DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hello all,

Just finished papering a wall in the bedroom and being a new build decided not to bother with lining, and just cracked on with the paper. This is the first time ive hung wallpaper and having researched the subject, i think ive done a good job. Although, now the paper is drying, the paper seams are splitting away from eachother, only fractional gaps, but enough to clearly see the seams and for me to notice them. Any ideas how i can solve this little problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Hi, there isn't a proper way to get rid of them as once the paper is on that's it. It sounds to me as if it has dried too quickly and the seams have pulled. Did you size the walls properly first and did you put enough paste on the paper especially the edges. If they are new walls as you say I may have put 2 coats of size on to make sure they were sealed properly especially if the first coat dried fast. You need to make sure that you follow the instructions that come the the paper as different makes have different instructions. Some people say to put a crayon line on the gap to cover it but I don't think that it would look great and others say to use chalk but that would only be for a quick fix and not permanent. If you are doing the whole room and only done 1 wall so far I would be inclined to take it off and do it again. If the walls I am papering are very light or dark and the paper is the opposite I have in the past given the walls a quick coat of emulsion close to the colour of the paper. If you do this though make sure all the paste is off walls first.

Hello

Thanks for your reply. All advice duly noted. Thank You.

The seams are only clearly visible with direct light on the wall IE bedside lights. The plan was to only paper one wall. so im stopping there.

Kind regards

Lee

There is no fix unless you re-do. But What colour is the paper some dark papers show the butts because the backing paper is white, I have had to use a marker on very dark papers on the butts before hanging while still rolled up, to hide them maybe this is why.

this is not an uncommon problem when hanging wallpaper.

one very effective trick is to paint the wall with a paint that matches the paper prior to hanging. just get a paint match from a sample of the paper. it's not always perfect, depending on the pattern of the paper but a a good way to ensure that the seams are far less likely to catch the eye.