How to glue fiberglass

Recommendation points

• What is required for gluing fiberglass
• Preparation of walls and ceilings
• Wallpaper gluing procedure
• The final stage is painting

In today’s review, we will tell you how to glue fiberglass. This is a simple process, but it requires the utmost care and precision from you, you should choose the right tools and materials, and prepare carefully. If you have experience in gluing ordinary wallpaper, then it will not be difficult for you. And so, about everything in order.

Glass fiber – a finishing material with sufficient decorative effect, reminiscent of fiberglass fabric. They are made by weaving from glass threads, after which they are impregnated with special compounds. As a rule, the walls are painted after pasting with fiberglass. When buying fiberglass, do not forget to purchase not only special glue, but also protective equipment.

What is required for gluing fiberglass

To paste this type of wallpaper, you not only need the necessary tools, but first of all you will have to ensure your own safety. The fiber that makes up the glass wallpaper can crumble into microscopic particles, which, in turn, irritate unprotected skin and mucous membranes. When cutting and working with wallpaper, as well as in the case of pasting the ceiling, these particles can penetrate into the organs of vision and respiration.

Before working with fiberglass, you should prepare:

• clothing that covers open areas of the body – with long sleeves and trousers;
• gloves;
• when cutting rolls and gluing wallpaper – goggles and a respirator.

Tools will be required directly for work:

1. Measuring and marking tools:
   • level (plumb line);
   • ruler (tape measure);
   • painting cord;
   • pencil, marker.
2. Spatulas:
   • wide plastic – for smoothing strips of wallpaper;
   • wide metal – convenient for cutting off excess wallpaper.
3. Rollers:
   • for applying primer, glue – wide, fur-coated, equipped with a long handle;
   • for applying glue in corner areas – corner (as an option – a brush);
   • for smoothing stripes – wide;
   • for smoothing joints – narrow;
   • for coloring wallpaper – wide (you can use a spray gun).
4. Stock cutter and roll cutter.
5. Containers for glue and water.
6. Sponges for removing excess glue and for wetting the wallpaper surface.
7. Sandpaper, scraper and brush for cleaning wall and ceiling surfaces.
8. Ladder.

For gluing, a special glue is used, since conventional compositions are not suitable for such work – glass wallpapers are too heavy for them. In most cases, the manufacturer applies the glue in the form of a dry mix, complete with fiberglass.

In cases where the purchase of a dry mixture for some reason is impossible, then a ready-made composition is purchased that does not require dilution, but such glue is quite expensive. There are also universal adhesives on the market, but it is still preferable to use special compositions designed for wallpaper of specific brands..

Preparation of a solution from a dry mixture is carried out according to the instructions and is reduced to a slow dilution of the powder with water, after which the composition is stirred to prevent the formation of lumps. After that, the glue must stand to swell.

It will be ready for use after a short time, ranging from ten minutes to one hour. From 100-200 grams of dry mix, three to five liters of ready-made glue are obtained. The consumption of glue is on average about a liter for every three to six square meters of surface.

Preparation of walls and ceilings

Before gluing glass wallpaper, you should thoroughly clean the surface of the walls or ceiling from old wallpaper or plaster, and eliminate all irregularities. Cracks, holes and potholes can be repaired with plaster, minor defects and roughness can be eliminated with putty.

After that, you need to do the final sanding with sandpaper or a scraper. It is advisable to treat the walls and ceiling with a fungicidal composition to prevent mold..

The next stage of surface preparation is priming. This operation will increase the adhesion of the surface and permanently remove dust from it. As a result, the adhesion of wallpaper glue to walls or ceilings will increase significantly.

For these purposes, both a deep penetration primer and highly diluted wallpaper glue (at a concentration of 50 grams of dry mixture per five liters of water) are suitable. Priming is done with a paint roller, the applied layer should be thin. Each wall or ceiling must be rolled two to three times, after which the layers of primer must be absorbed and dry.

There is no need to worry if after all these operations there are slight irregularities or scratches on the wall – the texture of the wallpaper will hide these defects. On the other hand, wallpaper will not cope with influxes, therefore, for the presence of such irregularities in the wall, you need to check especially carefully.

Wallpaper gluing procedure

Before doing the main work, you need to clearly understand a number of conditions put forward for gluing fiberglass.

Existing restrictions:

1. Work must be carried out in a draft-free room.
2. Air temperature – in the range from +18 to +25 degrees Celsius.
3. Air humidity – maximum 70%.
4. Avoid direct sunlight on freshly pasted wallpaper as this may cause bubbles.
5. It is not recommended to glue wallpaper in bathrooms in areas near water sources.
6. After completion of the work, you need to clean the air using a water filter to remove fine glass fractions. In this case, simple ventilation is unlikely to be effective..

So let’s get to work. Before gluing the fiberglass, the roll is cut out. It is impractical to immediately cut the entire roll into strips, since differences in wall heights and other possible problems that may arise during operation should be taken into account. You need to measure a separate canvas, then cut it off with a margin of at least 10 centimeters.

Small allowances are left when cutting the roll in order to accurately align the pattern in the future. The front and back sides of the wallpaper are similar enough, therefore, in order not to confuse them, the back side is marked by the manufacturing company with a special gray or blue stripe..

Attention! The adhesive should only be applied to the wall surface, not to the wallpaper..

Immediately, carefully monitor the uniform and accurate application of the glue layer, since bubbles and dips in the absence or excessive amount in certain areas will become visible only later, at the stage of painting the wallpaper.

The first strip is measured for verticality using a plumb line or level. After the strip is applied to the adhesive, wrinkles and air bubbles are removed with a spatula. Leveling is performed from the center of the strip to the edges. Gluing wallpaper in the corners must be done with pre-wetting the strip.

After gluing the strip with a paper knife, the excess is cut off in height. The material should be fixed with a spatula. The rest of the stripes are aligned with the first. Seams are rolled with a roller.

Attention! The next canvas is applied to the first one only end-to-end, gluing with an overlap is excluded.

A day or two after gluing, you need to inspect the wallpaper for the formation of bubbles. The latter can be filled with glue using a syringe and then gently smoothed out. Detached joints are removed with PVA pencil glue, followed by rolling with a roller.

The final stage is painting

The work on wallpapering is not finished – they still need to be painted. Since glass fiber absorbs paint very well, they must first be primed with diluted glue. Thus, you can achieve not only a reduction in paint consumption, but also an improvement in the strength of the coating itself..

You need to start painting the wallpaper only after the glue has completely dried – you should wait at least a day, and for reinsurance, all three days. In this case, you need to make sure that the wallpaper is glued properly. Painting is carried out in two layers, the interval between application of which should be at least 12 hours.

Water-dispersion paint is excellently applied to fiberglass wallpaper. If it is necessary to achieve a special resistance of the painted surface to abrasion and if there is a threat of frequent contamination, for example, in the kitchen, acrylic or polyurethane paints are used.

The dyeing process is quite standard; both a fur roller and a spray bottle can be used as a tool. In this case, the applied layer should be controlled – it should not be too thick. Normal paint consumption per square meter of wallpaper is within half a liter.

In the future, fiberglass, if it is necessary to change the color or if the freshness of their appearance is lost, you can safely repaint up to two dozen times. At the same time, each new layer of paint will more and more smooth the surface texture of the wallpaper..