When disgusting bedbugs are found in an apartment, it is always very unpleasant. Uninvited guests often settle in hard-to-reach places, for example, under peeling wallpaper. Having noticed parasites there, you need to understand that conventional treatment will be ineffective. The best way to redecorate is to add bedbug repellent to your wallpaper glue.
Why do bedbugs appear in the house?
Bedbugs can enter an apartment in various ways. Most often, they enter houses with random guests, pets, crawl over neighbors, or are brought with luggage by household members themselves from travel or business trips. Sometimes apartment residents know about the existence of this problem, but do not take any measures to destroy insects, which can harm other residents of an apartment building.
The most likely reasons for the appearance of bedbugs in a home are:
Unsanitary condition of the apartment
Despite the fact that bedbugs are not interested in the presence of garbage in a bin, crumbs left on the table or a dirty floor, most likely they will prefer to live in a home with unsanitary conditions.
The carelessness of people living in an apartment contributes to the appearance and reproduction of bedbugs in it. Among two identical apartments, insects are most likely to choose an untidy home. Therefore, before looking for the cause of the appearance of parasites in your apartment, pay attention to its sanitary and hygienic condition.
The neighbors are dirty
You keep your apartment perfectly clean, but you still notice the presence of bedbugs in it. Of course, you are asking a reasonable question: where do they come from in your home? Perhaps it's all about your neighbors. If they are not clean and their apartment is infested with bedbugs, then they will certainly crawl into neighboring apartments. In this case, fighting them is pointless, since they will still crawl towards you.
Getting into the apartment along with other things and objects
Insects can get into the apartment along with other objects. By purchasing used furniture or appliances, you increase the risk of introducing pests into your home. You cannot know in what sanitary conditions these items were previously.
With luggage from long trips
When returning from a vacation or business trip, you can unnoticed and bring home several parasites along with the rest of your luggage. At home, insects get out of suitcases, then begin to settle in a new place and quietly reproduce. To prevent this, all clothes must be washed upon return and bags must be treated with anti-bedbug spray.
Introduction of parasites by other people or pets
Anyone can become a carrier of insects. This could be the household members themselves, their occasional guests, or workers called to provide any services. Bedbugs can hide in the folds of your clothing, or they can jump on you while traveling on public transport. In the same way, parasites can jump on a pet running near a garbage container.
When moving into a new home
When buying an apartment on the secondary market, there is a risk of finding a whole colony of bedbugs in it that you inherited from your ex. After all, no one guarantees that the previous residents kept the apartment clean.
Special signs????
When a room is infested with bed bugs, you can navigate by one of the manifestations of the parasites. This is due to the fact that each of the signs differs from traces of contact with mosquitoes, fleas, lice and other blood-sucking insects
However, sometimes you need confirmation of your own fears, so pay attention to other signs
Characteristic bites
This is the main sign of bedbugs in an apartment, since it can be noticed immediately after an object is infested. For comparison, other manifestations become visible only after some time. Contact with bed bugs produces red spots of varying sizes. Some people do not have such a symptom; only invisible red dots remain on the body.
Bedbug bites can be easily distinguished from the bites of other insects.
Other symptoms of bed bug bites:
- itching, and its intensity is quite high, and scratching occurs on the body;
- swelling, as a result of which bumps are found in the areas where the bites appeared, but without compaction inside, the intensity of the swelling depends on the sensitivity of the body;
- the size of the red spots varies from 0.5 to 5 cm, and the tracks of the bedbugs form a straight line - a path, since the parasite makes several punctures per meal, moving forward every few centimeters.
Other symptoms appear less frequently: pain, fever, headache, chills.
Chitin shells
There are many signs of bedbugs appearing in an apartment, but in second place is the detection of husks, which are shed by the larvae after each molt. A young individual of the pest changes its shell up to 4 times. This happens at different intervals - from 7 to 14 days or more, depending on environmental conditions. The shell can be seen on the floor or other surfaces, as it is distinguished by its light brown color. Moreover, the outer covers are transparent.
