Air bubbles in wallpaper General decorating topics, questions and answers. find help, tips and advice on completing your decorating projects

[russellfl]

Can anyone suggest a way other than stripping and re-papering that can get rid of air bubbles? The paper I used is like a ribbed texture and started bubbling up as soon as I smoothed it out. I'm not new to papering and am used to a slight bubbling up as it dries but all the walls have stayed with large bubbles after about a week.

Cheers

[rosebery]

Insufficient paste on paper, pasted paper applied to wall too soon and probably wall not sized first either methinks.

Depending on the size of the bubbles you can make small incision with a craft knife and inject some more paste massaging it into all the space from the outside. Let it soak in and then run over the paper from the outsied squeezing the excess out through the incision. You may need to trim the incision back to get it to lay flat.

If the bubbles are too big I'd be tempted to cut my losses, strip it off and start again.

HTH

Cheers

[russellfl]

Thanks Roseberry. also any idea's why on some walls the paper shrinks back away from the joints leaving a gap between two strips?

Cheers

[rosebery]

Paper was stretched as it was hung and with insufficient paste it has shrunk back.

Cheers

[rigga]

russellfl
You can over come this problem by using a small foam roller to apply pva adhesive to the wall at the seams. Mark where your joints are going to be then mix some pva with water 75% pva 25% water and as you hang each length roller a coat of pva where the joints are, do it as you go around the room. As with paste this must be removed of the face of the paper with a sponge as soon as possible. You can also mix pva with your paste.

[russellfl]

Thanks guys for your responses, have taken info on board. I just now need to get the enthusiasm to rectify the problems

Cheers