Galliards paper; cannot find correct paste, advice?

[DennisT]

My wife picked up a few rolls of Galliards (U.K. made) paper, un-pasted and pre-pasted. The one she wants to use now says to avoid starch based paste which is all we can find locally (Roman brand and Roman says all their pastes are starch/wheat based)

Galliard recommends U.K. made (of course) Solvite or Polycell. Or a, "modern all purpose paste containing fungicide. Searching Solvite and Polycell I see health warnings involving Polycell and apparently Solvite contains it as well. We can't find the stuff around here anyway.

So what do we use? Why do they not want us to use starch based?

We seem dead in the water on this.

Tips apprciated, thanks,
Dennis

[Boston Hangman]

So what do we use? Why do they not want us to use starch based?

We seem dead in the water on this.

Tips apprciated, thanks,
Dennis

Dennis
They are probaly afraid of staining, does it call for a liner paper as well?
There should be a phone number on the label somewhere . I know we have had this problem with other companies ( Bill?) and when they were contacted via phone in US they would provide a US equivalent or acceptable substitute.
For your own protection try to find out what they recommend first , then post it here if you are unsure of the adhesive and / or it's performance.
I have not heard of and have probaly not hung anything from that particular company.

Mark
Boston NGPP

[DennisT]

Thanks.

There is no mention of liner paper being required or suggested. Their only paste recommendation is the Solvite and/or Polycell. There is no phone number or contact number on the paper inside the wallpaper roll. I have no luck finding them on line.

My wife purchased some of the Roman's paste and if we can find a scrap of sheetrock, we may try a test run. We have about 3 days to figure this out, then the plumber wants to install things in front of the new wallpaper. We are trying to avoid delaying them, and had no idea this headache would come up.

Dennis

[Bill Archibald]

Dennis,

First, all "modern all purpose paste containing fungicide" are starched based. I do not know of a wallpaper paste that is NOT starch based. Potato, corn, and wheat are the common sources of the starch

What Mark referred to when he said "(Bill?)" is that I ran into a paper whose instructions stated, "Use a ready mix wheat or cellulose clear tub paste. These pastes must not contain fungicides or preservatives". Although apparently the inverse (or is that the converse) of what your directions state, this is also something not available on this planet.

The research I found was that Golden Harvest GH-34 (made by Roman) and Roman Pro - 838 were acceptable by the manufacturer. these are both pre-mix pastes and STARCH based.

Even the border adhesives are starch based but with refined polymers.

Chris Murphy has done the most research on wallpaper adhesives in recent months. I will ask him to weigh in.

-bill

[Chris Murphy]

I couldn't find anything on Galliard, nor the ingredients in Solvite, etc. You need to do this this weekend, correct? Go with what you have: paste a 3-6" full-width pice and put it on the walls you have (forget the sheetrock scrap; I do hope you've primed the walls with a wallcovering-specific primer). Let it dry an hour, see if it stains it at all. If it doesn't, have at it. Repeatedly wet the scrap piece and remove it. You've got a strong paste for a light paper: keep your hands clean or you'll be lifting the print off the paper. Paste with a roller and get a thin, even amount on the paper.
BTW, our Milwaukee Chapter has t-shirts with the msg., "We save marriages!" on the back: you're about to find out the wisdom of that.

[DennisT]

Thanks everyone. Our idea of testing on sheetrock was that we are wallpapering fresh sheetrock and we would primer both the final wall as well as the scrap, then test the scrap. This morning we are priming the new raw but taped wall with, "Zinsser Shieldz Universal Pre-Wallcovering Primer." Whew, that's a mouthfull. Never used it before, but here we go.

Probably we will try the test-on-the-new wall you suggest.

I think this paper is at least a medium weight. Not knowing what else to get (and no options other than this one), we picked up a gallon of Golden Harvest green label GH-80. Those GH numbers Bill mentioned are not around here locally and I don't know the difference. I will look at Roman's website before we begin.

For the moment this whole thing is for a powder room wall 4' wide and 9' tall. Later there will be more in a different room, however.

Thanks again-I keep watching here and enjoy the forum/site.

Dennis

[Chris Murphy]

The GH-80 oughta be fine. Any staining will generally appear to be a wet spot, line or streak that doesn't dry out. Good luck.

[Bill Archibald]

Dennis,

I'm not going to be so blindly acceptable as Chris (and we NEVER disagree :lol: :help:).

Chris, my fear from reading the product description and MSDS is that GH-80 is the same as 880. And you know the fears of the high solids.

We also know that Roman is packaging the same products under the Roman label and the Golden Harvest label.