Chitinous shells shed by bedbugs during molting
Clutches of eggs
A female bedbug lays up to 5 eggs per day. To provide the offspring with protection, she leaves them not only in the nest, but also in different parts of the room. If one clutch is destroyed, for example by human discovery, the remaining eggs remain intact. The offspring at this stage look like small white formations - up to 1.5 cm in length. On one side there is a lid that allows insects to escape from the shell when necessary.
Clutches of bedbug eggs: not a single infected object can do without them
Specific smell
If bed parasites have only recently appeared, this sign is absent. The smell is felt when the number of pest colonies increases to several hundred individuals. This is a consequence of the vital activity of parasites. They leave excrement and secrete other secretory fluids in minimal quantities, but as the number of insects increases, a large amount of excrement accumulates in the apartment, which contributes to the appearance of a smell reminiscent of old cognac. If you stay in the room for a long time, you won’t feel it.
The specific smell of bed bugs is a guarantee that there are insects in the apartment
Blood stains
Such signs of bedbugs are also detected if there are a lot of parasites at home. Dots or small specks of blood appear on the bed if a person accidentally crushes the parasite in a dream. This occurs due to an increase in the volume of the insect’s body after eating. As a result, the parasite is much easier to kill. His body becomes more pliable and breaks easily. For comparison, in a hungry state it is more difficult to destroy a pest mechanically.
Blood stains from squashed bedbugs remain on the bed
Traces of bedbugs on the wallpaper
If red spots remain on the bed linen, then on the finishing materials only stains from excrement, as well as other secretory fluids of parasites, appear to a greater extent. You can see traces of a bug on the wallpaper when the insects have built a nest in the area where the material has moved away from the wall. Parasites penetrate under any covering.
In particularly infested areas, traces of bedbugs are even present on walls and wallpaper.
Vital signs
When parasites colonize an apartment, black dots are found on different surfaces, and more often in areas where nests are located. This is parasite excrement. Bed bugs feed on blood, which is why the stool turns dark. The blackheads are small in size, which is why they resemble poppy seeds. The larger the pest nest is, the more things deteriorate in the area where it is located.
If furniture is infested with bedbugs, it is practically beyond repair.
Where do bedbugs usually live?
So you know where cockroaches can come from in an apartment. Now we’ll tell you where they most often like to hide. Insects prefer dark and hard-to-reach places that people usually don’t look into. First of all, they love to settle in bedrooms. Bed bugs can be found in bedding, pillows, blankets and inside mattresses.
Also, the favorite habitats of these blood-sucking parasites are the gaps between the wall and the baseboard, cracks in the floors and furniture. You can even find bedbugs inside switches and sockets. If there are small children in the apartment, then insects can live in children's toys.
Bedbugs often hide under parquet flooring, under laminate flooring and, of course, under wallpaper.
In the latter case, special products that are added to wallpaper glue when gluing walls will help get rid of bloodsuckers that have settled under the surface of the wallpaper.
What to add to glue?
On the shelves of specialized stores today there is a wide range of chemicals that provide effective disposal of blood-sucking insects. They can be added to wallpaper glue to rid the walls of bedbugs and prevent their further appearance. Among such drugs, there are several that are the most popular.
Chlorophos
Among the components of this means for killing bedbugs there are very toxic substances. In this regard, to store it, it is necessary to use an airtight container, which is recommended to be kept out of the reach of children and pets.
This product is added to wallpaper glue in a ratio of 1:4. When using this chemical, one must not forget about precautions. That is why during repairs it is recommended to work in a gauze bandage, safety glasses, rubber gloves and special protective clothing. After the glue has completely dried, you should ventilate the room by opening the windows.
Karbofos
This is a highly effective product, but it also has some disadvantages. One of them is the presence of a very unpleasant and pronounced odor. To one liter of wallpaper glue you need to add 7 grams of Karbofos and mix everything thoroughly. Then you can move on to wallpapering.
