How to glue vinyl wallpapers

Wallpapering is a simple and cheap way to update the decoration in any room. But even such a simple task can turn into torment, if you do not know all its subtleties. Anyone who plans to glue vinyl wallpapers will have to figure out where to apply the glue - on the canvas or on wall, what tool to use, how to prepare the surface and how to finish hard-to-reach areas. About all this - in our article.

Features of gluing vinyl wallpaper, depending on the base material

Vinyl-coated wallpapers can have a paper or non-woven base. Not only the characteristics of the coating, but also the principles of gluing depend on the substrate material.

What you need to know about non-woven vinyl wallpaper:

1. Glue mixture is impregnated on the wall, not the canvas, which simplifies the workflow.
2. Such a substrate is much stronger than paper, is characterized by high wear resistance, can hide small bumps and cracks on the walls.
3. The disadvantages of wallpaper on non-woven should include the rigidity of the material. The low ductility of the panels does not allow you to quickly and efficiently trim the convex sections.

The nuances of working with paper-based vinyl wallpaper:

• Glue is applied not only to the surface of the wall, but also to the canvases themselves.
• The material stretches well, with its help you can quickly paste over protruding surfaces, such as niches, columns or corners.
• The disadvantages of vinyl wallpaper on a paper substrate include the possibility of tearing the fibers from minor mechanical stress, increased adhesive consumption.

Tools and materials for work

For high-quality finishing work, in addition to vinyl wallpaper and adhesive, the following tools and materials will be needed:

1. A soft brush or roller with a soft pile - for applying a primer to the base and glue to the wallpaper or wall.
2. Rubber rollers. A tool with a wide working surface is used to smooth the canvases, a narrow one - for high-quality joint joints.
3. Ruler, plumb line, building level, square and pencil - for marking.
4. Masking tape - to protect individual elements from contact with the adhesive.
5. Plastic spatula - to remove air bubbles and excess glue.
6. A sharp clerical knife and scissors - for cutting strips.
7. Wide metal spatula - for trimming paintings on the ceiling and floor.
8. Capacity for glue mix.

Advice! To speed up the work, use glue with an indicator, which makes it easy to control the uniformity of applying the mixture to the surface of walls or paintings.

Cooking surface

Before gluing vinyl wallpaper, you must perform the following operations:

• remove the enclosures of switches and sockets, after having de-energized the room, seal the sections with masking tape;
• remove the protruding fasteners (dowels, screws, nails);
• clean the surface of the old coating;
• close up irregularities with plaster or putty;
• apply a deep penetration primer to the base and wait for it to dry.

Wallpaper can only be glued to dry and clean walls. Checking the dryness of the substrate is quite simple. To do this, take a small piece of plastic film 50 × 50 centimeters and fix it with tape on the wall so that an airtight space forms inside. After a day, the polyethylene is checked. Speaking drops indicate that the wall has not dried out.

All the nuances of preparing concrete surfaces for wallpapering are described in detail. here.

Step-by-step instructions for processing a wall or ceiling from gypsum board before gluing with wallpaper material can be found in this article.

Important! It is especially important to level surfaces for wide meter-high wallpapers; even with small differences, problems may arise with the joining of adjacent strips.

Make markup

After the preparatory stage, marking is carried out, which allows you to correctly position the canvas on the surface. Mark the walls with a long ruler, crayon and plumb.

• The first line is combined with the edge of the window, gradually moving to the left around the perimeter of the room.
• Further lines are drawn taking into account the width of the wallpaper.
• From the window to the left side, markup is done to the corner of the wall with the doorway, numbering each of the sections.
• Next, the lines are drawn to the right from the window to the door.

Preparing wallpaper for sticking

Before carrying out the main work, the rolled materials are cut into strips whose length corresponds to the height of the wall plus a margin of 5-10 centimeters. For greater accuracy, the height of the room is checked in different places. In case of coincidence of sizes, several strips are cut, the total width of which allows you to block the entire plane of the wall.

If the ceiling height in the room is not the same, each subsequent strip is cut off after gluing the previous one or each section between the marking lines is carefully measured before cutting.

