How to glue wallpaper on concrete walls?

Happy owners of apartments in new buildings often wonder: how to glue wallpaper on concrete walls? This issue is especially relevant if, due to certain circumstances, you need to repair as quickly as possible. It is worth remembering that concrete only seems flat, but in reality the surface of this material is covered with small, sometimes almost imperceptible cracks. In this article we will tell you how to glue paper wallpapers on concrete walls, which may be necessary for this.

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Recommendations of specialists

One of the most controversial issues is whether it is possible to glue wallpaper on concrete or does such a surface need to be prepared? Most experts say that any surface needs to be prepared, which will help to avoid the following troubles:

1. Excessive relief of the walls can be clearly seen through the canvas wallpaper, especially if they have a light shade.
2. The adhesive that has dried around the cracks can cause bubbles and partially peel off the coating.
3. Under thin wallpaper, a dark concrete color can be clearly seen.
4. If the adhesive is not evenly distributed, irreducible white spots may appear on the walls.

Important! Often, a concrete wall contains metal reinforcement, which serves as a kind of structural frame and can be located quite close to the surface to be glued with wallpaper. This design feature can lead to the appearance of traces of rust and dark spots on the coating.

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What might come in handy?

To stick wallpaper on a concrete wall, after doing an elementary surface preparation. You may need the following materials:

• water dispersion primer;
• binder of unnecessary newspapers;
• wallpaper glue;
• putty;
• polyurethane or cork substrates;
• primer for concrete reinforcement.

Important! For gluing on a concrete surface, completely different types of wallpaper are suitable - paper, textile, non-woven, etc.

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Work surface preparation

How to glue paper wallpaper on concrete walls so that they retain their attractiveness over the longest possible time? Typically, the surface requires preliminary preparation, involving the implementation of a number of procedures.

Method number 1 - glue for wallpaper

Surprisingly, one of the most simple and budgetary ways to cope with the porosity of a concrete surface is to treat the wall with a liquid adhesive. To achieve the highest quality result, you should adhere to the following recommendations:

• Buy at a hardware store 1-2 times more adhesive composition for wallpaper than is required for gluing a paper decorative canvas.

Important! The consistency of the diluted adhesive should be several times thinner than that indicated in the instructions for use provided by the manufacturer.

• Clean the walls before processing.
• Apply the resulting mixture evenly to the concrete.
• Wait until the adhesive layer has completely dried.

Thanks to a similar procedure, a hydrophobic layer is formed on the wall surface, which provides more uniform absorption of glue into the paper web.

Important! Remember that this treatment does not completely fill cracks and sinks on the surface of concrete walls.Therefore, heavy non-woven wallpaper can go away in places of damage to concrete.

Method number 2 - newspapers

One of the simplest and most affordable ways of pre-treating walls is pasting them over with old newspapers. Especially often, a selection of such literature can be found in the house of grandparents.

This method has a number of positive qualities:

• insignificant cost;
• simplicity of work that does not require special skills;
• high-quality alignment, elimination of graininess and microcracks;
• providing a more dense and reliable gluing of the paper web to the concrete wall.

Important! It should be borne in mind that in the absence of proper ventilation, paper on concrete can become moldy.

Method 3 - primer

With significant unevenness of the walls, one of the most practical and effective methods of preliminary preparation is surface putty. For this purpose, a special building composition is used, which after drying forms a reliable and fairly dense protective layer.

Important! Modern primers not only help smooth out, but also increase the degree of adhesion and protect against mold.

Method No. 4 - substrates

One of the most practical and high-quality ways to prepare the concrete surface of the walls for wallpapering is the use of special substrates made of polyurethane or cork. This technology is especially often used before gluing finishing materials on a non-woven basis.

Important! Substrates on the wall can not only smooth the surface of concrete, but also provide the room with an additional effect of heat and sound insulation. Therefore, their use is especially relevant when decorating constantly cold external walls of a residential building.

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Wallpapering on concrete

After preliminary surface preparation, you can proceed directly to the wallpaper gluing procedure. In order for the result to be as high-quality as possible and meet your expectations, adhere to the following recommendations:

1. For wallpapering, use special glue, which is diluted in accordance with the recommendations specified by the manufacturer.
2. Cut the paper web into pieces of the required length, leaving a margin of up to 10 cm.
3. Clean the surface of the concrete wall previously prepared for wallpapering with a clean roller moistened with warm water. Let the walls dry well.
4. Using a level or plumb, mark the walls vertically, stepping back from an angle equal to the width of the canvas.
5. Having previously missed a piece of wallpaper with glue, attach it to the wall, aligning it according to the vertical marking.
6. Remove any air bubbles by smoothing the surface with a clean cloth.
7. Glue the next piece of paper back to back with the previous one, choosing a pattern in parallel. The joint of the sheets should be ironed with an effort with a rubber roller.

Important! In the process of drying the wallpaper, try to avoid drafts, which can lead to peeling of paper paintings.

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Stock footage

In this article, we shared with you recommendations on gluing wallpaper on concrete walls. We hope that these tips will help to make the room as beautiful and attractive as possible.