Upon completion of work, it is necessary to open the windows for 4–5 hours to ventilate the room. It is imperative to get rid of the clothes and gloves in which the work was performed by throwing them away.
Mikrofos
This product is intended for professional use only. It does not harm human health and has low toxicity. The chemical provides effective assistance in the destruction of such unpleasant insects as bedbugs, cockroaches and ants. Microfos has a fairly long shelf life. A huge advantage of the drug is that its effect lasts for 6 months.
The chemical and bedbug glue are mixed in a ratio of 1:20. After using the product, no unsightly marks remain on the wallpaper, which is another undeniable advantage of microphos.
Creation of unsuitable climatic conditions
These insects are distinguished by their tenacity. When it gets cold in the house, bedbugs decide to postpone reproduction for a more opportune time - and go into suspended animation. They can spend about a year in a state of hibernation. And as soon as temperature conditions improve, the bloodsuckers will immediately awaken from sleep and begin to reproduce with the same intensity.
Freezing. Exposure to low temperatures in order to eliminate creeping reptiles is relevant for the northern regions of the country. To kill linen insects, you need to freeze them for at least two days. Eggs, larvae and adults die when the air temperature remains at −30°C for a long time. At the same time, adults and nymphs die faster, and eggs, due to the presence of a dense shell, die more slowly. If you have such an opportunity, remove furniture and personal belongings from the house and leave them in the cold for a couple of days. If the manipulation does not harm the heating system, open the windows wide and let the house freeze. However, in their reviews, users do not rank this method among the effective ones due to difficulties with implementation. Heat. In the heat, bedbugs die faster. But for this you need to create real desert heat so that the air temperature is about 50°C. You can use a heat gun for this purpose. But renting such equipment costs money. You can process things in an automatic dryer. But this will not save furniture, carpets, baseboards and niches under windows from bedbugs. Another option for influencing nests is dousing them with boiling water. But where is the guarantee that you have found all the bedbug hiding places?
Essential components help fight bedbugs just as well as flora representatives. An oily liquid with a pronounced and extremely unpleasant aroma of lavender or rosemary for a bloodsucker will become a strong irritant for an uninvited guest. Essential oils of nettle and tea tree are no less effective. Therefore, choose the scent that you find most pleasant.
The fact remains: folk methods alone will not fix the problem. Especially if the house is infested with pests. Various measures must be used in combination. New generation modern insecticides are the best options available today. And the means, tested by time and generations, will consolidate the result and protect the house from repeated occupation by bedbugs.
Wall preparation process
The more thoroughly the room is treated, the better results you can achieve when removing bedbugs from your home. It is recommended to begin disinfection work by treating the ceiling and wall surfaces. Before gluing wallpaper to the walls, you need to prepare them thoroughly.
Before treating the walls, you need to clear them of the old layer of wallpaper and remove them immediately. Next, you need to take a suitable container and prepare a solution in it, with which you will treat the walls before gluing them. To prepare the solution you will need the following components:
- Laundry soap 72% - piece;
- Soda – 1 teaspoon;
- Hot water – 1 liter.
Grate a bar of soap, fill it with hot water, and then add soda. All ingredients must be mixed well and left for about half an hour until the mixture acquires a uniform consistency. When the solution is ready, you need to thoroughly treat the surface of the walls and other places where bedbugs like to accumulate.
Starch-based composition and mixed appearance
Pour the starch mixture into hot water in a thin stream
Starch-based glue at home is made in a similar way to the flour type. Proportions for its preparation: 1 to 10, i.e. To prepare 1 liter of paste you will need 100 g of potato or corn starch.
