Papering a Ceiling

[Peter Andrews]

Any hints on papering a ceiling in a largish room, 5m x 6m, with a 9' height?

Peter

[Staffbull]

A tall friend ??

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Drawing pin the paper in the middle whilst you smooth out one end then do the other end from the middle out.

Leave the paper to soak at least 3 minutes before applying to ceiling.

Hire or buy a three in one ladder job,this consist of a walkboard trestle.

[EricP]

Yes. Avoid it like the plague if you can. It is professional territory for someone with experience and the equipment to do it.

Quotes to do it may not be that high from someone who does it for a living and has the necessary stuff.

[John]

I agree with that, but I once did it, and quite successfully. I look back on it now in rather the same way I look back on me doing other reckless things when I was a kid, and surviving.

I think the secret to my success was that I used a heavily embossed paper (pseudo plaster-work pattern, iyswim).

I also used a plank on beer crates (no DIY-er can survive without beer crates).

And I also used the drape-it-over-a-stick technique to hold the paper as I was sticking it up. This technique *must* be used, and therefore it's described in every DIY source I've seen, where this task is discussed.

John

[Phil L]

How are you at folding pasted paper? - that is to say, do you know how to fold it for a ceiling?

I'll try to explain it as detailed as possible and I'll do a sketch too.. Before you start opening wallpaper, you will need two sets of steps and a plank, so that you can walk the full length of the room. You will also need to strike a straight line from one side to the other, measure off each wall and make sure it's straight - this is where you will start, don't imagine that the wall is straight, it almost certainly isn't.

1) cut your lengths to size allowing for trimming at each end. 3) paste the whole length of the table, IE, about 6 ft of the back of the 1st length 4) lift up the two corners and 'concertina' it into a fold, leaving about 2ft of pasted paper facing upwards 5) paste the showing 3 or 4 foot, repeat the fold 6) continue until you reach the end of the paper, the last foot wants to be folded completely over back on itself, paste to paste so that it's 'dry' to pick up. 7) the whole thing should now be folded concertina style and about 3 ft in length, carry it up the steps with a roll of wallpaper to support it underneath 8) offer it up to the ceiling and get it running alng the line you drawn earlier, brush it well onto the ceiling, don't leave edges unstuck as it will peel off, the first 3 foot will go on quite easily, this is where you unfold the first concertina fold, exposing the next 3 ft of pasted side...continue until you reach the opposite end, this is where you have your dry 1 ft flap, unfold and brush down, trim both ends accordingly.

[Guy King]

The message from John contains these words:

My sister's disgusting. She can paper ceilings so easily it looks like she's just throwing the paper at it and it sticks. Disgraceful.

[EricP]

Strange but I knew a woman who could do this as well. She could build a walk way out of any old rubbish to hand and clamber over it while paying 100% attention to the paper application. Must be this multitasking they are always banging on about!

[Ian Stirling]

Naah - two short sturdy ones to hold the plank, and one to pass you the pasted paper.

[Tony Williams]

I remember my mother and grandmother papering the kitchen ceiling when I was a kid. It involved well pasted paper, concertina'd up as described in another post, several brooms, and much cursing and snapping at each other every time something went wrong.

[Weatherlawyer]

I wish I could recall fully something similar in my long lost distant.

I wonder if there is some sort of rolling or unrolling device to apply the stuff.

[Phil L]

There is...it's only hard if you attempt to put up a fifteen foot length in one go, wouldn't it be (much) easier to apply 5 X 3 ft lengths? - see my post

[Guy King]

The message from "Weatherlawyer" contains these words:

Yeah, it's called "a roll of tenners".