‘Paste the Wall’ is a phrase you see more and more and yet many people don’t fully understand its significance.
Wallrock Fibreliner labels say the ‘paste the wall’ but what does the term really mean?
The term in essence means the product is ‘dimensionally stable’ but to understand its significance more full we need to take a step back and look at a standard wallpaper.
Until the last 20 years or so ago there was no such wallpaper products as paste the wall or Wallrock for that matter.
Standard wallpaper is made using relatively low cost paper fibres that are treated with an inert chemical ‘size’ so that when soaked with adhesive it stays in one piece.
What a lot of people do not fully understand is that when standard paper is soaked (or ‘booked’) with adhesive the natural paper fibres swell up and the paper expands by 1 to 1.5%. Typically this means paper will expand by 5mm to 7mm across its width.
This means in practice that standard wallpaper has to be soaked with adhesive for up to 15 minutes before it can be applied to the wall.
If standard paper is not soaked or not soaked at all then the paper will expand on the wall and the classic wallpapering problems result;
- Bubbling
- Creasing
- Overlapping at seams
- Gaps at seams
- Lifting.
So why are some wallpapers such as Wallrock Fibreliner classed as ‘paste the wall’ then?
The answer is that expensive polyester fibres are added in the paper mix during manufacture. Polyester fibres do not swell and expand when soaked so when mixed correctly and in the correct amounts the polyester fibres bind to the ordinary paper fibres massively reducing the expansion of the paper when soaked with adhesive. Wallrock Fibreliner and other wallpapers like this are called ‘non-woven’ because they contain polyester fibres but is not woven together as it would be in a textile product.
A good quality product such as Wallrock Fibreliner will only expand by 1 to 1.5mm, (0.2 – 0.4% maximum). The term often used for this is ‘dimensionally stable’ but a more memorable way of describing the same thing is ‘paste the wall’.
In practical terms this means that no matter how it is treated a good finish is much more easily achieved. Whether or not the paper is pre-soaked or not makes no difference.
The ultimate time saving and less messy way to hang ‘dimensionally stable’ wallpaper is to simply ‘paste the wall’ and hang the paper direct from the roll which more and more people are choosing to do.
Right now you are perhaps thinking ‘Ah but the paper still expands a little bit so it still won’t work’ but in fact we deliberately ‘build in’ the 1 to 1.5mm expansion as in practice this actually helps keep the seams nice and tight without being enough to cause any problems. Wallrock Fibreliner is a high quality product so and the dimensional stability so good it still works beautifully 0.75m and 1m wide rolls – Wallrock Fibreliner 75 and Wallrock Fibreliner 100. For more information please visit: https://www.coveryourwall.co.uk/wallrock-fibreliner-premium/
But as you can see, even if you hang these products using traditional methods there are still big advantages;
- No bubbling
- Good tight seams
- No shrinking back
- A product that is twice as strong as standard paper – cracks don’t reappear as they would with standard papers.
- Twice as much stretch as standard wallpaper
- Tough enough to protect and reinforce relatively poor surfaces such as badly cracked and crumbling plaster
- Cuts beautifully without snagging
- Dry strippable
- Easy repairs if the surface is damaged.
- It is more expensive – but then again its quicker so what is your time worth?
- The opacity of the product compared to paper is not quite as good.
- Because the paper is so much tougher it does not respond well to being folded around corners – it should be cut into corners.
There are plenty of so called ‘paste the wall’ products that are not truly ‘dimensionally stable’ with expansion rates as high as 0.8% which can lead to all sorts of problems of the type you get with standard paper products, such as bubbling, creasing and poor seams.
Even if you are not buying ‘Wallrock Fibreliner’ or one of the other brands from our stable such as ‘Anaglypta’ we strongly recommend you buy a trustworthy branded product.
Another tendency is to reduce the thickness of ‘paste the wall’ products – in theory the paper is twice as strong so it is tempting to reduce the thickness of the paper but this can make for a flimsy feeling thin product with very poor opacity – in which case make sure the wall behind is of even colour or problems of ‘shading through’ can result.
Rest assured Wallrock Fibreliner or other related products from Anaglypta have always been made to exacting standards and NOT down to a price.
Consistent high quality is guaranteed from Wallrock which will save the decorator and consumer alike time completing each project as well as great results every time that will last longer.
Content Source:
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