Painting, decorating and home improvement tips blog
Lining paper – What thickness should I use?
Posted by Adrian
December 3rd, 2009
Lining paper thickness
If you are planning on decorating a room and the walls aren’t that good your best option would be to line the walls with lining paper first.
So what thickness should you use?
Lining paper comes in different thickness known as ‘grades’.
The grades range from 800 to 2000 and vary quite a lot in thickness between the lowest to the highest grade.
Some ‘DIY’ stores only stock the lower grades of lining paper, maybe up to 1200 if you’re lucky, but normally only up to 1000 grade. You can buy the thicker grade papers form ‘trade’ outlets, local suppliers or online.
If you are using some of the higher grade lining paper make sure you allow the lengths of paper enough time to soak and become pliable. The time will increase for each grade of paper thickness.
For most jobs I use 1400 grade, it is thick enough for most jobs and is easy enough to work with. I use it for both walls and ceilings.
If you decide to go for the heavier grade papers (1700 and 2000) then you may find it difficult to handle and work with, this will obviously depend on your experience and room shape and size.
Remember, lining paper isn’t a magic paper that will make your walls imperfection free, it will give you a smoother, sounder base to work from. Lining paper was designed as a base to wallpaper onto, however you can emulsion over lining paper without any problems.
You should always prepair the walls, by this I mean you still need to fill the holes with filler, rub down the walls etc.
Allow at least 12 hours for drying if you are going to emulsion the walls and 24 hours if you are going to hang wallpaper over the lining paper, if you don’t the lining paper may come off the wall.
If the room is cold or damp you may have to allow longer for drying.
If your walls are bare plaster you will need to ‘size’ the walls first. This means either buying a packet of size or alternatively a diluted mix of wallpaper paste applied to the wall.
This will stop the lining paper drying out to quickly and give a stronger adhesion to the newly plastered wall.
Tags: Cross lining, Decorating, Emulsion, Lining, Lining Paper, Painting, Wallpaper
Posted in Decorating Tips | 259 Comments »
Hi there I have been lining the walls in my hallway with my dad however seeing as this is the first time both of us have done this we have managed to get some of the paste on the right side of the paper. I assume that the excess paste soaks into the paper? Is it ok to paint onto this or should I seal the walls before painting??
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
What is the best way to emulsion lining paper, brush, roller, or paintpad.
Hi Kev
Adrian has actually written an article called : “Can I paint over lining paper?”
It is here : http://www.rayfields.co.uk/blog/can-i-paint-over-lining-paper/
Hope that helps
Hazel
Hi Adrian, I am a diy enthusiast, I have helped lots of pals modernise their homes. My most recent was an old house which I stripped all the walls. Someone suggested I start a small business stripping walls. In your opinion would there be a market or do painters and decorates do this. Just a wee thought.
Regards.
I want to hang lining over old painted walls, what grade should i use and should i butt the edges together or should i leave a gap to fill in afterwards, if so how big a gap?
Many thanks.
HI Adrian!
I have just moved into a post war Council House, the whole house is in a state!!! In the living room I have stripped half of the paper and it is full of cracks and dried glue from where I have removed the paper, also some parts have been replastered with rough edges. I intended to paint this room but it would take me forever and a day to fill bits and sand the glue off so I am thinking lining paper then paint? I have never hung paper and wouldn’t know where to start!!!!!!!!!! What grade would you suggest and any tips on hanging it would be FAB!!!
Also…. The rest of the house is decorated in the most untasteful paper! can I just paint over it instead of stripping it?!! (please say yes!!!!!!)
Thanks, Danielle
@Norrie I would suggest canvassing your local area to see if there is a demand before starting a business.
@Chris You should butt the paper edges and normally 1200 -1400 is suitable but it does depend on the condition of the walls.
@Danielle Lining paper isn’t a miracle cure, you still have to do the preparation before painting unfortunately. Again, 1200 – 1400 should be OK and easy to manage and hang. I wouldn’t paint over old wallpaper myself as you never know how well stuck it is and it may start peeling of as you paint, also vinyl papers will be hard to cover with at least four coats I would imagine.