During the preparation of strips with a pattern, the pattern coincides. To do this, you need to combine adjacent paintings so that the image elements are joined in the correct order. Finished strips are stacked on top of each other in the desired sequence.

Glue vinyl wallpaper: step by step instructions

Work on gluing a wall with vinyl wallpaper is carried out in the following sequence:

• We spread glue according to the instructions on the package. The finished solution should have a uniform consistency without clots and lumps.
• Close the windows in the room tightly, turn off the air conditioners and fans.
• We apply glue to the canvas for wallpaper on a paper basis or to the wall if the material is glued on a non-woven fabric. In the first case, we put the canvases “envelope” - the edges are aligned with the middle of the strip, and wait 5-10 minutes until the paper layer is impregnated with glue. Glue vinyl on a non-woven basis immediately after smearing a section of the wall, slightly larger than the width of the wallpaper.
• We apply the prepared stripes to the base along the drawn line, joining adjacent elements taking into account the picture.
• Using a rubber roller, we smooth the canvas from the middle to the edges, getting rid of the bubbles and achieving a perfect fit of the material to the surface. We remove the protruding adhesive residues with a piece of foam rubber or a clean cloth.
• After drying, the edges of the wallpaper are pressed with a wide metal spatula and cut with a sharp clerical knife.

How to paste wallpaper near window and doorways?

The process of sticking wallpaper near the openings causes difficulties for inexperienced masters. Canvases need to be joined so that their edges do not fall on the corners of the window or door aperture.

If the door is located in the corner of the room, the mismatch of patterns on the wallpaper will remain invisible. If the door structure is located in the center of the room, the pattern should be combined both before the opening and after it.

• The last cloth is glued in such a way that it can overlap the clypeus.
• Then fix the bounding decorative element and cut off the hanging part of the canvas with a sharp knife.
• Next, smooth the wallpaper in the joints, as well as between the wall and the platband.
• A short piece is glued to the top of the door, following the pattern sequence.

The procedure for gluing near window openings:

• The strip is glued so that it overlaps the slope.
• At the edges, several horizontal cuts are made that will allow the wallpaper to be bent downhill.
• The edges of the paintings are cut along the border of the opening.
• After labeling one of the side strips, short cuts of wallpaper are fixed on the upper and lower parts of the opening.
• After that, they begin to finish the other side of the opening.

Tip. Before wallpapering the second side of the window, draw an additional marking line. It’s easier to achieve the correct vertical web layout.

How to stick wallpaper in corners and inaccessible places?

There are two methods of sticking paintings in the corner of the room: overlap and butt with trim.

• In the first case, glue the strip, making an inlet on another wall of 1-2 cm. Next, we draw a marking line along the width of the roll on a perpendicular wall and fix the second canvas so that its edge passes strictly along the corner of the room and does not protrude onto another plane. After that, the wallpaper is carefully rolled with a roller.
• The overlap overlap technique is used to fix heavy vinyl wallpapers with a large pattern. The technology of work is first similar to the previous method, but at the docking point the second sheet does not need to be smeared with glue. Next, we take a long rule and a sharp clerical knife. We make an even cut, bend the edge of the roll material, apply glue and roll this area with a roller.

In hard-to-reach spots behind radiators, wallpaper is wound up behind. After fixing in the desired position, the sheets are rolled with a narrow roller with a long handle.

In places where sockets or switches are located, roll materials are glued over the boxes, then cross-shaped incisions are made with a knife. The resulting triangular tails are unbent, cut off all unnecessary, the housing of the sockets are installed in place.

Gluing borders

The gluing of a border or frame begins with inconspicuous sections, since at this point the combination of elements will be carried out. Typically, decorative items are fixed in the upper part around the perimeter of the room.

With the horizontal combination of two types of paintings, the border is glued at a certain height relative to the floor. In this case, marking is applied to the walls with a pencil and a building level: it is impossible to navigate to the edges of the joined wallpaper. The upper part of the decorative element is fixed along a pre-drawn line, then smooth the border with a roller, remove the remaining adhesive with a soft cloth or sponge. In places of joining the tape with a sharp knife make an incision, smooth the canvas.

The intricacies of sticking vinyl wallpapers, pruning rules and some useful tricks are clearly demonstrated in the video.