Cleaning & Preparing

Previously Painted Walls

Wash walls with sugar soap. Remove all mould. Use a moss and mould killer or make up a solution of 3 parts water to 1 part bleach
Scrape walls with a Masterflow® shave hook
Then sand walls smooth. Try a Masterflow® Sanding Sponge (Coarse), or Masterflow Cork Sanding Block for wrapping your sandpaper around.
Then dust the walls off
Remove any gloss on walls with a rag dipped in methylated spirits
Repair all cracks, gaps and holes with filler and putty
Then wash the walls again to remove all product
Once the surface is dry (allow 24 hours), apply primer sealer.

New Plaster Walls

Before you start wallpapering, you’ll have to allow the new plaster to cure thoroughly. This can take anywhere between one and four months. Ask the contractor who installed the plaster for the recommended time.
Once cured, rub the walls down with vinegar. This neutralizes the plaster.
Then apply two coats of high-quality primer sealer.

New Wallboard

Wallboard joints need to be taped, spackled, sanded, and dusted with a short-napped soft brush. Remove the last particles of dust with a damp sponge. Finally, apply primer sealer.

Uneven Surfaces

Uneven surfaces include block, concrete, wood panelling, textured plaster, and textured paint. All of these need to be smoothed before you apply wallpaper.
For walls that are light to moderately uneven and for small areas:

Apply a ‘non-shrinking spackle’ or wallboard taping compound to the build the surface up so that you can sand to an even all-over surface. DAP have a quality range of products for spackling.
When the wall is completely dry, sand the area and apply primer sealer.
If you prefer, you can smooth uneven surfaces by hanging liner paper. This should be available from any store where you buy wallpaper.
For severely uneven surfaces: You’ll need to plaster over the surface.

Applying the Wallpaper

The perfect accessory for wallpapering is the PAL® Wallmaster® Decorator’s Toolkit. It’s the perfect toolkit for wallpapering at home. The toolkit includes a scraper, putty knife, seamroller, plumb bob, scissors, a snap off knife and 10 replacement blades for the knife.

If you’re wallpapering for the first time, we recommend you start wallpapering on your longest uninterrupted wall area first. That way, you can practice your technique before you have to encounter any corners or obstacles
Hang your first piece of paper in the middle of a wall and work outwards from that point in opposite directions. This will mean that the paper will meet in the corners of the room
It’s important to remember that most house walls are unlikely to be completely square. So use a plumb bob to mark a vertical line from ceiling to floor. Get someone to help you by holding the string on the wall and pulling until the line steadies. Then you can mark the wall against the string line and use the line as a guide for hanging your paper straight
Measure your wall length from ceiling to floor. Allow about 3-4 inches overlap from the wall onto the ceiling or skirting board. Cut your length of paper with this in mind
Then using your paste brush start to paste the paper at the centre and move outwards from that point. Make sure you coat both edges as well
Carefully bring your paper to the wall area you’re covering and gently slide the paper onto the wall up against your marked line, making sure it’s straight
Then smooth out the bubbles under the paper by brushing across the top of the wallpaper. Work from the centre to the outside edges of the paper
Push the top of the paper onto the edge of your architrave or ceiling and on the bottom onto the skirting board or floor. Then peel back to the edge and cut the excess paper with paperhanging scissors
Once the first piece has been placed, continue onto the next, repeating the process. As you add a piece the edges should be butted up against the previous piece and not overlapping
Finally, seal your edges by rolling over them with a seam roller.

Handy Hints

How to get around the tricky parts

When you’re papering around power points and switches:

Firstly, turn off your electricity supply
Then loosen the screws in the switches - but don’t remove them completely
Hang the paper as you normally would and cover the switch
Then make diagonal cuts from the centre of the socket into each corner
You can then trim the flaps with only a small overlap left that you can then tuck behind the switch
Make sure you don’t allow excess paste to enter the socket and make sure the area is absolutely dry before you turn the electricity back on

When you’re papering around rounded or shaped objects:

Hang the paper over the item lightly
Then mark the centre of the object and cut from the nearest edge of the wallpaper towards this point
Complete radial cut outs from the centre mark, and then push the paper back into place
Mark the flaps where they meet the edge of the item and trim them before you brush the paper back

When you’re papering around door and window frames:

Hang the paper lightly down over the frame
Mark the position of the corners
Make cuts from the excess area of the paper moving towards these marks
Smooth the paper down gently against the wall and into the edges of the frame
Lastly mark and trim as you would normally.

General Handy Tips

When hanging patterned wallpaper you need to make sure your patterns will match up from piece to piece. Once you’ve hung one piece, measure the second piece against the wall first to match the patterns. You may need a large amount of overlap at the top or bottom of the paper. And you’ll need to factor this in when you’re buying your wallpaper. Check with your wallpaper shop to see how often a pattern repeats. The more often, the easier to match. Also, you might be able to save waste by cutting from alternate rolls
Make sure you have a stable ladder to do wallpapering
You should wallpaper after you have painted your ceiling or nearby walls! You don’t want to get paint on your wallpaper. Make sure your paint is dry before you do any wallpapering.