You can improve the composition by mixing flour and starch. This paste is prepared by brewing:
- in a small bowl, mix 1 cup flour and 2 tablespoons starch;
- boil 2.5 liters of water and leave on low heat;
- when the water in the pan has boiled, pour cold water in a thin stream into the bowl with starch and flour and mix thoroughly;
- Pour hot water into the resulting mixture, stirring constantly, let it boil and remove from heat;
- After cooling, the composition must be strained. For more information about cooking, watch this video:
Many people believe that the paste must be boiled. This recipe does not require boiling the mixture, you just need to bring it to a boil and immediately remove from heat.
Before pasting the walls, be sure to prepare the necessary tools and read the tips on how to properly glue wallpaper.
What to add to wallpaper glue against bedbugs during redecoration
The appearance of bedbugs in an apartment is not the most pleasant event. To live and reproduce, bedbugs find hard-to-reach places and settle in them. They hide in places inaccessible to light, in cracks in the walls, in the joints of wallpaper, carpets, books, in furniture, often in soft furniture such as sofas, beds and mattresses. Bed bugs are active most often at night, but sometimes during daylight hours. The presence of unwanted insects can cause allergies or become a source of various infections. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly fight them. If pests appear behind peeling wallpaper, in the joints, under the wallpaper, then simple surface treatment of the wallpaper will not bring results. The best way is to make cosmetic repairs by re-gluing the wallpaper. The answer to the question “What to add to wallpaper glue against bedbugs?” you can find in this article.
Insect traps
Traps for parasites can be purchased or homemade. The latter can easily be double-sided tape and a vacuum cleaner. The first one is glued to the bed and the bedside tables next to it. After a few days, the tape will be littered with stuck insects. This method will work if the bedbugs have not yet settled under the mattress.
As for the vacuum cleaner, everything is even simpler - carefully go over upholstered furniture, mattresses, carpets, clothes and flooring. Throw the garbage into a bag, tie it tightly and take it to the trash. The bag or container itself must be washed in water and laundry soap. The more often such cleaning is performed, the fewer bedbugs will remain alive.
Preparing walls for wallpapering
Removing unwanted insects largely depends on how thoroughly you treat the room. It is recommended to start disinfection by treating the walls and ceiling. Before re-pasting the wallpaper, we prepare the walls. Initially, you need to get rid of the old wallpaper, remove it from the wall and take it out of the room as quickly as possible. Then dilute the solution for treating the walls in a basin. To do this you will need:
- one alkaline 72% laundry soap,
- 1 teaspoon of soda,
- 1 liter of hot water.
Grate the soap on a coarse grater and fill it with hot water, then add soda. Mix everything and leave for 20-30 minutes until the mass becomes homogeneous. With this solution you need to thoroughly wipe the walls, ceiling and all places where bedbugs have been found to accumulate.
Chemicals for DIY use
On the shelves of specialized stores there is a large selection of chemicals for bedbugs. You can choose a preparation that is suitable for you, which can be mixed with wallpaper glue for prevention or disinfection against pests during repairs. Using chemical insecticides is a very effective method for eliminating unwanted insects in your home yourself.
What can be added to wallpaper glue against bedbugs:
- Chlorophos. The composition contains toxic substances, so the insecticide must be stored in a tightly closed container, in a place where there is no access for children and animals. Add this poison to the glue in a ratio of 1:4. When using chlorophos, you must not forget about your own safety. Only after the glue has completely dried, so that the wallpaper does not peel off, should you open the windows for ventilation. Be sure to work in specialized clothing, gloves and a gauze mask.
- Karbofos. The product is quite effective, but has its drawbacks: it has an unpleasant, pungent odor. Dilute with glue in a ratio of 7 grams per 1 liter. Mix thoroughly and you can start gluing the wallpaper. After finishing work, it is worth ventilating the room for 4-6 hours. The clothes and gloves in which the work was carried out should be thrown away.
- Mikrofos. The product is odorless and does not harm human health in any way, since the insecticide has a low level of toxicity. The drug can be used to combat not only bedbugs, but also ants and cockroaches. It is recommended to mix the product with glue in a ratio of 1:20. The drug does not leave marks on the wallpaper.