Some useful links for you:
Decoration or Preparation? – http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=227
How to wallpaper around a door – http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=816
Wallpapering around a window or door reveal – http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=316
Feature Walls : How To Wallpaper A Fire Breast Wall – http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=242
Hi I have found a foil paper that i want to use…..my walls are ok but I’ve been advised to use a linen lining paper first as it will show every little imperfection…..whats the difference between this and normal lining paper apart from more expensive? Thanks
@Karen
I use 1400 gauge lining paper over a well prepared surface and not had any problems but I guess it’s down to personal choice and how much the foil paper cost!
Hi can I install lining paper over old wallpaper
And what paste we should use
Also do I need to seal the wallpaper before hang the new wallpaper
Thanks
@Jack
You can paper over old paper but as I have said before I wouldn’t do it myself. if the old paper is vinyl you will have real issues with edges staying stuck. In my opinion if you paying out for wallpaper you may as well do the ob right and remove the old paper first so that the new paper has the best chance of staying stuck to the wall.
What is the best way to remove a self adhesive border from lining paper that has been painted without removing the paper?
@Tracey
In a word, carefully 🙂
If you can get the top layer off the border soak the under layer with water and let it soak for a long time, then wet it again, then try and peel or scrape it off.
If you cant get the top layer off, you may be lucky and be able to peel it off, depending on how strong the glue is.
I have a house built in 1880, the walls arent the best in my bedroom. I am having fitted wardrobes and wondered what type of lining paper to use on the walls in the wardrobe to keep my clothes in good condition. Also which way do you hang the wallpaper. Ive never papered before.
@Vivien
You can use a good thickness lining paper such as 1400 gauge but if your worried about dampness you can help this by apply a “Thermal Liner”. You can hang lining paper wither horizontally or vertically, vertically may be easier if you haven’t papered before.
Adrian
I am planning to try to line a very old (1900) kitchen ceiling. my plan is to use 1400 gauge lining paper, followed by wallpaper. a few questions……1. is it clear which side do i put the paste on the lining paper? 2. more relevantly, do I cover all the surface with adhesive/solvite? I presume I do? and finally, 3. do I wallpaper at right angles to the lining paper? I thought this might be a good idea?
@cathal
In answer to your questions:
1. Imagine the lining paper is ordinary wallpaper as you unroll it, paste the back as you would wallpaper.
2. Cover all the surface with wallpaper paste making sure the edges are well covered, leave to soak until pliable, normally about 10 minutes.
3. You can wallpaper at right angles to the lining paper, yes. You don’t have to as the lining paper is normally wider than the wallpaper you joins shouldn’t sit on one another.
Hope that helps!
I’m mid-way through decorating my bedroom, I’ve stripped all of the wood chip and the layer of paint under the wallpaper is lumpy, some areas are plaster, some are paint. I’ve come to the conclusion of putting lining paper up, how would I tackle such a task considering there is flakey paint etc. still on the wall? What thickness wallpaper should I use? Many thanks!
@Liam
You need to remove any lose flaky paint, fill any holes. I would personally skim the walls with filler if they were really bad and rub them down. Lining paper will help give you a smooth surface but won’t hide all the blemishes so depending on how thick the remaining paint is on the wall you may still see it through the lining paper. You don’t say if you are just emulsioning over the walls or re-papering them. I would use 1400 gauge lining paper.
Useful links:
Decoration or Preparation? – http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=227
How to wallpaper – http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=1068
How to fill crack to walls and ceilings – http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=235
Wallpapering around a window or door reveal – http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=316
Decorating an interior room, and in which order – http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=32
Hope that helps
Thanks for the advice, the paint is a majority flaky. Polycell do an undercoat / smoothover fuller type paste, can I just put a layer of this on prior to wallpaper?
