Glue loose paper back to particle board

[Alan Meyer]

I have a bathroom vanity that got seriously wet and the exterior wood look contact paper came loose from the vertical particle board structure on part of the side of the vanity.

I fixed the leak and dried everything out. Now I'd like to glue the paper back to the particle board.

Does anyone have suggestions for good adhesives to use? I'm looking for something easy to work with, if possible, as well as having a good bond.

Also, any tips for getting a nice flat bond without wrinkles?

Thank you very much.

Alan

[Alan Meyer]

I taped newspaper all around the area to be glued, sprayed 3M 45 spray adhesive on both the paper and the particle board, waited about 60 seconds, and then attempted to bond the paper to the board using my hands and some large sponges to smooth things down.

The results are not perfect. The adhesive worked fine and allowed me to pull the paper up and try again when I couldn't get it smooth. It had just about the right amount of tack. However the paper was wrinkled and distorted before I started and, try as I might, I couldn't get it to lie perfectly flat on the underlying board. So there are some wrinkles.

My wife thinks I should have pulled the paper off completely and redone it from scratch. She's probably right, though I don't know that I could have gotten a great match with the paper on other sides of the cabinet and I didn't want to commit to redoing the whole thing.

I'm hoping she'll get used to it :)

My thanks to all of you who gave advice.

Alan

[dadiOH]

You might try a steam iron although I suspect it is too late.

Thanks for reporting back.

[Alan Meyer]

On 10/20/2013 02:58 PM, Alan Meyer wrote: ...

I could try the needle or the steam iron approaches.

I think the problem was not caused by air bubbles, though there is air trapped in the wrinkles, but by the paper having been distorted by moisture. I dried it all out completely before doing anything, but it never returned to its original state.

Personally, I'm fine with it, but if my wife wants me to I'll work on it some more.

Otherwise, when they finally drag my carcass out of the house, my son and son-in-law, who are both more energetic about these kinds of things than I am, can deal with it however they choose. :)

Alan