- Tetrix. Another very effective remedy. It has a liquid consistency and is sold in a 250 ml jar. You can buy Tetrix in a specialized store or in a veterinary store. Use 100 ml of product per 1 liter of glue. The solution has an unpleasant odor.
When working with your favorite drug, do not forget about basic safety precautions: work in a special suit and gloves, which you need to throw away after use, a respirator or a mask made of gauze and cotton wool. Keep children and animals out of the room, as some products are toxic. After the glue has completely dried, it is worth opening the windows for 2-5 hours for ventilation. One of the big disadvantages is that when using an insecticidal agent, stains may remain on the wallpaper, but such situations happen quite rarely.
Starch paste solution: mixed type
Starch-based wallpaper glue is made in the same way as flour glue. To prepare the mixture with your own hands, you will need a proportion of 1:10, in other words, for 1 liter of adhesive mass you need 100 grams of corn or potato starch.
You can improve the paste by mixing starch with flour. Preparation procedure:
- In a small container, stir together a couple of tablespoons of starch and one cup of flour;
- Bring 2.5 liters of water to a boil;
- Pour cold water into a container with flour and starch in a thin stream and mix the mixture well;
- Add hot water and bring to a boil, remembering to constantly stir the mixture;
- After boiling, remove the solution from the heat and let it cool. Strain at the end. More detailed cooking instructions can be found in the following video.
Many people assume that to make glue you need to boil it. In our case, it is not necessary to cook the paste; it is enough to simply bring the composition to a boil, after which you can immediately remove the solution from the heat
Folk remedies for the prevention or control of bedbugs
- Many people don’t realize that simple folk remedies can help fight bedbugs, but they are not as effective as chemicals. There are many ways to help prevent unwanted pests from multiplying.
- Vinegar essence. This solution is used to treat all areas where bedbugs accumulate. The essence does not leave streaks or stains on upholstered furniture and does not spoil floor coverings.
- Evaporation. In this case, you need to use boiling water to treat all the seams of the furniture, cracks in the floor and gaps between the baseboards. Then glue the wallpaper in the usual way.
- Dry mustard is the best folk remedy for bedbugs. In order to get rid of them, you need to add mustard powder to the wallpaper glue. The glue takes on a yellowish tint. When wallpapering, a pungent odor will spread throughout the room, which can start to hurt your eyes. Therefore, when using mustard, use gloves and a gauze mask. After the glue has completely dried, the room needs to be ventilated. The main disadvantage of this method is that after the glue dries, yellow stains may remain on light-colored wallpaper.
Specialized services
No one has yet created a unique remedy against bedbugs. But other drugs and folk remedies cannot get rid of the scourge 100%. If you don’t have the strength and patience to fight insects on your own, then you should seek help from a specialized service.
Modern organizations that remove parasites process premises using a ULV generator. This allows you to significantly reduce the volume of toxic components due to the generated mist, which is evenly distributed over all surfaces. Special services will quickly rid any home of bed bugs. Moreover, the effectiveness of the result and duration depend on how the disinfection was carried out
Therefore, the choice of organization should be approached with special attention.
Preventive measures
Preventive measures include regular cleaning using special detergents, treating carpets and sofas with upholstery cleaning products, sealing cracks and holes in the floor and walls. Change bedding regularly and wash it immediately; experts do not recommend storing it, as pests can multiply. You should periodically look through carpets, wallpaper, furniture, and books. If bedbugs are found, immediately take measures to destroy them.
Let's summarize: the main places where bedbugs appear are upholstered furniture, cracks in walls and floors, and in wallpaper joints. Experts recommend making cosmetic repairs immediately and treating the walls and ceiling first. In this article we looked at the question “what can be added to wallpaper glue against bedbugs?” On the shelves of ordinary and specialized stores you can find many effective products that will help get rid of pests forever. When using an insecticide, you need to remember your own safety; after all, these are chemicals that can cause dizziness, headaches or an allergic reaction. The process of fighting bedbugs takes time, a lot of effort and some financial costs. Timely adoption of certain measures will save you from unnecessary hassle.
