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Wallpaper Edging


RichardB

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Does anyone remember having to cut the edges off wallpaper before it could be hung ?

Way too old for me, Tinywifelette is asking ...

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Does anyone remember having to cut the edges off wallpaper before it could be hung ?

Way too old for me, Tinywifelette is asking ...

No - get your plumbline out!

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Does anyone remember having to cut the edges off wallpaper before it could be hung ?

Way too old for me, Tinywifelette is asking ...

I remember, a right job with scissors, but then they brought out a special gadget with cutting wheels a bit like a can opener with a slot you ran the edge through, set to the width of the edging. A bit of a knack to use but a lot quicker once you'd mastered it.

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I remember, a right job with scissors, but then they brought out a special gadget with cutting wheels a bit like a can opener with a slot you ran the edge through, set to the width of the edging. A bit of a knack to use but a lot quicker once you'd mastered it.

As I remember the border/edge had some sort of writing on it,

did it say 'trim here' or 'cut off' ?

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As I remember the border/edge had some sort of writing on it,

did it say 'trim here' or 'cut off' ?

She can't remember, we need a picture to remind her - she thinks "Trim Here"

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Does anyone remember having to cut the edges off wallpaper before it could be hung ?

Way too old for me, Tinywifelette is asking ...

I remember it well mainly due to my dad being a painter and decorator and the fact that my mum insisted he redecorate the entire house on a 2 year rolling programme.

Wallpaper has a standard width which is something silly like 22 and a half inches. Without the edging the ends of the roll could get damaged in storage so the strip provided a protective area.

The strip had to be cut off with decorators scissors which was a laborious task and the cut had to be dead straight and accurate if you were to get a good alignment with the adjacent roll when it was hung.

There was, as Bayleaf has stated, a number of available patent devices for removing the strip quickly and accurately but my dad and his mates, being professional decorators and having to do this task all day every day had their own "tricks of the trade" for doing this.

On later rolls before the strip was eventually phased out the strip was actually sort of "perforated" and could be knocked off or torn off in one piece which made the job a lot simpler.

There was writing on the strip and it could well have said "cut here" or "trim here" or even "remove strip before pasting" but often it would also include trade names and descriptions like "colouroll" or "Novamura"

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Crimping shears no good then ? he he

If you are skillful with them I am sure you could get the zig-zag crimped edges to line up with the matching crimps on the adjacent roll.

Better it would be a hell of a job to get both the crimps and the pattern on the wallpaper to line up though! :huh:

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If you are skillful with them I am sure you could get the zig-zag crimped edges to line up with the matching crimps on the adjacent roll.

Better it would be a hell of a job to get both the crimps and the pattern on the wallpaper to line up though! :huh:

What some people did,

was to trim one edge only and overlap the border when hanging.

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But the fun part was rolling the strips up (like a roll of selotape) quite tightly, then carefully pushing out the center, getting wider, a bit at a time, to make a long cone shape.

You had to try to get yours longer than the others before the whole thing came apart. Hours of free fun for us kids.

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What some people did,

was to trim one edge only and overlap the border when hanging.

That would look really rubbish Steve.

The double thickness of wallpaper where the clean edge of one length overlapped the untrimmed edge of the adjacent one would lead to a half inch wide raised vertical ridge from ceiling to skirting board every 22 inches or so across the wall.

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But the fun part was rolling the strips up (like a roll of selotape) quite tightly, then carefully pushing out the center, getting wider, a bit at a time, to make a long cone shape.

You had to try to get yours longer than the others before the whole thing came apart. Hours of free fun for us kids.

Yes vox,

With easy access to lots of these paper strips from my dad we regularly used to play that game.

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That would look really rubbish Steve.

The double thickness of wallpaper where the clean edge of one length overlapped the untrimmed edge of the adjacent one would lead to a half inch wide raised vertical ridge from ceiling to skirting board every 22 inches or so across the wall.

When I was a kid I thought that all wallpapered rooms had those raised in relief vertical strips all around.

You have to remember that very few homes possessed a pair of paper-hanging shears and that the strips were preferable to last years wallpaper showing through the butt-joints when you'd trimmed the paper with a pair of granny's nail scissors.

I can remember my mother hired one of those twin-wheeled jobs from Blaskeys, but it was so blunt she went back to the scissors.

HD

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Lap joint and butt joint.