@Liam
If the majority of paint is flaky I would scrape as much off as possible, if you use the smoothover it may lift or drag the lose paint over the other paint leaving you with more lumps and bumps than you already have now. I have never used smoothover myself but yes I think you can probably just wallpaper over it.
Hope that helps.
Adrian have just papered a ceiling with 1400 lining paper with a view to emulsion over..the ceiling wasn in a bad condition but was painted..after hanging a few strips i noticed excessive air bubbbles formed..pulled paper back to smooth out but a lot of the paint came off on the back of the paper..applied more paste and rehung..everything seemed to be fine but after 24 hours parts of the paper had come away from the ceiling especially the edges..again spent a great deal of time repasteing the edges and places where the paper had dropped..also in one corner of the ceiling the actual plaster had come away with the paper also..after sorting all these problems left the paper for a further 48 hours to make sure everything was fine..visually everything looked great except for a few minor gaps at some edges..problem now is after the first coat of emulsion bubbles have appeared everywhere on the lining paper..is there anything can be done without having to take it all down
@Mark
It sounds to me as if the original paint on the ceiling was simply painted over the new plater so it is sitting on the top of the plaster so to speak, the new plaster should of had a mist coat first to seal it as described in my postHow to paint new plasterwork http://www.propertydecorating.co.uk/blog/?p=799
The only thing I would suggest is allow this coat of paint to fully dry before putting any more emulsion on the ceiling. It sounds like the moisture from the emulsion is soaking in the paper, paste and original paint and lifting it off. The paper and bubbles should reduce or completely go once it has dried out and the paper should tighten as long as it doesn’t pull the first coat of emulsion of the ceiling.
So, as I say wait for this coat to fully dry before attempting another coat. Let us know how it goes, good luck.
Hope that helps.
Great site; I’m learning a lot.
Here’s my situation: new client, has wallpaper EVERYWHERE–every seam has
popped (townhouse built 25 years ago-the paper was hung well but with bad prep work over builder’s flat sprayed on sheetrock)
I can strip and prep and beautify for painting, but she also wants estimate for possibly installing new paper.
Here’s my question: would hanging 1400 weight lining paper horizontally do the trick or is this hopeless for wallpaper.
Thanks for whatever advice you can give.
Dave
@Dave
It sounds like you are saying the walls were not prepared correctly, if you do the wallpapering for this job my advice would be prep the walls well and only line the walls if really needed, you can hang the paper either horizontally or vertically.
Hi just moved into a house where all the paint has come off the ceiling it looks like new plaster underneath but in some places the paint has stuck really well any advice on how to get this off as I’ve tried steaming it with no joy
@Alistair
Have you tried using a very thin wide scrapper, you may be able to get underneath the paint and lift it off.
Hi there
I have recently stripped my walls of woodchip wallpaper, as I am really not keen on it, only to find why it was put up! Very, very bumpy walls. My house is old, 1920’s I believe. I would love to have them skimmed but absolutely cannot afford it. I also really don’t like these textured, patterned wallpapers. I have 1700 grade lining paper up now but you can still see the imperfections as clear as day. Can you recommend anything that can keep my walls plain and free of textures or patterns without the cost of re-plaster and that won’t so obviously show these hideous bumps please? Many thanks.
@Nikki
1700 gauge lining paper should cover most things but as I say in this post “lining paper isn’t a magic paper that will make your walls imperfection free, it will give you a smoother, sounder base to work from” spending time filling and rubbing down is far better than just going for lining paper. You say you house is 1920’s, plaster has moved on a long way since then and many people like the ‘character’ of an older house and it’s imperfections.
Ideally having the walls plastered would be the ideal solution, but using something like Wallrock R300 Liner which is 1.2mm thick may help. This is expensive also unfortunately. I doubt it will remove all the bumps and lumps as any paper will follow the contours of the wall.
