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2011 Winning Walls With Wallcovering Contest
Sponsored by the Rustoleum/Zinsser Company
How’re your walls hangin’? Have you done or are you installing a project that will be completed between July, 2010 and June, 2011? If so, it may qualify for one of four award categories. The deadline for this year’s Winning Walls has passed but collect your entries for 2012!
New for this year, is a category titled, “Small Spaces”. The traditional categories include Residential, Commercial and Specialty work. The Small Spaces category is defined as a project less than 400 square feet of rolled and yard goods.
If you co-operated on a project with someone else, please complete the paperwork noting the primary installer. Presentation counts so impress the judges by being creative and include detail such as what made this project unique or challenging? Pictures are worth a thousand words so include them and be attentive to detail and lighting. Tell the story of your project, its challenges and successes, and you may be an award recipient!
The entries are judged anonymously by a panel of designers and installers. The recipients will be announced at the Winning Walls With Wallcovering Award Luncheon, sponsored by Rustoleum/Zinsser, September 9th in New Orleans during the National Paperhanger’s Convention & Tradeshow.
Remember you can’t be recognized if you don’t enter. Press releases with recipient information and photographs are sent to multiple national magazines for publishing. Wouldn’t it be great for your future customers to see your name in a national magazine? This is a great way to promote the professional installer as well as the wallcovering industry.
2011 Winning Walls with Wallcovering Contest
Sponsored by Rust-Oleum Corporation, Zinsser Brands
First Place: Residential
 
Stephen F. Sullivan, III - Sullivan’s Wallpapering, Boardman, Ohio
“Controlled Chaos” was the term used to describe how the squares of paper were installed in this inverted cone ceiling project. No pattern was to be held except the center line of each square was to be pointed toward the point on the cone. The second issue to be overcome was the cracks that were forming due to the varying expansion rates in the construction material used and the varying temperature at the cone. Faster Plaster was sealed with Gardz and a liner paper was installed to deal with these issues. The final project was sealed and the coat was sprayed on with an HVLP.
The material itself was a challenge as it had to be cut into five foot by five foot squares. Well, necessity is truly the mother of invention as the hanger built his own scaled down, hand powered slitter with eight utility blades attached five inches wide.
Now that they say they knew what we were doing, the last challenge was how to do it. The General Contractor supplied and assembled the base scaffolding however three additional decks and two 10 foot pics were threaded up through a two foot by 3 foot hatch in the 20 foot by 20 foot floating floor built 25 feet in the air.
With the much needed use of two PLS 180’s to create a circle around the cone, each square was placed on the cone in line with the center point. Two hundred and fifty one hours later, a masterpiece was finished.
Second Place: Residential
 
Heidi Laurent Wright - Heidi Laurent Wright Paperhanger, Oakland, California
From when the hanger first walked on to the job site in June 2010 with the designer, to the final wipe in May 2011, she and her crew of 7 different Guild member hangers accomplished an historic feat. After hanging 3953 yards of one inch borders, 3551 yards of wider borders and friezes, 584 rolls of ceiling and wall fill, and over 920 elements, they had helped bring the grandeur back to an 1879 Victorian era mansion that had been waiting for the right time to spread its wings.
By August 2010 the walls had been smoothed to level five. The prime for the paper was tinted to a warm beige as the best insurance against uncertain wall surfaces. The ceiling and walls reached from 10 feet to 21 feet.
A custom designed spreadsheet became an excellent “to do” list for trimming the papers, borders, and friezes for each room. By the end of the job four three inch binders were filled with room plans, samples of each pattern by room, and spreadsheets. These samples and plans became the historical archive for any future repairs or restoration.
Many techniques were learned and utilized during this restoration. Some of these included misting and bagging, the value of coloring off the edges as well as stretching and bending paper. At the end of the day, this once in a lifetime job resulted in the beautiful grandeur the client had imagined.
Honorable Mention: Residential
 
Chris Johnson - Chris Johnson Wallpaper Hanging, Conroe, Texas
After spending 10 years to restore this 1895 Victorian home, fire gutted two rooms resulting in heavy smoke and extreme heat damage to all other rooms. All of the wallcovering had to be removed and the walls washed, repaired and primed. The job required the installation of wallcovering on the ceilings as well as closets, which was a challenge due to being out of square and not being plumb.
The project consisted of over 475 single rolls of wallcovering and 360 lineal yards of inlaid border. Chalk lines and lasers were used to make the nine different patterns appear to be plumb and square. Over 640 hours were spent on the job in addition to the 150 mile round trip commute each day!
First Place: Specialty
 
