped inside the wall by a solid vinyl wallpaper that would not breathe or allow air to pass through. Another reason to avoid paper-backed solid vinyl wallpaper.
Note: This issue was with mildew. Mildew is not nearly as dangerous as mold. Still, the homeowner took the contractor’s advice and had the drywall completely removed and replaced.
It’s been two months since Hurricane Harvey swept across the South, wreaking destruction over much of the city of Houston (and countless communities to the west and east, along the Gulf Coast).
By now, many of the homes that were damage have been put 60% back together.
But many home owners are still struggling with the aftermath of the storm – sodden Sheetrock, wet studs, mold, warped floors, ruined doors and molding, on and on.
Across the street from where I worked today, ServiceMaster was putting a temporary patch on a roof, to keep out rain brought by the incoming cold front.
I am adding this note on February 4, 2018, five months after the storm. Many homes are still not fixed / livable, and a whole lot have not even started. It’s heartbreaking, seeing the families huddled in their upstairs, crammed in with what furniture and possessions they were able to haul up there, with the first floor devoid of drywall, flooring, curtains, not even a kitchen. Many are still living with relatives or in rentals. The stress is hard on relationships, too.
I removed a strip of paper-backed solid vinyl wallpaper from the wall over a shower in a room used by two teenagers. The type of paper (one of my least favorites), the humidity from the hot and heavy shower usage, the lack of primer used by the previous installer, and an exterior wall that most likely had some moisture problems, all added up to a recipe for mildew.
I used bleach and then another mold / mildew product to kill and remove the mildew, then went over it with an oil-based stain-blocking sealer called KILZ.
Over the KILZ, I added a coat of wallpaper primer. The two primers that I use most are the large cans in the last photo, and they each are used for different circumstances.
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