How Much Does It Cost To Hang Lining Paper?



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Cost to Hang Wall/Lining Paper





job
Description
labour
1Your bedroom ceiling is to be relined and emulsioned. It’s papered already so that has to be stripped off first. The ceiling also has a few cracks etc. to be filled and sanded. It’s your only bedroom so you will be sleeping in there it’s fully furnished and everything has to be covered including the carpet because of the stripping water. 1 man 3 days including materials.
£575
2Same job in an empty room, with no carpets. 1 man 2 days inc materials
£400
3Same room (full of furniture) but the walls this time to be (2 coat) papered and everything needs stripping and preparing first. 1 man 4 days.
£725

Plus materials etc. for the above
 £100
4Same job in an empty room, with no carpets. 1 man  2.5 days inc materials
 £540

“Labour” at £175 a day (tradesman) £100 (labourer), includes incidental fixings etc. and tipping charges. “Materials” if mentioned, are larger things (a boiler) and stuff only you can choose (tiles etc).  Also VAT must be added all round.
Information Sheet on Wallpapering

Lining Paper

Walls and ceilings, even if they are going to be painted eventually, look a lot better if they are papered first. I’m talking lining paper here, which is totally blank and “smooth”. Actually, it’s not completely smooth and this is deliberate, it has a very slight texture which seriously improves the effect of the otherwise hard, flat “institutionalised” look, painted surfaces can otherwise have.

Exceptions are the bathroom and kitchen and especially the ceilings. They get a lot of condensation and if this finds its way under the paper it will slowly begin to peel off. Paper can also harbour mould. Moulds just love to fester in dark wet places. They seek out the “space” between the paper and the surface. Maybe, if you don’t live with the windows open, or don’t have a good extractor fan (which helps stop condensation), you should just paint these two ceilings without the paper. BUT only use “eggshell” which is oil based, don’t even think about emulsion paint. Generally you can paper and emulsion kitchen walls but if you must paper and paint the bathroom walls use eggshell.

Lining paper comes in grades. From 600 grade which is like wet toilet paper when it’s pasted and falls apart in your hands, to 1500 grade and thicker which is wonderful stuff, goes on a treat and masks quite a lot of otherwise poor surfaces.

Surface preparation is everything when applying either wallpaper or paint. It is a complete fallacy that “it won’t show when its been painted”. Quite the opposite is always the case. Paper however (particularly woodchip and other similarly random textured stuff), will mask rather a lot of cracks and unevenness. Don’t forget though, every time anyone over 3 years old sees woodchip, they always wonder what you’re trying to hide!

The only textured ceiling paper which is really acceptable is the sort of “mock fancy plaster lacework” paper which looks very interesting in the right (old) house. The only textured wallpaper that won’t leave the local kindergarten laughing at you is “anaglypta”. This is usually hung underneath “dado” rails.

Lining paper is for painting over, so it doesn’t matter if it gets finger or paste marks all over it while hanging. The chap can even leave a very slight gap (1mm) between each sheet, which makes hanging so much easier. (Each sheet is called a “drop” even on the ceiling, where in unpractised hands it can easily live up to its name). Two coats of emulsion paint will easily cover this gap in the end.

Patterned Paper

There are 2 types, normal and vinyl – which is washable. Both types need a lot more care, not least in keeping them from getting covered in paste (on the front of course). The pattern, particularly, has to be taken into account when hanging. Unlike blank lining paper, patterned stuff can’t just be cut and hung, It all has to line up with its neighbour. With “large patterns”, which don’t repeat themselves very often, this can mean quite a lot of paper has to be discarded from each “drop” in order for a match to be achieved. These off cuts can mount up and could lead to an extra couple of rolls per room being bought.

When hanging patterned paper on a newly plastered wall, it’s good practice to hang lining paper first. As with painting, this gives the patterned paper on top a depth AND it removes any depressions etc. which might show through the thinner patterned stuff. In this case the lining paper is usually hung horizontally in order to remove the slight possibility of the joints of each “coat” lining up.

Questions to ask the decorator during his quotation visit.

Does the wall need priming first? Make sure that surfaces are primed before papering. With a newly plastered surface this means slapping a “coat” of very much diluted ordinary wallpaper paste on the ceiling/wall and letting it dry, (it won’t take long). The surface should then be primed again (with the thicker dilution suggested on the paste packet), immediately before hanging the paper, this makes it slip all over the wall/ceiling which is just what you want it to do until it’s positioned perfectly.

If you are “doing” the bathroom or kitchen ceiling which ultimately will be painted, do you really want it to be lined? You will get the “flat” effect but not the possible eventual peeling.

Does the old paper need to come off, or can you just paper over what’s there? On the ceiling yes it does! On the walls, take it off if there’s vinyl paper already there or if there are more than two layers of any type, already there.

What protection does he use? Will he be covering your £3000 Axminster with a waterproof sheet? If he’s stripping wallpaper he’ll be using a steamer. Steam condenses and drips everywhere and also lots of newly moistened old paste rises from the dead to seek out and “leech” to anything it can find that’s remotely wholesome! He should really tape the cover to the skirting board and guess what, this will bring some paint off them on removal.

By the way, if the house is really old (200 years) the paste will have arsenic in it! I suggest an annoying little mask is worn in this case. Napoleon died from “wallpaper inhalation”. Apparently, there was nothing else to do on St Helena all day! Now…. not a lot of people know THAT.

Will he be lining the walls prior to hanging the wallpaper?  Ask this just to see his reaction really. He should respond by either saying “of course” or telling you that your walls are so perfect that they don’t need it, or that your new wallpaper is vinyl and therefore has its own lining.


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