Being a professional, your dad obviously did it right Dave, but I think most ordinary people did those sort of jobs themselves when I was a kid,

and what was considered good enough back then probably wouldn't be acceptable nowadays.

Am I right in saying that what we now know as "emulsion paint" was fairly new in the early 50's.

I remember my grandad using "distemper" in their spare bedroom.

The outhouse, coal-place etc at our new house in Hackenthorpe were done in it as well but we had "emulsion paint" in the proper rooms.

I think distemper was just water to which you added a coloured, chalk-like, powder. You still uncover it from time to time in old houses.

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Being a professional, your dad obviously did it right Dave, but I think most ordinary people did those sort of jobs themselves when I was a kid,

and what was considered good enough back then probably wouldn't be acceptable nowadays.

Am I right in saying that what we now know as "emulsion paint" was fairly new in the early 50's.

I remember my grandad using "distemper" in their spare bedroom.

The outhouse, coal-place etc at our new house in Hackenthorpe were done in it as well but we had "emulsion paint" in the proper rooms.

I think distemper was just water to which you added a coloured, chalk-like, powder. You still uncover it from time to time in old houses.

Wife mentioned distemper, I assumed she was off her trolly but it appears not.

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Being a professional, your dad obviously did it right Dave, but I think most ordinary people did those sort of jobs themselves when I was a kid,

and what was considered good enough back then probably wouldn't be acceptable nowadays.

Am I right in saying that what we now know as "emulsion paint" was fairly new in the early 50's.

I remember my grandad using "distemper" in their spare bedroom.

The outhouse, coal-place etc at our new house in Hackenthorpe were done in it as well but we had "emulsion paint" in the proper rooms.

I think distemper was just water to which you added a coloured, chalk-like, powder. You still uncover it from time to time in old houses.

Some coatings, such as casein-bound distempers, have little or no organic binder and may prove particularly difficult to remove safely. In these cases water and small tools may prove to be the only effective method of paint removal. Other techniques such as the use of heat and steam generally lack sufficient control for them to be considered for use on delicate historic fabric. It must also be accepted that no matter how desirable, in some cases paint removal is neither practical nor feasible.

Source

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Hints On Distemper.

There are many excellent brands of prepared distemper on the

market in either powder or paste form, which only require the addition

of water to be ready for use. A pound packet can usually be

obtained for sixpence, and as this makes sufficient wash to cover

a bout 70 sq. ft. it is hardly worth while to make your own. Instructions

for the mixing of ready prepared distemper are usually printed

on the carton and these should be carried out to the letter.

If, however, the home decorator wishes to prepare the distemper

himself, here is a good recipe which will make enough white distemper

to cover a ceiling measuring 10 X 8 ft. (i.e, 80 sq. ft. ). For larger

ceilings increase the ingredients in proportion.

Break 7 lbs. of whitening into small lumps, place them in a clean

bucket, adding enough cold water to cover the powder. Leave the

mixture for twelve hours ; then pour off the water and knead the

preparation until it is quite smooth and devoid of lumps.

Add ½ oz. of liquid ultramarine blue and stir this in. Place 1¾ lbs. of

powdered size into a saucepan, adding as much water as is recommended

by the makers. Heat this over a low flame on a gas stove,

gently stirring the liquid until all the size has dissolved. Pour this

into the bucket with the whitening, and mix thoroughly by stirring

with a stick. Strain through muslin to remove all lumps.

Cover the bucket to exclude dust, and put it in a cool place

stand for twelve hours until it jellifies. Then stir in enough water

make the distemper workable.

This home-made wash is also an excellent medium for distempering

outbuildings, cellars, etc.

From 'The Practical Handyman' - Odhams Press Ltd.

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Lap joint and butt joint.

Dad always prefered the butt joint for its neatness.

However the description of how to do a neat lap joint may explain why he always said you should start from the furthest corner from the door.

The attachment indicates that this would hide the laps, I thought it would be because the the final "match" would then be at the door behind you where any imperfections in allignment wouldn't be as noticable.

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Being a professional, your dad obviously did it right Dave, but I think most ordinary people did those sort of jobs themselves when I was a kid,

and what was considered good enough back then probably wouldn't be acceptable nowadays.

It was funnt really.

Dad insisted on doing but joints for neatness but at the time we lived in our asbestos prefab and the asbestos panels were held together by an asbestos strip about 4" wide on both the external and internal walls. The wallpaper had to go oer these regularly spaced vertical strips and so it ended up looking like some very wide and very thick but joints anyway.

