wallpapering chimney breast in old house?

Peccavi could well be right about the condition of the walls you are hanging the paper on.If it is an old house and the plaster is lathe and plaster it would probably be dead in other words very dry and powdery.You can size the walls as much as you like and cross line it as good as you can,hang the finish paper as good as you can and have everythinf matching and it looks great when you have finished and walked away. Then maybe a day a week or a month after everything shrinks and it looks terrible. Whose to blame the decorator of course not the walls.
How do I know because a few years ago it happened to me.The customer rang me about 3 weeks after I had done the job demanding I redo the job or give them their money back.I am not a cowboy so I went to see them.Sure enough the pattern no longer matched and there were gaps where the joints had opened.How did I get out of it. Well one of the walls had been hacked off and replastered that one was still perfect. It was the other three original walls which were the bad ones.Once I explained it all to them and said if they wanted to take it further they were welcome to. I never heard a thing from them as they obviosly knew I was 100% right about it being the walls faut not my decorating of them. So those who say this guy is a cowboy without seeing the condition of the walls are talking rubbish. You already said he had done previous work for you and you were happy so how has he become a bad decorator overnight.

Dulux
January 2011

do not pay him i would,nt did he plumb it if not thats why it not matching and hes stretch the seams of the paper it should be butt to butt

painter / dercor
December 2010

He's a cowboy when it comes to papering.
I've had 3 old houses one back as far as being built in 1886 [our first house] for railway workers in West London and my wife hung verticle lined paper with no plumbline and I put a spirit level on it and it was minscual amount out so if he's saying it's because its an old house that's crap he's a crap paper hanger don't pay him. You will lose abit of pattern top and bottom but not up the wall he obviously hadn't matched it properly nothing to do with old houses and there should be no gaps walls not perfect even in new houses and a profesional decorator would hang wall paper even lining paper with no gaps. I good one you have to search for the joints.

Bob
September 2010

From decorating website: 'Hang the next length of paper loosely from the top and butt the pieces edge-to-edge, without overlaps. Match the pattern exactly before smoothing into position.' On every website the same guidance is given but my wallpaper doesnt have this occur even once.

esham
September 2010

the tradesman has done work for us before of which we have been satisfied and he is not cheap! Which is why we are so disappointed with this finish. The overall effect is ruined the paper is not even at the top and so the pattern is nowhere near matched. In a room where this is the focal point it is hard to ignore the mistakes, they are not in a place that cannot be seen easily. I will consider negotiating with him re his fee, and i am getting other decorators to give me their opinion. I did not say i would not pay for the work but when the decorator will not accept our concerns it makes you wonder where the customer care is.

emsham
September 2010

Pay him - you may expect too much - when papering a room with a chimney breast (or even without) I have never achieved an exact match at the end point - the technique is usually to try to achieve a good match all around and leave the "error" in the least noticeable and darkest corner.

The problem is caused by the plastering - just tiny variations in depth of plaster around the room all add together to make exact matching very difficult if not impossible. Worse in an old house where the lime plaster finish may be up to 20mm thick.

I have had missmatch by up to an inch - but in a dark corner with all the furniture put back and the curtains up - it never gets noticed unless specifically looked for.

If you're dissatisfied with the overall quality of the paperhanging (gaps and mismatch all over) then negotiate a lower price - it would be highly unethical for you to refuse to pay anything - the fact that he is not as good a tradesman as you hoped - is because you selected him (probably on a lower quote) it's a buyer beware situation.

Good luck...

Peccavi
September 2010