Traces on the human body
So what traces do bedbugs leave on the human body? According to doctors, after an insect bite, a red bump remains at the site of penetration. It is very itchy, swollen, and painful.
Therefore, a large red spot makes people think that mosquitoes have settled in the house. Residents begin to actively fight flying bloodsuckers, while bedbugs continue to increase their population.
In some people, bedbug bites cause an allergic reaction, then it is difficult to correctly differentiate a harmless wound . After insects, red spots resemble bumps, but not pimples.
The swellings are very painful, itchy, and inflamed. If you scratch the penetration site, there is a risk of infection, which complicates treatment.
When pests settle, the number of bites gradually increases, being located chaotically on the body in places accessible to penetration. The allergy covers areas of the skin completely, it is smaller and is localized not only in open areas of the body.
Bites
To understand that it is a bug that bites and not another insect, it is worth examining the wound. Bloodsuckers leave a kind of trail. They produce 2-5 bites about 5-10mm apart. After drinking a sufficient amount of blood, the insects retreat to their nest.
Bedbugs attack in colonies, so in the morning there may be several grooves, but all of them are located only on open areas of the skin, since the pest is not able to bite through clothing. It also does not touch skin that is heavily covered with hair.
Parasites attack only at night, although if there is a large infestation, bloodsuckers can come out during the day. Adult bedbugs have a proboscis with two sections, through one they suck in blood, and through the other they inject a secretion that blocks nerve endings, which causes an analgesic effect. Thus, a person does not feel pain and notices the appearance of bite marks only in the morning.
Bloodsuckers love to attack children because they have delicate, thin skin that has no specific odors. The duration of the meal can be 15-20 minutes, during which time the bloodsucker receives 0.5-7 ml of blood.
Bedbugs do not attack every night; the dose of food they receive lasts for 5-7 days, after which they return to the victim. The female requires more frequent feeding to lay eggs.
Bedbugs drink human blood; parasites do not harm animals except for the lack of food.
Why do cockroaches grow under paper and vinyl wallpaper, but not under glass wallpaper?
If you make a list of the most unpleasant moments of life in a city apartment, then among other urban troubles the forced necessity of living next to extremely unpleasant creatures - cockroaches - will certainly be named. Cockroaches are a scourge that is almost impossible to get rid of. But there are truly effective methods that help avoid flooding your home with hordes of these vile and harmful creatures.
The incredible complexity of the procedure for getting rid of cockroaches in an apartment is associated with the specifics of people’s lives in the city. Apartment buildings are an excellent refuge for cockroaches: expelled from one apartment, they crawl into neighboring ones, from where they can easily move back to their previous positions. In-house garbage chutes and ventilation shafts, which are familiar to city residents, are also breeding grounds for cockroaches, connecting all the apartments in the building into one vertical chain. “Infestation” of apartments with cockroaches is also often observed among unscrupulous property owners, many of whom are antisocial elements (alcoholics, drug addicts, etc.) and in most rental apartments. And you yourself are unlikely to wipe the bathroom and sinks in your apartment dry at night, providing the cockroaches with a generous watering hole in the form of drops of water.
Desperate owners of city apartments in which cockroaches have settled are buying tons of various aerosols, pastes, gels, crayons and other remedies for cockroaches, quietly poisoning themselves and their pets with microdoses of poisons and insecticides. But the next generation of cockroaches turns out to be quite resistant to chemical influences, so all the money and effort spent is wasted. What will help you keep your apartment safe from the cockroach kingdom and how to reduce the likelihood of cockroaches appearing in your apartment? As paradoxical as it may seem, quality repairs will help us in the fight against cockroaches!
