Types of Wallcoverings
by Jim Parodi
Jim Parodi Wallpapering
Bergen County New Jersey
914-534-3623
Jim is a member of:
- National Guild of Professional Paperhangers
- Bergen County Mastercraftsman Paint and Paper Assn.
- American Paperhanging Network
Almost all wallcoverings that are used in homes today fall into three categories and any or all of these may come in pre-pasted form:
- Fabric-backed vinyl
- Paper-backed vinyl
- Vinyl-coated paper
When shopping for wallcovering, you will be way ahead of the game if
you are familiar with these three material types and how they can best
be used to your advantage. Fabric-backed wallcoverings get an A+ for
durability, scrubbability, and their ability to hide the surface imperfections
that walls in older homes show.
The walls in kitchens, baths, and hallways take the most beating in a home—food and grease, steam from showers, and banging from suitcases or vacuum cleaners can quickly take their toll if the material chosen is not up to rugged standards. Choosing a fabric-backed vinyl is your best assurance that the installation will look great in 10, 15, even 20 years in areas that get wear and tear. When the time comes to remove this material, fabric-backed vinyl is the easiest to remove from a properly primed wall. Walls in older homes can have many problems that range from stress cracks and leaky areas, to multiple paint layers of questionable quality. Fabric-backed does the best job of handling these problems because it is flexible, it holds back a reasonable amount of moisture without staining, and it takes little effort to remove one strip for a quick repair. If fabric-backed vinyl is so wonderful how come it isn’t used all the time? Mainly because it’s harder to get delicate prints on this material, although manufacturers are getting better all the time at making really fashionable looks in fabric-backed.
Paper-backed vinyl is suitable for most areas in the home. It is scrubbable
and will handle general wear and tear almost as well as fabric-backed
vinyl. The only area that may be questionable is in a frequently used
shower area without an exhaust fan. Seams there may have a tendency
to show in a year or two in this kind of bathroom because the paper
backing wicks up water at the seam degrading the paste bond to the wall
or in some cases the paper and vinyl sheet can separate from each other
in a process known as delamination. If you want your new wallpaper to
look great for many years, use paper-backed vinyl in baths which are
used less frequently and have a good exhaust fan to remove shower steam
or baths that are just so large that steam never builds up in them.
Vinyl-coated paper is exactly that—a paper that is coated in some
way with a vinyl mist. Manufacturers tend to print intricate multi-hued
florals and deep colored backgrounds on this type of paper. This type
differs in construction from the other two types in that there is no
sheet of vinyl laminated to a backing. Without a backing, this wallcovering
type doesn’t do as good a job of covering up the wall’s inherent
surface imperfections. If walls are rough, blankstock paper lining can
be used to correct this weakness. In darker patterns—forest green,
navy or cranberry for example— the vinyl-coated type often has
an annoying tendency to burnish or become shiny in spots where you wipe
with a damp rag or where kids love to drag their hands when they go
up and down a stairway. You will notice that many juvenile papers are
vinyl coated, since manufacturers assume you will change the paper within
a few years. Do yourself a favor and don’t even consider this type
for areas that get wear and tear.
Shopping for wallpaper or wallcoverings---for our purposes the terms
are interchangeable---can be work. Most times the books are not arranged
by material type and you may have to be a sleuth to find out what you
are actually buying. Ignore all labels on rolls that say "scrubbable"
or "strippable" since they can be cruel jokes designed to
dupe the unsuspecting. (Manufacturers say that everything is scrubbable
and strippable and it’s simply not true.) If you are searching
for a fabric-backed material and the wallpaper store you are shopping
at doesn’t arrange their books by material type, start by looking
in the "Textures" section of the store.
Don’t expect the paper-backed vinyls to jump out at you either.
Pattern books can say "solid vinyl", "solid sheet vinyl",
or even "luxury vinyl" instead of making it easy for you by
saying "paper-backed vinyl." The vinyl-coated type usually
just says "vinyl wallcovering." Sometimes they don’t
say anything and you must rely on the abilities of the salesperson to
steer you straight. If you don’t have a knowledgeable salesperson
at hand and you want to know if you are looking at some sort of sheet
vinyl (fabric- or paper- backed), perform this simple test. Place a
medium damp sponge on the pattern side and let it sit there for 15-30
minutes. Then turn the paper over and look at the backside. If there
is any indication of warping or dampness on the other side, the sample
is not a sheet vinyl and I would not recommend it for a bath or kitchen.
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