Preparation of walls for wallpapering. why priming

Priming the walls for wallpaper There is an empirical rule - before wallpapering, the wall must be clean, dry, smooth and absorbent. Most wallpaper manufacturers warn their customers that their products will look nice and hold on long Only with high-quality priming of walls. If you then contact them with a complaint saying that such expensive wallpapers have disappeared so quickly, you will necessarily be asked the question: "Are you sure that the walls were properly primed?", Which means: "We warned you ...". But usually a man of one warning is not enough, it is important for him to understand well, why it is necessary to primed the walls.

First of all, it should be explained that the primer primarily promotes adhesion (the adhesion of a variety of surfaces among themselves), which allows you to hang the wallpaper even in the most difficult places, for example, on glossy painted walls. In addition, pigment primers have a hidden white pigment, which makes the entire wall uniformly white, which is very important, especially if you need to install wallpaper light shades.

Note that the wallpaper sticks not to the walls, but to their covering. If before installing wallpaper your walls were painted with ordinary interior latex paint, then you should not do without priming:

  1. wallpaper paste in contact with the paint dries for at least a day, and often even longer;
  2. during drying, the latex loses its integrity, softens and turns into an elastic film, which can negate all your efforts, since the surface of the wall under the wallpaper must necessarily be firm;
  3. a very porous latex can penetrate into the paper, making the subsequent removal of the wallpaper incredibly complex.

The primer does not allow all this. It is a kind of barrier between the wall and wallpaper, which not only allows them to gain a foothold on the walls, but also greatly facilitates the process of uninstallation.

In many stores today are selling alternative primer products - a variety of "Preparatory" acrylic coatings. They are really good at promoting adhesion and protecting the walls, but only on condition that they were covered with oil paint. Such "primers" perfectly adhere to the glass, fireproof plastic, plastic panels and various glossy, non-porous paints, but at the same time remain practically impotent on the walls covered with latex.

Than primed

There are three types of primers that are best suited for high-quality wall preparation for wallpaper:

  1. universal pigment acrylic;
  2. alkyd (for better effect they must be covered with a preparatory primer);
  3. on a gypsum base (not suitable for priming dark walls, since they do not contain white pigment).

Such primers do not simply form a solid protective layer on the surface of the walls, but also block everything that can harm your new wallpaper from below. So, in the pores of walls often there are particles of old glue or paint, which eventually penetrate into the delicate layer of wallpaper and appear on their surface in the form of ugly spots.

With the use of a primer (by the way, any of its types does not have a high cost), you will feel what "perfect wallpaper" means - when the wallpaper is well fixed, the seams do not lag, and you need not be afraid to remove the wallpaper that comes with time.

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