Installing Anaglypta wallpaper

[Marilyn Lowell]

I have purchased Anaglypta wallpaper and have never hung this type before.
Does anyone have any tips about hanging this type of paper. Some instructions on the net say to use claybased adhesive others say it does not matter as along as it is heavy duty.
Also are there any special painting instructions or tips that you have experienced that would help with this process.

The manufacturer does not give any tips except for prepartion of the walls which have been completed.

thank you.

[Chris Murphy]

I'll be hanging some Mon. on a ceiling, a common use for Anaglypta. It is made to be painted, so some problems noticed on hanging will not be noticeable after painting. Do not use caulk at the seams- use spackle or joint compound, put on with a finger. I'd use an alkyd (oil) primer.

It's an embossed paper. It will soak up any moisture in the paste quickly, and expand. Once pasted, it can tear and stretch somewhat easily (the somewhat is a reference to how experienced one is to wallpaper). The raised parts of the design can be easily crushed and flattened. The seams often don't butt perfectly. So those are the challenges.

If you're an experienced hanger, go with the clay with this caveat: get that sucker up fairly quick, as the low-moisture clay pastes will tend to freeze (i.e., folded sheet dries stuck together). This does give the best bond. A clear will be more forgiving, but the sheet will be slightly more touchy. I'll be using a mix that I've adapted to paper products, Paper-hangings.com wheat paste (80%) and Dynamite 111 clay (20%). Good working time, low moisture.

Also watch the amount of time that the sheets are allowed to rest & expand: try to have that equal for each, as the length (and therefore the match) can sometimes change with soaking time. Take a scrap piece and paste it, fold and let sit. Mark the time it takes to reach its final expansion (don't bag it), and use this as a benchmark.

Use a bristle sweep, or at least a nylon one. Don't use a plastic smoothy, or a seam roller. Set the piece gently, but firmly. Use fresh blades on each cut.

Hope that helps.

[Bill Archibald]

an added note:

Granted I have very little experience with anaglypta, but I did notice that a foam roller used LIGHTLY on the seams laid them down with minimal crushing of the embossment.

Just make sure you go cautiously with whatever techniques you use and go with what works best for you.

To highlight what Chris says about the design being easily crushed and flattened, this is of utmost importance. I've seen jobs in which there was not care taken and the seams were crushed. They looked horrible.

-Bill

[Jeff Evans]

One thing to add, be careful if you do any washing of the seams. Go easy with that as they will be easier to crush with even less pressure if they get too wet. If you need to wash at all, try dabbing first. I had a guy helping me on a job hanging a room full of Anaglypta, and while I was hanging another room he was butchering his by over washing the seams and rolling them too much. The client, who was an actress, blonde, cute and definitely no dummy, knew a crummy job in the making when she saw one. She made him (that meant me, since he was working for me) take down all the offending sheets and replace them.

Cliff Hayes has turned me on to a paste mixture that I like in some instances, that being a clay paste (Shur Stik 111 in my case) with a little Romans 880 whipped in. It doesn't lose much of the tack of clay but extends the working time of the paste exponentially. This is useful to keep your sheets from prematurely drying out on you or "freezing" up on you in the parlance of seasoned hangers. Try putting them in a plastic bag to keep them from drying out also. The stuff needs a lot of expansion time, but it also likes to dry out fast, so those two tips may be helpful in combatting that. Good luck!

[tomcat]

Marilyn, as you are putting this stuff up, keep in mind that Anaglypta doesn't really look that good until it's painted. So don't get down thinking your'e doing a bad job. After you paint it you'll see a huge difference!

[OldHouseLady]

I'm just a hands-on homeowner, but I've hung both the traditional, old-style embossed Analglypta and the new, flat-back Anaglypta, both as dados. I found the traditional embossed type surprisingly easy to work with. At the suggestion of my local store, I used a clay-based adhesive and rolled/foam brushed it on with the Anaglypta face down on a terry towel (changed frequently to keep it clean) making sure to get the voids well coated. As stated by other posters, just brush it on to the wall; finger pressure was enough for the seams. Use care and a fresh blade when trimming; I did flatten out a couple of bits going round the window sills. The manufacturer recommends an "emulsion" (latex), not oil-based primer; I used a Zinsser-type shellac primer which both worked well at the time and has produced no problems. In order to minimize top coats and keep the detail crisp, I had the primer tinted. I rubbed a very little caulk into obvious seams after priming, and top coated with a decorative paint job in latex paints finished with water-based polyurethane. It looks great and is still perfect after ten years.

The new flat-backed vinyl Anaglypta was absolutely awful, and I would never use it again. The walls were prepped with an oil-based primer. I used a recommended vinyl adhesive; hanging was routine. However, although a latex primer and latex top coat is recommended (and I called England to check it out), in reality every single primer I tried made the sections tend to bubble up and loosen. Allowing increased drying time for the paste helped, but did not completely fix the problem. (And I mean increasing the drying time from 48 hours to a week to six months.....). So my routine was to prime a single wall, then sit there and patiently rub the sections back down. (The last wall with the solace of a large gin and tonic.) The sections I topcoated with latex paint and then polyurethane have remained soft enough that two years later they can be scratched with a careless fingernail. The section done in oil-based primer and oil-based enamel topcoat is better, and the paint as so far held up without cracking (six months). It's just painted cream, looks fine, washes up well enough, but its not going to hold up like the 110 year old stuff in my hallways. I'd seriously consider doing it over if there wasn't a rather large clawfoot tub in the way.

Ceilings, now..... I just may have to try that.

Chris

[Chris Murphy]

Thanks,"OHL", for the report. I have always found that the vinyl stuff is cheaply made junk, but- hey!- it's easier to hang. I've never trusted the idea of going over paintable paper with a water-based paint: too easy for the paint to affect the paste. The oil primer used under the vinyl may not have been a good choice, but that's my speculation.
Sounds to me that you really are an "OHL", as you've taken on projects that our grandmothers would have.

[Buff1]

I've hung a lot of ceilings with anaglypta and the only addition I would make to the above suggestions is to put a coat of clay on the surface first, let it dry, and go from there. I always use the Shur Stik 111. When the paste on the paper hits the clay on the ceiling (or wall) it will grab and the seams stay down.

Buff