I’ve just ordered a sample of the wallrock kv600. Would I be able to put this on top of the lining paper or would it have to go on bare walls? Unfortunately my wall imperfections are due to having a damp-proof course sometime in the past, the skimming doesn’t match the original wall, therefore a line is showing half way up and also two dado rails have been removed from the walls leaving very uneven marks due to a botched plaster job. Even my light fittings have dodgy plastering above them all the way to the ceiling. I’m hoping this wallrock kv600 being 4mm thick may disguise a lot of sins as it’s still cheaper than re-plastering, but I do need to know if it can be put on the 1700 grade lining paper. Many thanks adrian.
@Nikki
I’ve not actually used wallrock Nikki, but as it is so thick and you have to use pre-mixed paste I would assume going onto bare walls is the best option. Best check with the supplier but my guess would be bare walls. It’s funny how dado and picture rails never get removed and made good well, bane of my life!
I always wonder why when damp course is done they don’t ever give the option to plaster over all the wall, it never blends in well!
Hope the information has helped.
Hi Adrian
While stripping wallpaper, we’ve found ragged areas of paint behind that are still adhering to the walls in many places, while in other areas it’s peeled away patchily. It’s a dreadful mess for prepping.
Two questions are: if we size the walls, will it help to hide the ragged edges between the paint patches and the areas of bare plaster? And what thickness of lining paper will disguise the ragged edges? We want to emulsion after lining. Grateful for your guidance, please.
@Ian
If the paint is thick, you will have to feather out the edge out with filler and rub down. If you size the walls it will not hide the ragged edges. For lining I would use 1400 gauge as a minimum.
Hi Adrian and thanks for your earlier advice.
I’ve come unstuck trying to wrap 1400 gauge lining paper into a window reveal.
The problem is that the LP doesn’t seem to have adhered to the wall close to where it turns into the reveal. Elsewhere on the wall and inside the reveal it’s stuck fine.
We’ve used Mangers Ready-mixed adhesive: compared to water-based adhesives that I’ve used before, it’s a lot thicker and doesnt seem to soak into the paper so readily. However, I’m confident that the paper was thoroughly and carefully pasted. But I gave the LP only 10 mins “soak” time and it felt very rigid when I bent it around the corner into the reveal. I’ve given 15+ mins soak time to subsequent lengths and not had this problem.
Could the problem be due to insufficient soak time? And what can I do now that the paper is stuck to the rest of the wall? We plan on emulsioning the LP.
@Ian
It sounds like a soaking time issue, I use water-based paste for lining paper and give it a good 10 minutes to soak so it’s good and pliable. I don’t think you will be able to get the edge to stick, could you take this drop of paper off and re-paper this section, or you could try cutting in a length of paper, remove the paper that hasn’t stuck, cut a piece of paper just bigger, paste and soak well, stick new paper in place and cut through both pieces of paper then remove the underneath paper and stick down the edge.
Hi, I have just lined my walls with 1400 lining paper and have just brought paste the wall wallpaper is it ok to paste over the top of the lining paper or would you recommend just pasting the wallpaper.
@Simon
As long as the lining paper is stuck well to the wall you should be OK. I sometimes paste the wallpaper as well.
I’ve just completed the painting of the skirting of my bedroom (undercoat only) and will start to apply the linning paper to the walls. When was carrying out the painting, i managed to slightly paint onto the walls and someone has told me that linning will not stick to paint and will eventually peel. Is this true??
@Steve
This is true, before you paper you should lightly scratch the surface the paint you have got on the wall. Any paint with a slight gloss or sheen to it needs rubbing down to key it before papering. Emulsion and matt paints tend to be OK.
Hi, I am in the middle of doing my small kitchen and have already plastered 2 very small walls, realising how difficult it is to get a nice smooth finish i ended up cross lining the walls with 1400 lining paper, my ceiling is also in a bad way after scrapping away stippling artex knowing how hard it is too skim can I cross line the ceiling or is the idea a fire hazard?,please any advice most welcome. thanks.
@Angela
Iv’e never seen a scrapped off artex ceiling that is good enough to put lining paper over. Plastering it is the best option if you could. You could try steaming the remaining artex off then lining the ceiling? Steaming it off is a messy job but if you can get back to the original ceiling it would be better.