Both 880 and GH-80 MSDS state:

Appearance and Odor: Translucent off-white paste, mild odor
Specific Gravity(water=1): 1.12
Percent Solids by Weight: 30-35
by Volume: 21-27

whereas GH-34 says:

Appearance and Odor: Translucent off-white paste, mild odor
Specific Gravity(water=1): 1.04
Percent Solids by Weight: 15
by Volume: 12

that's like HALF the solids.

Dennis, there have been instances where some of the high solids pastes have stained some of the brit pulps, some of us (Chris included) want to get to the bottom of this with some scientific exploration. But until we know exactly when and why this happens on what papers, I am not using those pastes on sensitive papers. I did an experiment as Chris told me to do with another high solids paste and I did have staining - and it's getting worse and worse as time goes by.

Your best bet would be to call Roman on Monday and ASK if GH-80 and Pro 880 are the same paste.

I'm not saying it will definitely stain, but if it is a sensitive pulp, I'd be wary.

sorry for the overload of information and fear, but this is what we go through every day.

-bill

[Chris Murphy]

Nice research on the paste. BUT, they've got the plumber coming! Gotta get done! As much as I'd like to see a DIYer get professional results, by definition, that ain't gonna happen. He's got the paper, some paste, priming's done....if the paste doesn't stain the sample, I'd say get on with it. Bill & I have found that over time- 1 yr., 5 yrs.- the paste can still stain eventually as moisture in the room makes the paste react. Let us hope that in that future time you will have seen the futility of DIY paperhanging; and that also your income will have increased sufficiently so that when you come back to this site it is to ask, "Any pros in my area?"

[DennisT]

Hi:

Well, one thing I do enjoy is learning. Does not mean at my age now that I want to try to do everything myself anymore. Regarding professionals, I have been hiring them except for this wallpaper. The current wallpaper project is one wall under five feet wide with a 9-foot ceiling; that's it - it is merely doing the one new dividing wall at the end of this little powder room. And that is to add not only, "interest," to that portion, but to change the finish over the only new sheetrock because we doubt we could match that little end wall with the adjoining 1920 lathe-and-plaster/oil paint.

Primer/sizing is all on. Went fine. House integrity is disturbed due to remodel and we are having a heat wave. Inside is not holding as it normally would and we went to bed last night with house at 86 degrees inside. This AM (wallpaper morning - grin) inside is still 82 with outside headed to 105 today. We might have some emergency wallpapering decisions to make this morning due to temperature situation. What fun.

Lastly, I'll ask right now, "what pros do you have in this area?" We are zip code 99169. We are 75 miles from any major city (Spokane, WA) and I've been trying for a year to hire a professional brick mason out here with no luck.

It's the price for peace and quiet. Four to five cars a day by the paved road out front is pretty nice and the rest of the time it is dead silent.

Dennis

[Chris Murphy]

Nobody within 100 miles, according to the Find a Paperhanger function.

[DennisT]

Hmmm.

Thanks, Chris.

Guess we're on our own. I've been used to that in my life.

Oh, .. we just hung the paper. Well, my wife did most of it, I'm just the helper. After we cool off we'll report later. Seemed to go OK from where I stood, but I heard a few choice words.

Dennis

[DennisT]

Hanging report: It's finished; small job, but laid the groundwork for using the rest of the Brit paper. Wife seems to know what she's doing; I don't. Pretty heavy paper. Had to work fast, low humidity and hot day. No signs of staining whatsoever. Adhesion seems very good although over time I am not experienced how or if changes will occur. She did a good job. Used the Golden Harvest paste previously mentioned.

Not sure what else to say. Since saw no, "pros," less than 100 miles from us, if we do a couple more little jobs, we might be stuck ourselves.

Thank you all for your help. I bookmarked this forum and think I'd enjoy sticking (pun-sorry) around a while.

Dennis

[Bill Archibald]

I wish you luck Dennis.

If that paste is what I think it is, it's wonderful when used for the right material. Long open time so booked sheets do not lock.

Please do not jinx it by celebrating no staining. I had a small bath that stained three years later, and I used paste that is not supposed to EVER stain.

hang in there (pun intended)

-Bill

[Chris Murphy]

Don't worry about the staining: what's done is done. It may appear later, it may not. You can always blame the wife with an I-told-you-so, and what husband doesn't need more (or any) of those? Make sure you have a working vent fan that is connected to the outside, not your attic or crawl space (more common than you might think).

Congrats on still being married after (somewhat) helping on the paper. Ritzville? So you folks are living high on the hog, but in an idyllic setting.

Next time that you use a paper (plain wood pulp paper), as opposed to a vinyl or vinyl coated product, try a wheat paste if the GH 80 presents problems.