High-quality repairs significantly reduce the likelihood that cockroaches will take up residence in your apartment for a long time. Indeed, as part of the renovation, various internal cavities are usually opened (under the finished floor, in ventilation, in storage rooms), old wallpaper is removed and all the cracks and cracks, which are the favorite habitat of cockroaches, are carefully sealed. Thus, there are not many places left for cockroaches to enter your apartment, and they can be reliably protected. So, you can put a filter with a fine-mesh structure in the hood, and a new entrance door with seals will not allow cockroaches to get into the apartment from the garbage chute.
It is especially important to remove old wall coverings as part of the renovation, since it is under ordinary paper and vinyl wallpaper that cockroaches live and actively reproduce! This happens due to the fact that ordinary wallpaper is glued to the walls with a smooth plane of the canvas. And over time, when wallpaper glue loses its functions and the adhesion of the wallpaper to the wall is disrupted, comfortable living areas for cockroaches form under the wallpaper. Many people are familiar with the situation when, having torn off a piece of wallpaper in an old apartment, you jerk your hand away in horror from the terrible picture of scurrying cockroaches and black blots of cockroach nests. If, as part of the renovation, you make the right decision and install glass wallpaper in your apartment, then you can protect yourself from this horror for many decades!
Why can’t cockroaches settle under glass wallpaper? It's all very simple: the fact is that glass wallpaper is glued to the wall differently than all other ordinary wallpaper. When gluing glass wallpaper, a special glue is applied to the surface with a thick “glue coat”, and the woven glass wallpaper is pressed into it with a plastic spatula. Thus, each thread from the fiberglass canvas is enveloped in an adhesive mass and firmly attached to the surface, eliminating the appearance of free space between the wall and the glass wallpaper. The process of gluing glass wallpaper to a wall can be illustrated with a simple example: if you press a piece of gauze into a small “puddle” of sour cream spilled on the table, the mesh fabric will literally “immerse” in the thick mixture, fastening to it with every thread. It is important that even over time, glass wallpaper does not peel off, because it is held on the wall not by a plane, but by every thread of its canvas. That is why, by making high-quality repairs with glass wallpaper in your apartment, you will reduce the likelihood of cockroaches and other insects in your home to almost zero!
You can decorate walls in different ways: by gluing wallpaper, painting, covering with ornaments, artistic painting, decorative plaster.
The most common decoration method and the least troublesome is wallpapering. Preparing walls for wallpapering includes several steps that should not be neglected.
What should the surface be?
If you carry out the preparatory work correctly before wallpapering, you can meet the necessary requirements for the wall for wallpaper:
- Uniform color and cleanliness of the walls (if the wallpaper is light in color or not dense enough, any stains on the wall can show through).
- Strength (a wall is considered strong if, when running a key or similar object across it, dust and small crumbs do not fall off).
- Dryness (glue will not be able to absorb into a wet surface, due to which it will lose its adhesive properties).
- Without lime stains (places where lime accumulates may be damp, therefore, do not absorb the glue: in these places the wallpaper will peel off).
Types of compositions and methods of their preparation
Making your own glue is quite easy! Until recently, our parents and grandmothers prepared the adhesive mass themselves before gluing wallpaper, without having ready-made mixtures on hand.
It is important to note that environmentally friendly paste, made at home, still holds its own today. Using this composition, you can rest assured that the glue used is safe.
The consistency and thickness of wallpaper glue should be chosen depending on the type and weight of wallpaper used. Based on this, the volume of added water is also selected.
The composition of wallpaper glue may include flour and starch , and combinations with one product are not excluded - it all depends on the type of canvas and the mixture of what density they need!
If it is necessary to strengthen the adhesive properties of homemade paste, you can add a little wood glue or PVA . They will make the adhesive mass more resistant to moisture.
Features of wall treatment depending on their material
Before achieving the desired wall surface for wallpapering, it is necessary to carry out a number of works that will help bring the surface to ideal condition . The specifics of preparing walls for wallpaper largely depend on what material the wall is made of.
