Many people pay great attention to the process of choosing wallpaper itself, while not attaching importance to competent surface preparation before pasting them. And absolutely in vain. Preparing the walls for pasting is an extremely important procedure, on which the success of the venture depends entirely. And if it is carried out illiterately or skip this stage altogether, then the new decorative coating, even if they paid a lot of money for it, will have a very unsightly appearance. Or it will not stick to the wall at all, which, in principle, is even worse. Be that as it may, the preparation procedure must be carried out very carefully. What, in fact, we want to tell those who do not know what needs to be done before wallpapering, how to process the walls and why do it at all.
What should be the surface for wallpaper
So, what preparatory work needs to be done before wallpapering, how to process the walls,so that the updated decor of the room not only pleases with its appearance, but also stays on the wall with high quality for a long time? In order to correctly understand the essence of the issue and correctly determine the volume and type of finishing work, you need to start from the opposite. That is, to know what the ideal surface for wallpaper should be.
And it must first of all be dry. A wet surface will poorly absorb the water contained in the adhesive, and therefore the composition will not grab on the wall properly and will not provide the desired quality of adhesion of the surface to the decorative coating.
The foundation must be solid. That is, the presence of flaky surfaces on the wall, areas of plaster literally breathing at hand, old wallpaper hanging in shreds and other unnecessary elements is a direct contraindication to pasting. First, the base coat must, as they say, be brought to mind, and only then proceed with the pasting procedure.
The surface must be clean. If there are black stains from mold and fungus on it, the question of whether it is necessary to process the walls before wallpapering is generally pointless. Here we are not even talking about how the new coating will look on such a wall, but about how you will feel in the near future, because dampness in the room and fungus on the walls negatively affect not only the condition of the wallpaper, but also to your he alth.
The wall should be smooth and have a uniform color. Only then on the new decorative coating will not appear all possible andimpossible defects that will not cause joy from the work done, but bewilderment and annoyance.
What is ideal wall preparation
Home masters do not always carry out thorough preparation. Moreover, quite often it is not at all because they do not know how to process the walls before wallpapering, but for the reason that this procedure itself is quite lengthy and expensive. Indeed, ideally, the walls should be removed from the old coating, then the base should be antiseptically treated, after which it should be carefully leveled with plaster, and then puttied, cleaned and primed. There is a lot of work, and a lot of expensive materials will be required. So the craftsmen go to all sorts of tricks, trying to skip one or another stage of preparation. Sometimes this can be done when the prerequisites are right (we will give some tricky tips on this at the end of the article), but most often it is still unwise to do so. In principle, of course, everyone decides for himself what he needs. One is also satisfied with the fact that already a month after the repair, the wallpaper hangs in the corners of the room and snarls angrily with parted seams, while the other begins almost a nervous attack at the sight of a small tubercle sticking out from under the wallpaper in a far from the most visible place in the room.
We, in turn, still allow ourselves to give a few recommendations and try to describe in as much detail and step by step as possible how to properly process the walls before wallpapering.
Stage One: General Preparation
This is a total cleaning of the wall covering fromold wallpaper, paint, whitewash and other coatings that are on it. As well as all sorts of "decorative" additions in the form of orderly rows of hammered nails, various dowels, hooks and other unnecessary "decorations". In general, in the end you should have an absolutely clean, if you can call it that, wall.
Pro tip
If the old wallpaper is very strong, do not try to tear it off with a layer of plaster. So you only damage the already fragile foundation. Arm yourself with a bucket of hot water and a brush. And wet the treated area every ten minutes. The wallpaper will soak in water and begin to bubble and pull away from the wall well. If you need to remove vinyl wallpaper, first tear off the top layer from the coating, under which the paper base will remain. Also remove it after wetting it with water.
As for oil paint, it should be disposed of with a drill with a special nozzle. The whitewash is removed with a spatula, after carefully moistening the wall with water.
What to do with areas of mold
So, you finally got rid of the old cover. But under it they found intricate black drawings of unknown origin. It's mold. And you need to get rid of it without fail. Anyone understands that it is necessary to take some special steps before wallpapering. How to process the walls in this case? Are there any special products for this or is it enough just to wash the surface from black stains? Of course not. Need or buya special composition in the store, or try to somehow get by with improvised means.