I have put lining paper on the walls and left it for about 3 days I then put the wallpaper on top of the lining paper and the lining paper is lifting of the wall and is causing the paper to bubble
It sounds to me as if the lining paper has not adhered well to the wall. This could be for a number of reasons:
The walls had flaky paint on them and is now coming off the wall.
The walls had dirt/dust on them, such as filler dust.
The plaster is lifting off the wall (extreme case)
There wasn’t enough paste used or paste had dried out before lining paper was hung.
If I line the walls in preparation for wallpapering I always go over the lining paper with wallpaper paste to help seal it and to give the wallpaper extra paste to stick too.
In your case the only solution I can see would be re-line the walls before continuing with lining paper, lining paper is far cheaper than wallpaper.
I take it the wallpaper you have put up and left to dry hasn’t dried flat, sometimes bubbles appear but will go as the paper dries out fully.
In a corner wall of a bedroom where there was damp on ceiling downstairs a very small area of painted lining paper has lifted from the wall. About 2cm x .5cm has been knocked and come away. If we knock there is hollowness for about 5cm on one wall and 3 cm on the other to 8cm high. The corner sits behind a cupboard so for us is not very visible.
can we use pva to readhere the raised are and just fill the hole with polyfilla or smoothover or do we need to completely remove all wallpaper and repaper?
@JO
As the area you mention is not visible you can stick the knocked of lining paper with PVA. Ensure the leak is completely fixed and the wall is dried out, but also be aware that when you re-decorate the room it sounds as if the loose plaster will need attention. Another thing to look out for is mould, if the wall has been damp and is as you say behind a cupboard the air may not circulate and mould could form.
Hi. We have just stripped out lounge of woodchip back to the original coat of paint over the plaster. We have tried hanging lining paper but it is just coming straight off. We have put a layer if paste on first as a skim coat and then soaked the paper but 24 hours later and it’s hanging off the walls. It’s an 1850’s house not sure how to proceed? Thanks
@Lisa
Are you sure the paste is mixed correctly, to thin and runny will mean a weak mix, lining paper is fairly heavy so needs a good paste, is it a good quality paste, are the walls painted in a gloss paint, if they are you need to rub them down to remove the shine first. Ensure the lining paper is soaked for long enough, 10 minutes is an average before hanging.
Hi,
I would like to know if i can hang paste the wall wallpaper on top of lining paper painted with silk paint? The lining paper was hung around 8 years ago and still intact.
Also is it necessary to paste the wall or can i still paste the paste the wall wallpaper?
Thanks
@Tash
Yes you can wallpaper over silk painted lining paper, it may take time for the wallpaper to dry as the silk emulsion will hold back the moisture, just make sure the paper is well soaked otherwise you may get bubbles in the wallpaper.
I typically paste the wallpaper of ‘paste the wall’ wallpapers, but it is personal preference really.
How do you know which lining paper to use? We’ve just stripped the walls on our landing and some parts the plaster is fine, others have marks where the previous owners went a little overboard with a wallpaper scraper and scraped the plaster. I’m unsure which grade to use. We plan to emulsion the walls afterwards.
Also is lining paper harder to put up than wallpaper? I’ve seen several posts where people have problems with bubbles/lifting. I’m pretty good with wallpaper but have never put up lining paper before. Thanks in advance.
@Sal
I normally use 1400 gauge lining paper, it is normally OK for most jobs. Could you prep the walls and not line them? This is normally best is possible. Lining paper is the same as wallpaper to put up, in my opinion. Bubbling and lifting is often caused by bad or no prep work or not enough paste of the lining paper.
I, have a couple of air pockets behind the thermal-lining paper(on the window reveal) I have put on, I cant paste behind them, do I need to seal around the window to stop the air getting behind ? Or should I leave the edge unsealed? Kind regards Ian
@Ian
To deal with the bubbles, you can cut the liner with a sharp knife and use a small brush to get paste in behind it, then stick it down.
As for sealing the edge, it is personal choice really, you can but don’t have to.