During the warmer humid weather we get during the summer months, I find the embossed ceiling paper in the lounge and bedrooms tends to sag a bit in places. It won't be much longer before a strip comes off altogether. The easiest way to fix this would be to tease the loose ends away and downwards, then paste the *ceiling* and use a brush to press the paper back in position. It would be much better to do this before it peels away completely as I'll never get it precisely in the right place again. It was done by a pro 7 years ago and I don't have that skill. Will the method above (pasting the ceiling instead of the paper) work OK or is there some issue I've overlooked here?
IME trying to restick wallpaper back on fails. For the paste to work, it depends on the paper being porous to let the paste dry out. The residue of old paste on the paper stops it from drying out. So short of using some "permanent" glue, I've been reduced to using drawing pins. (Permanent glues make it hard to replace the paper.)
Is it just the edges or the middle of the paper roll that is coming away? Has the embossed paper been over painted?
If painted and it's the middle of the roll that's coming away then as soon as you try and pull the paper away from the ceiling to apply new paste the weight of the painted paper is likely to start pulling the whole strip from the ceiling.
If its just the edges then
i) Perhaps use a stronger paste as sold for "paste the wall"
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ii) Tackle one edge at a time or adjoining two edges. Ease the edge of the paper away from the ceiling and with a narrow brush paste the paper and the ceiling. Push in as much paste as you can. DO NOT try and stick the two back together immediately. Wait 15 minutes to allow the paste to soak into the back of the paper.
iii) Re-apply paste if it dries out.
iv) After 15 minutes re-stick the paper to the ceiling by pushing out any excess paste, starting from the furthest part away from the edge. Have a damp rag/tea towel ready to catch the excess paste, cleanup and help smooth down the paper.
I've had limited success with this method is prolonging adhesion of the ceiling paper for a couple of years but in the end if its starting to come away now then it will not be too long for another area to start failing.
On the same subject, if papering a ceiling I do recommend a paste the wall paper and appropriate paste, not forgetting to thoroughly size the ceiling as preparation. Pasting the ceiling means that that the paper being stuck up is a LOT lightener to handle. If attempting to disguise (small) imperfections then a couple of layers of Erfurt wallrock fibreliner works - again not forgetting to size the first layer before pasting the second layer.
Years ago I had a little tube of "glue" that was intended to stick down loose edges and corners of wallpaper, e.g. in window reveals, doorways, etc. It was just PVA diluted to "yoghourt" consistency and worked very well even on painted paper.
Not sure if your problem is caused by moisture or perhaps by loosening of a friable surface, but I think I'd go for PVA rather than traditional paste in your case too.
Curiously, I've had a lot of success using Pritt Sticks. It's the sort of glue that's used in offices, and it's solid so drying is not such an issue. It has excellent 'grab'.
It's quite expensive for large areas, but you may find you just need a few dabs in the middle plus a careful application round the edges.
It's on the other side of the house, so if some scally climbed through it to rob us, we'd never know.
I supposed one of those adjustable vent thingies would help a lot, but they're quite a big deal to install and the last time we tried to do something similar, we got a blizzard of polystyrene pellets from the cavity insulation. Don't want that again!
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