Cyndi Green, C.P. - Cyndi Green’s Wallcovering, LLC, Monroe, Louisiana
You have heard of the movie, Dances with Wolves, well there’s a new drama out called Dances with Scissor…lifts that is! The winner of this category spent many days waltzing around other trade contractors while installing this project which consisted of ten murals and banners totaling over fourteen hundred square feet.
The areas of the installation made this project even more of a challenge. The bottom edge of the murals started at nine feet off the floor and only went higher. Structural components were missing that had to be accounted for or components were there that shouldn’t be. An example of this is the huge cupola where four murals were to be installed. The ceiling height was fifteen foot but they had the added challenge of installing underneath where the Cupola was being upholstered. The coordination of the lifts of the various trades working is why this show was named Dances with Scissor Lifts.
In addition to the logistic issues, there were material mishaps as well, resulting in two double cuts in each mural. Seam placement became critical as they worked against the clock to compensate. Against all odds and 700 mile round trip, perfect seams were accomplished.
Second Place: Specialty
 
Michael Baughman, C.P. - Baughman Wallcovering, Oceanside, California
Bullet holes in the walls, crumbling plaster, police barricades and spectators what better place to install wall murals? Not just one mural but three different rooms of amazing murals were installed in the challenging environment.
To add to the madness, each mural was printed on a single sheet of digital canvas ten feet wide. To support the rolled panels, this installer created a new device using two inch PVC pipe and a PVC Y fitting to hold the roll at the chair rail height.
The white bleed areas had to be trimmed by hand using scissors but each area had a plain field that created a border which had to be kept level. The inside corners were matched and then hand trimmed from there. Over one thousand sixty four square feet of digital canvas was installed in fifteen panels for this unusual project.
Honorable Mention: Specialty
 
Charles B. Gilley, Jr. - Restoration Painting, LLC, South Woodstock, Vermont
Hanging a ceiling mural is always a challenge. It is particularly challenging when you add that the house was built in 1893 and has thirteen bay areas in the ceiling. This custom mural had to have each piece labeled as the sizes ranged up to nine feet by sixteen feet and were up to forty four inches wide! Staging planks were needed in order to get the mural to the 22 foot high ceiling. Four tables were required to trim and paste the sheets. The geometric pattern made the project tricky and required that it be hung starting from the center with the use of zip walls supporting the panels until initially set.
First Place: Commercial
 
Frank and Eunice Bokstrom - Design Wallcovering, Edmonton, Alberta Canada
The installer on this project states that from the initial call when the designer said she had a stairwell with green fabric wallpaper to install, they knew it wouldn’t be easy but little did they anticipated the perfect storm that lay ahead!
Not only was this a staircase, it wound through three stories with inner and outer walls, eleven windows and stairs that required finish cuts around the entire contours creating forty-nine complex profiles. Just to add a little more spice, the fabric was silk, and I’m sure you know about snags, frays and water on silk!
After eight months of planning, they were given the green light to go but in inspecting the wallcovering, found that the material was flawed and didn’t have enough to work around the defects. This resulted in a twelve week delay. The second order was even worse than the first but the owner had her heart set on this material so the installer decided to make it work.
Like a huge jigsaw puzzle they meticulously pieced the material utilizing dry hanging, double cuts and custom templates of each piece. Only by integrating a variety of techniques and tools was this job able to be successfully completed.
Second Place: Commercial
 
Cyndi Green, C.P. - Cyndi Green Wallcovering, LLC, Monroe, Louisiana
What does a hyper dog, hundreds of wheel chairs and 608 man hours have in common? These all represent the challenges that this installer had to overcome in order to complete this job. After learning that the bid was out of the budget, this installer had to go back and sharpen his pencil on the figures but found that the family dog had ripped the file to shreds. The first 8 hours of the job was spent salvaging the paperwork to move forward.
The project required removal of nearly 14,000 square feet of covering and 1,200 feet of border from a very active nursing home. As residents wheeled about, so did this installer on the rolling scaffolding. Due to the residents, hand rails were not able to be removed, cords had to be taped down and traffic constantly directed around the worksite.
Korowood was used to cover the central nurse’s station. Precise measuring and transfer of measurements as well as a Dremel tool were used to make clean cuts for the twenty plug areas. Thankfully Koroseal Products had a wonderful customer service department to work with as the installer also used Korogard Traffic Patterns on the kitchen area. All in all, this installer says that it was a successful job and a wonderful experience living with the residents.
Honorable Mention: Commercial
 
