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Wallpaper Tips and Hiring an Austin Professional Wallpaper Installer

Wallpaper is a great way to turn a room from drab to fab! If you are interested in hanging the drywall yourself, watch the video below before starting your project. If hiring a wallpaper professional in Austin is more your style, read on to get great tips on how to find the best person for the job.

Learn more about wallpaper professionals:

Wallpaper hangers apply wall coverings to decorate and protect walls. Wallpaper hangers cover walls and ceilings with decorative wall coverings made of paper, vinyl, or fabric. Sometimes they need to remove the existing wallpaper. Paperhangers do this by soaking, steaming, or applying solvents. If walls are already painted, paperhangers wash them.

Tip! It's a good idea to not always take the lowest bid when it comes to wallpaper. With wall coverings, you usually get what you pay for.

They may also apply plaster to walls to patch holes and other imperfections. Once the plaster is dry, they sand the surface to remove rough areas. If paperhangers did not remove these imperfections, they would show through the wall coverings. The final step in preparing surfaces is to apply sizing. This liquid seals the surface and helps coverings stick better.

Once the surface is ready, paperhangers prepare pastes or glues. Next, they measure the areas to be covered and cut the wall covering into strips of the proper size. Before they apply the glue, paperhangers mark guidelines on the walls to help them align the first strips. Finally, they apply paste and attach the strips to the walls or ceilings. Wallpaper hangers must be careful to make sure the patterns match and the seams are even. The last steps are to smooth the strip to remove wrinkles or bubbles, trim extra wallpaper from the top and bottom of the walls, and wipe off extra paste.

Austin Money Savers Tip Although large home improvement stores are usually able to provide you with referrals, they typically have a commission based contract with the professionals. Because of this, expect your costs to be a little bit higher than if you found a wallpaper professional on your own.

Some wallpaper hangers work on new buildings. Some work on remodeled buildings, and others work on both. A few wallpaper hangers apply advertisements to billboards. They use a similar technique. However, they usually use scaffolding to reach their work.

Wallpaper professionals perform the following activities on a regular basis:

• Remove old wallpaper or wash painted walls.
• Fills holes and cracks with plaster, using trowels.
• Smooth rough spots on walls and ceilings, using sandpaper.
• Measure walls and ceilings to compute number and length of strips needed to cover surfaces. Cut strips to proper sizes.
• Mark guidelines on walls to align first strip.
• Apply sizing to seal surfaces and make them sticky.
• Mix pastes or adhesives.
• Apply adhesives using brushes.
• Align and place strips on surfaces and match edges.
• Check patterns, seams, and whether strips are hanging straight.
• Smooth strips with brushes or rollers to remove wrinkles and bubbles.
• Trim excess material at ceilings or baseboards.

Source Information:
Minnesota Department of Education
Minnesota Department of Economic Development

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