Nuances when processing walls made of different materials:
- Drywall has a smooth surface, but it is porous and not strong enough. During processing, special attention should be paid to leveling the surface, taking into account joints and screws.
- Concrete walls are the most durable. Since their structure has minimal porosity, sometimes it is enough to apply only a primer for preparation.
- Brick walls are not strong and level enough, so to process them it is necessary to go through several stages (leveling, puttying, priming).
- Chipboard walls have screws and joints. They need to be covered with oil paint. Next, the surface is treated in the usual way.
- Treating OSB walls for wallpaper is practically no different from preparing brick walls. Only the first stage is sealing the seams with the mixture and covering the wall with serpyanka.
Almost any covering can be prepared for gluing in such a way that the quality of the wallpaper will no longer depend .
How to do everything with your own hands?
At first glance, preparing walls for wallpapering seems like a fairly easy task. However, there are nuances that a non-professional may not always be aware of.
Removing old coating
If the walls are covered with old wallpaper or paint, then before pasting the wall, it is necessary to remove the old decor.
Old wallpaper can be pasted in several layers, so before eliminating it, you must first spray the wall with water. Then use a spatula to remove the old layer.
Old paint is much more difficult to remove from walls. There are three ways to remove old paint:
Plaster
Plastering of walls is carried out in order to level the surface and eliminate its gross defects . Modern gypsum plaster can be applied to the wall in a layer of up to 7 mm, which is very convenient for leveling.
Prepare the mixture and spatula for work. Fill in the depressions and cracks with putty, knock down the protrusions and bulges as much as possible, and smooth out the remaining unevenness with the compound.
If the wall is uneven (has a slope), then you can level it using beacons, a level and rules.
Having placed the beacons, it is recommended to initially spray the wall with a more liquid putty solution, and then begin applying the main mixture.
After have completely dried, you can proceed to puttying the surface.
putty
Puttying is one of the mandatory steps that must be performed when preparing walls for wallpapering. A putty solution is produced with a consistency that is easy to apply to the surface.
Using a circular motion of the spatula, apply the mixture to the wall in several stages, and the layer should not exceed 4 mm. Hard-to-reach places (radiator, pipes) must be puttied with a rubber spatula.
The final layer of putty is applied most carefully so that there are as few irregularities as possible.
Do you know how to deal with mold on the wall in an apartment? Detailed information is here.
Getting rid of mold, fungi, bedbugs
mandatory to treat the walls against fungi, mold and bedbugs before wallpapering even if there are no such defects on the wall and never have been.
There are several preventive and effective recipes for treating walls against mold and similar formations:
- bleach - 200 g of bleach is dissolved in a liter of water and applied to the wall;
- the fungicide, like lime, can also be diluted with water and the resulting solution can be used;
- chlorine solution (white) effectively fights fungus and its spores;
- hydrogen peroxide solution copes well with mold spores and fungus;
- a solution of copper sulfate and water (100 g per 10 liters) also effectively attacks areas of mold and fungi and protects walls from bedbugs.
If mold has appeared through the plaster, then you need to clean this piece of plaster down to the base. Treat the wall with any of the solutions. After treating the surface, it is recommended to apply a primer with an antiseptic.
Important! When working with solutions, it is necessary to use protective equipment: gloves, respirators, goggles.
The drug "Executioner"
This remedy is also considered effective. It helps fight bedbugs. Moreover, the composition is safe not only for humans, but also for pets. To obtain a solution, you need to dilute one bottle of the drug in ½ liter of water, preferably warm. In this case, the solution must be stirred well. It is best to treat surfaces with a spray and with the windows closed. You should also use protective equipment: gloves and a respirator.
Among the advantages of this drug it is worth highlighting:
- Rapid destruction of adults, larvae and eggs.
- There are no stains on the furniture after treatment, slight odor.
- Relatively low cost.
