Preparing the Walls for Papering

Removing Fittings

Remove fittings such as wall lights, shelves, and roller blinds, because you can't paper around them. Make sure that the electricity is switched off at the mains before removing wall lights and that the power to any bare wires is cut off until wallpapering is complete and the lights are back in place. If you want to replace any fitting in the same position after wallpapering, pop a matchstick into each screw hole, leaving about 12 mm/0.5 in protruding. This will be forced through the paper as it is brushed onto the wall, so you will know where the screw holes are.

Dealing With Cracks

Fill holes and cracks with cellulose filler (use ready-mixed if you prefer, but this is a bit more expensive than one you mix yourself), smoothed level with the surface. Larger holes are more economically repaired with a plaster filler (ready-mixed if you prefer). If the hole is deep, use two layers of plaster, allowing the first to dry before adding a second.

Where there are lots of hairline cracks in an otherwise sound wall, first hang lining paper. This is a thin, white paper hung exactly like wallpaper except that it is used horizontally on the wall. It is important not to overlap edges as these will show as a ridge through the wallpaper. You can hang it vertically if you think you will find handling long lengths of horizontal paper too difficult, but ensure that the joins will not coincide with the wallpaper joins.

New Plasterboard

Apply two coats of plasterboard primer/sealer. Depending on the brand, this can take anywhere between 2 and 18 hours to dry.

New Plaster

Allow to dry for four weeks.

Wallpaper

Remove old wallpaper by soaking and scraping. Allow 10 to 15 minutes for the water to soak through and loosen the paste. The process can be speeded up by adding a proprietary wallpaper-stripping solution to the warm water, though adding a little liquid detergent plus a handful of wallpaper paste is usually sufficient. Many wallpapers are specially made to be easy to strip. Just raise the bottom edge and pull upwards. If a thin backing paper remains on the wall, wet it and scrape off.

Emulsion-Painted Wallpaper

It is possible to break down the surface by scraping or wire-brushing to allow the water to soak through, but it can be tough going. The simple alternative is to use a steam stripper (can be hired), which quickly loosens difficult wallpaper.

After stripping wallpaper, go over the surface with a sanding block to remove small nibs, then wash down with sugar soap and warm water to remove old adhesive and size (sealer).