Wall Papers

Wall papers for walls are back as one the popular wall finishing options, especially from the aesthetics point of view. In India, wall paper use for walls is mostly restricted to create a feature wall or aesthetically highlighting a certain area in the room. One rarely find wall paper being used a functional wall finish or as a replacement of paint for covering majority of the walls in a house. While functionally wall papers have the advantage of convenient & dry installation in a much shorter time as compared to paints, reservations regarding the durability of wall paper, especially when subjected to moisture & humidity, lead to restricted use of wall papers in India. The reservations & fears pertaining to wall papers basically stem from the performance of earlier wall paper products that were primarily made of paper and were not very durable. However, the new age wall papers , made of materials like vinyl, provide the required durability along with the beautiful aesthetics & convenience of installation.

Following attributes shall be evaluated while selecting wall papers :

  • Strength & Abrasion Resistance : In terms of durability & abrasion resistance, the strongest would be solid vinyl wall papers followed by fabric backed vinyl , paper backed vinyl and then paper wall papers.
  • Washability : Different categories of wall papers provide different level of washability & cleaning properties. Different grades of washability in wall papers can be categorised as
    • Low Washability / Clean with damp cloth : In this case washability is low to medium and the wallpaper shall be gently cleaned with damp cloth or sponge. Hard cleaning or soap will damage the surface
    • Washable : Washable grade wall paper have better washability & can be easily cleaned with damp cloth of sponge
    • Scrubbable wall papers have high washability and can be cleaned with soap water and detergent using sponge.
  • Pasting: The method of pasting or the pasting & sticking property of the wall paper matter if you are deciding to do the pasting yourself. However in Indian context, we have professional applicators available at affordable prices and hence its better to get the installation done by professional. Different grades of wall papers based on the pasting properties are
    • Prepasted : Prepasted wallpapers have pre applied adhesives on the back that get activated in contact with water. One can simply open the roll and start pasting on the wall by applying water
    • Unpasted : Such wallpapers need to be pasted using external adhesives meant for pasting wallpapers.
  • Removability : Ideally , you would not want the wall surface to get damaged if and when you decide to remove the wall paper from the wall. Different categories of wall papers have different level of difficulty / ease of removal.
    • ‘Peelable’ wall papers are need to be peeled off the wall using water. These wall papers may leave some the backing material on the wall that needs to be removed by scrubbing with soap and water.
    • ‘Strippable’ wall papers can be very removed without the use of water by simply stripping it off the wall. The walls are not damaged during the removal of strippable wall papers.
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