Michael Baughman, C.P. - Baughman Wallcovering, Oceanside, California
Sometimes the difficult jobs start long before the walls are ever touched which was the case in this next award. From the request of the rough bid to the first time a wall was touched, nearly five months passed.
This particular job was to install twenty-seven yards of 54 inch wide Fredrix canvas between metal U channels. The final artwork however was 310.5 inches long. In order to match the panels, masking tape strips were placed over the overlapping panels to make tick marks.
The installation challenge was enhanced by the fact that there was foot traffic in the area of the hang. In order to effectively manage this dynamic, the wallcovering was dry hung.
With the paste being on the wall, not only was the covering lighter but it was easier to manipulate with others in the vicinity.
First Place: Small Spaces
 
Phil and Jennifer Curtis, C.P. - Curtis Enterprises, South Holland, Illinois
The project, a 49 story high rise condo and the paper, 14 rolls of Brunschwig & Fils hand printed wallpaper that was 22.5 inches wide (untrimmed) with a 21.75 inch repeat. Add a single service elevator shared by all contractors along with a scheduled of 8AM to 4:30 PM Monday thru Friday only and you get a job that just doesn’t play well with others!
Removing the existing ten year old wallpaper hadn’t seemed to be a challenge until what should have been a half day task turned into only accomplishing 25% percent the first day. The lack of proper sealing left the existing paper stuck like no other to the wall and the removal process became not only time consuming but was damaging a significant portion of the walls. After hours of tedious scrapping and repeated pleas to the client, it was finally decided that the existing paper would be sealed after testing a spot with Gardz to insure the client’s $4000 material investment.
Day three after the liner paper was installed and the remaining wallpaper sealed, the installation was engineered. Painstakingly each sheet was pasted and hung with care. As luck would have it, the installer realized that the paper did not expand uniformly due to the eighteen different inks used. To remedy this, each seam had to be slightly overlapped and trimmed with a broad knife and sharp Olfa blade.
Despite the challenges, this small space turned out quite lovely. The clients were happy and the installers proud.
Second Place: Small Spaces
 
Scott Carmichael - DW Painting & Wallpapering, Hamilton, Ontario Canada
It’s jokingly been said that you want to be someone’s first love and second spouse but what about the second installer? In this case, the recipient was the second installer when the first quit in mid job due to the difficult glass bead on metallic paper that was being used.
After sanding and priming with Shieldz, the install began. Keeping the moisture to a minimum, the first two sheets went up well. With the third sheet however, it didn’t go so well.
Upon initial examination, it was found that there were 2 lots of covering. What hadn’t been discovered was that there were two repeats. Lot A had a 20.5 inch repeat but lot B had a 20.75 inch repeat. This was due to the fact that the covering is partially handmade.
Despite the desired deadline of being completed before Christmas, it was decided to re-order covering and start over. In March when the install happened, there were challenges and even though time consuming, the work was done and the job was spectacular.
Honorable Mention: Small Spaces
 
Mary Lang Farrell - Homeside Building Corporation, White Plains, New York
Grandma’s wallpaper is exactly what the client of this job was looking for. Wanting circa 1930 paper installed by her 1928 Windsor Progress stove, 1935 hosier and collection of real McCoys and Fiesta ware, the owner and this installer went shopping. Despite the obvious concern of resilience and manageability, the installer helped the owner find and purchase three bolts of the perfect paper. Making three bolts of paper cover a 10 x 12 foot room would take a miracle close to the biblical loaves and fishes.
The furniture and appliance pieces had to be placed in the exact location. Paper was not placed where it could not be seen. Fortunately, coordinating paper was found to supplement so on to the next challenge.
Unable to afford to send the paper to Custom Laminations for processing, the installer had to get creative. To combat the appearance of being “just a little chalky” the installer sprayed the material with Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover – Matte Clear. Not only did this provide a protective coating on this antique paper, the colors intensified. The installer says that in this case, the risk paid off and in the end the client was ecstatic.
Congratulations to all of this year’s award recipients as well as all who entered.
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