lining paper

[Stephen]

Hello,

I've never used lining paper before. I see you can get various grades (I saw from 800 to at least 1700 in Wickes today). How do you know which grade to use, or do you just get the thickest grade you can to be safe?

I've just put up a plasterboard wall and I'm wondering how well I will be able to join the two boards (see other thread). Since I'm hoping to wallpaper the wall, it seems silly to pay a plasterer hundreds of pounds to put on some plaster that will be covered. I thought I might just paper straight on top of the (sealed) plasterboard. Do you think it would be a good idea to use lining paper too?

The wall, being new, is pretty flat but it depends how well I fill the join or if the odd screw is proud!

TIA

[Tim S]

Stephen coughed up some electrons that declared:

Thicker paper would be useful to hide imperfections. Too thin might be painful to hang as it would tend to tear easily.

Well... You could. The advantage of plaster would be to allow you to scrape the wallpaper off again one day without destroying the plasterboard.

But I agree, several hundred quid is a lot to plaster if you think you can get away with it. OTOH you could spend the same few hundred and go on a 2 weekend course, DIY the skim and you'd be setup for life :)

I think, if it were me, I'd give the wall a couple of coats of white emulsion first, maybe some PVA sealant first... Just an idea - wallpaper will stick fine and might be possible to remove it again and keep the wall intact. I haven't tried this mind.

You won't have any proud screws - you can always drive them under the surface and fill the head.

Cheers

Tim

[S Viemeister]

I have - it works just fine. I would never consider papering over plasterboard, without first painting it.

[Rod]

I assume you used square edge plasterboard? The tapered edge stuff might have made it easier for you. Something for next time... :-)

Lightweight lining paper might be OK in the hands of experts, in mine, medium to heavyweight is definitely to be preferred.

One old trick - if you overlap or wrinkle a bit as you are hanging the lining paper, let it dry thoroughly and sand it down using ordinary medium/fine sandpaper and a block.

[Andrew Gabriel]

There are plasterboard sealers which you are supposed to use before papering onto plasterboard. They are supposed to avoid the destroying the wall problem when you come to take the wall paper off some years later. I don't know if they work, as decorators rarely bother what problems they might cause years later (or even minutes later).

[The Medway Handyman]

Lining paper even at 800 covers a multitude of sins as long as you get the joints filled.

[Stuart Noble]

IME the thinner stuff is actually easier to use, and much more forgiving if it needs to be stretched here and there on uneven walls. The joins are also less pronounced

[Lobster]

Simply, the more lumpy the underlying wall, then the thicker the lining paper you need.

No personal experience of papering unskimmed p'board but others' advice sounds sensible. TBH if you properly prepare the p'board - filling in joints and sanding down etc - I would have thought you'd get away without using lining paper at all. Put it this way, I wouldn't use lining paper on a freshly-skimmed wall, and a new pboard wall should be just as flat and smooth.

David

[Appelation Controlee]

Aren't you supposed to leave a small gap between lengths of lining paper? Also nobody's mentioned which way - vertical or horizontal - it should be applied. I've always understood it to be the latter.

[Lobster]

Me too, on the basis that then you avoid joints between the two layers of wallpaper being in synch. However, I've never really understood the logic behind that one - surely you always plan out where the drops are going to fall before starting to paper a wall, eg to avoid having a 2" strip going into a corner - so if there were going to be any overlapping joints you'd spot them then and move the paper accordingly.

Never even tried horizontal papering, but it must be far harder than vertical, and why?

David

[DavidM]

On a reasonable surface like plasterboard I've always used 1200 grade lining paper, hung vertically. The lining paper is usually a bit wider than normal wallpaper, so the joints won't coincide (unless your very unlucky). Don't leave a gap between lengths. With 1200 grade it's quite easy to get a good butt joint. If you do end up with a bit of an overlap, wait until fully dry and just sand off the bump. If there a small gap, again wait till dry, a bit of fine surface filler, and sand off.

If you can fill and sand the plasterboard (joints and screw holes) to get a good surface, much better just to seal it, and then paper straight on top. Properly sealed, the paper will come off when needed, without damage to the plaster board.

David

[Stuart Noble]

I've never managed to do either of those things and get a good finish. The filler and the abrasive both change the texture of the surface and stand out like a sore thumb, however much paint you apply.

[Appelation Controlee]

Agreed re. planning, and it shouldn't be that hard to avoid unhappy coincidences.

It's not that difficult, provided you are able to walk then length of the wall being covered. This can obviously be an issue when doing the higher bits, if you don't have the appropriate access equipment.

[Bob Mannix]

It is pointless papering horizontally to avoid the joins being in synch as the lining paper is a different width to avoid this - if you get one you are unlucky. The only reason for leaving gaps (if painting) is that second filling the gaps will give a better finish. If papering over then small gaps ar a lot better than overlaps! First filling is still required (if painting) as only the thickest lining paper will cover depressions.

[Stephen]

Sorry for the late reply to this thread. I was concerned about the join between the two plasterboard sheets but I didn't do a bad job of the plasterboard wall for a first attempt, the join was invisible once filled, and so as you all advised, the wall did not need lining. I'm still puzzled how you translate lumpiness of wall into lining grade if you ever need to buy lining paper though.

[Stephen]

It seems the old advice about horizontal papering is out of date then? I'll remember that if I ever do need to line a wall as working vertically must be easier. I'm unsure about these gaps though. If the paper is plumb why would you need to leave gaps? If painting the paper are you suggesting to leave a small (millimetres) gaps and to then fill it with joint cement?

Thanks, Stephen.

[Stuart Noble]

There are bound to be gaps/overlaps unless the walls are perfectly flat. I find the thinner lining paper easier to stretch so that edges join. Problem is, the next piece has to be stretched even more and, without a corner coming up, you can be in trouble.

If painting the paper

That's never worked for me. The texture of the filler is different to the paper, and the paint "takes" differently, so the join is visible, albeit only in certain lights.

[Lobster]

I'm

Well, if you had a wall with lots of blemishes and then wallpapered it with, say, tissue paper, clearly all the blemishes would show through. However, if you used 1mm thick cardboard instead, then they wouldn't! It's no more complicated than that...!

David

[Stephen]

I imagine overlaps are worse than gaps. What do you do, try and cut out the overlaps to stop them showing through?

[Stephen]

That I understand, normal "top-coat" paper is like the tissue paper so you need the "cardboard" of the lining paper underneath to hide the blemishes. So far so good. What I don't understand is why there are different grades of lining paper and how you can tell from looking at a wall whether you need 800, 1000, 1200, or 1400 grade. What are those numbers: weight per square metre?