Further to this, with my mum insisting on redecoration of the entire asbestos prefab on a regular basis I am convinced all that wallpaper stripping could have been very detrimental to our health.

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Am I right in saying that what we now know as "emulsion paint" was fairly new in the early 50's.

I remember my grandad using "distemper" in their spare bedroom.

The outhouse, coal-place etc at our new house in Hackenthorpe were done in it as well but we had "emulsion paint" in the proper rooms.

I think distemper was just water to which you added a coloured, chalk-like, powder. You still uncover it from time to time in old houses.

I'm getting Deva vu now vox, I am sure we have discussed distemper on here somewhere before. :unsure:

But yes you are correct.

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Some coatings, such as casein-bound distempers, have little or no organic binder and may prove particularly difficult to remove safely. In these cases water and small tools may prove to be the only effective method of paint removal. Other techniques such as the use of heat and steam generally lack sufficient control for them to be considered for use on delicate historic fabric. It must also be accepted that no matter how desirable, in some cases paint removal is neither practical nor feasible.

Source

Dad only ever seemed to put distemper up, I can't remember him ever being asked to strip it off or remove it.

The main reason for this is that distemper was mainly used on poor quality wall surfaces in coal houses, out houses, unplastered rooms, cellars and the like to make them look "clean". In later years with modernisation it is likely that these distempered walls would have been plastered to a smooth finish to take a modern attractive decoration rather than being merelt overpainted with another coat of something. To replaster you could hammer and chisel a bit to get a good "key" onto the wall for the new plaster coat making removal of the last traces of distemper unneccesary.

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Dad only ever seemed to put distemper up, I can't remember him ever being asked to strip it off or remove it.

The main reason for this is that distemper was mainly used on poor quality wall surfaces in coal houses, out houses, unplastered rooms, cellars and the like to make them look "clean". In later years with modernisation it is likely that these distempered walls would have been plastered to a smooth finish to take a modern attractive decoration rather than being merelt overpainted with another coat of something. To replaster you could hammer and chisel a bit to get a good "key" onto the wall for the new plaster coat making removal of the last traces of distemper unneccesary.

I don't think emulsion paints really came in to common use until the early 60's. Cellar-heads and outside toilets etc were normally "whitewashed" with something called whiting. Distemper (normally coloured) was certainly in general use around our neck of the woods for bedroom walls, landings etc.

Downstairs rooms would be wallpapered and kitchen walls would be finished in gloss paint if you couldn't afford tiles.

Something else that was in vogue for kitchens was a sort of linoleum with a tile pattern that was stuck to the lower half of the wall. Our kitchen was "tiled" all over in large coloured glass panels called something like "Vitrolite"

Over the years most of them fell off and shattered.

HD

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I don't think emulsion paints really came in to common use until the early 60's. Cellar-heads and outside toilets etc were normally "whitewashed" with something called whiting. Distemper (normally coloured) was certainly in general use around our neck of the woods for bedroom walls, landings

HD

Emulsion paints were around in the 1950's but the early ones were not popular because they tended to dry out unevenly leaving a "patchy" finish in which the colour was not of an even tint so it looked worse than distemper.

It wasn't until the 1960's that good quality water based emulsion paints like those made by Crown, Dulux and Johnstone became available and their popularity took off.

Being water based instead of oil based like gloss paints was a big advantage.

Firstly, as the paint dried there was less oil to evaporate so the smell of it was much less overpowering (low odour paint)

Secondly, being water based, brushes could be washed out completely after use in warm soapy water. Unlike gloss oil based paints where the brushes had to be washed out with turpentine (turps) or some other spirit based substitute. It was difficult to get the brushes fully clean without using loads of the stuff and they still went stiff when they dried out. I'm sure the trick was to store brushes after using turps in a jar of solvent to stop them drying out and going hard.

Whiting in whitewash beared more of a connection to the stuff used to mark out sports fields than to paint. It went on very thick and if the poor quality wall it was on suffered from damp (as it frequently did) the whiting would start to peel off and big thick pieces.

However, on a poor quality unplastered wall it was excellent at hiding the problems and giving that nice clean finish. The whitwash acted as a "binder" for any muck and dust on the wall so that the wall appeared clean and free of loose particles.

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