How To Activate Wallpaper Glue (courtesy of AskTheBuilder)

Modern wallpapers like this one often come from the factory pre-pasted. That’s ok! It’s really a good material, that paste. But, what the problem is, is remember, when you get it wet, or you use an activator to make it get wet, it starts to expand the paper! And, you need to make sure it expands on the table, not up on the wall!

Before you put the piece of paper up and even paste it, you’ve got to go ahead and cut a part off. Don’t worry about getting it perfectly straight, because you’re gonna trim the paper, once it’s up on the wall.

If the paper is pre-pasted, I get the best results from activating the glue with an activator, instead of with water. These products just brush on the paper. And, what you do, is you actually mix this product with water, wait about 30 minutes, and the final result is a really neat gel, that’s a little thicker than water, but boy, does it go on the paper easily!

This process is called “relaxing” by the professional wallpaper hangers. What’s really happening, is that once you’ve got the whole piece of paper glued, and you’ve activated that glue, the paper starts to expand, and it just needs to relax. You go ahead and fold the paper back on itself, like this. Don’t push down hard on these ends – you don’t want to make a real hard crease. That’s not a good thing.

And, then, you just sit back yourself and relax for about 5 minutes, until it’s ready to hang the paper.

I’m Tim Carter with Ask The Builder!

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