Weapons against the fungus
So, you found mold under the old coating, and now you don't know what to do before wallpapering. How to process the walls so that this misfortune does not arise again under the already new decorative coating? Go to the building materials store and get a special deep penetration antibacterial primer there. The most effective is the composition of "Ceresit". And diligently treat infected surfaces with it, after washing off the black plaque with a wet rag. If for some reason it was not possible to buy soil, you will have to use folk recipes. Dilute a glass of bleach in a liter of water. And diligently coat the areas infected with the fungus. You can do even smarter. Get a penny, but so beloved by many housewives, a whitening solution called "Whiteness". Which contains so much of the chlorine mentioned above that no home-made mold remedy can compare with the composition.
How to treat concrete walls before wallpapering
The fungus seems to be sorted out. And what to do if under the old wallpaper you suddenly found not a layer of plaster, but literally bare concrete? How to be in that case? In no case can you glue modern wallpaper on such a base. In general, this can be understood at a glance. Such a wall has a very unsightly appearance, it is all rough, in defects and literally causes tears with its curvature. How to process the walls before wallpapering in this case? We answer - nothing! You just need to spit on the notorious savings and lost time and start plastering the surface. Which, in fact, is the second stage in the process of competently preparing the base for wallpaper.
Plastering
As for the process of plastering itself, there are two possible scenarios. In the case of the concrete walls mentioned above (as well as those made of brick or made of silicate blocks), there is no alternative. You will have to plaster the entire surface, from corner to corner. Moreover, in the case of a large curvature, certainly with the installation of beacons. By the way, you will have to carry out exactly the same procedure if you have a plastered, but also very uneven surface. But if the wall does not cause any particular complaints, but only has small defects and the areas of curvature on it are relatively small, then it is quite possible to limit ourselves to resuscitation measures. That is, repair all existing defects and cracks with plaster, as well as trim some areas. After that, you need to wait for the solution to dry, and then prime the entire surface of the walls with an acrylic primer. After it dries, you can proceed to the last stage.
Putting
The purpose of this procedure is to make the base base white and smooth. After that, you can glue any, even the most capricious wallpaper, without fear for the outcome of the case. As for the process itself, it has special problems for those who canhold a spatula in your hands, will not cause. Get a putty mixture, and not necessarily very expensive, knead it, apply a thin first layer on the walls, wait for it to dry. Then you clean it with sandpaper, prime it, then putty it again, clean it again and prime it. In this case, it is not at all necessary that the surface be perfectly smooth, without a single scratch. Minor minor defects will hide under the wallpaper. The main thing is to make it smooth and durable. But to achieve the latter, a primer is applied. About her - a little more.
What primer to treat the walls before wallpapering
Someone will find the question irrelevant. Primer - and primer. Bought - anointed - ready. But things are a little more complicated. The fact is that at the moment there are quite a lot of various compositions. And not all of them are suitable for wallpaper, as they have a special purpose. The primer is designed to give the surface such a quality as adhesion. That is, it should maximize the fit of the wallpaper, their adhesion to the wall. And for these purposes, an acrylic primer is best suited. It is generally considered universal, compatible with all types of surfaces, and dries quickly enough. So when buying soil, do not be wiser. Get acrylic - you definitely can't go wrong. The choice on the market is quite large, but the most popular brands are Ceresit, Snezhka and Master.
And remember: after priming, the wall should dry well. And the besttake your time and give her a day for this. And then you can proceed directly to the pasting process.
It is the observance of all the above rules and the implementation of the described procedures that will be the answer to the question of how to properly process the walls before wallpapering. This is the only way to get a really even and solid foundation. And the wallpaper glued to it will stick perfectly on the wall, delighting you for many years with its excellent appearance.
Secrets of the Masters
Finally - a few tricks and useful tips. If you didn’t manage to achieve perfectly smooth walls, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that you end up with a solid and well-crafted base. Just don't buy plain or striped wallpapers in this case - get something colorful, albeit with an unobtrusive, but pattern.
If you have no way to re-plaster and putty the walls, that is, you are forced to glue on what is, then in any case, first of all, carefully treat the surface with a primer. And preferably twice, with a break of several hours. And try to mask all the existing defects on the walls with wallpaper. And for pasting such problematic surfaces, get the most "chubby", corrugated decorative coating, and best of all with an abstract pattern.
Conclusion
We tried to answer the question of how and why to process the walls before wallpapering as fully as possible. We hope that we not only managed to convince you of the needthis process, but we also managed to teach you how to do it correctly.
