Costly, Old Wallpaper Forces Change of Paste

Question: Several years ago, I wallpapered my bedroom with a paper that was pre-pasted and expensive, but over time, the paper became loose in spots. I have been papering for many years and have never experienced a problem like this. How can I successfully rehang the paper?

B.B.,

Cypress

Answer: “If it’s an expensive wallpaper it may be made of paper and not vinyl, so when you try to get it off, it will be stripped into little pieces,” says Jessica Brown of Frazee Paint in Santa Ana. “When removing wallpaper, very rarely can it be pulled off in one entire strip the way it was applied. Even if you can, it’s probably been dried out and warped over time, and it’s unlikely you’ll be able to fix that.

“Probably your best bet is to repair it. If the loose areas are around the seams, you can get a border and seam adhesive that comes in a squeeze tube that seals it back to the wall. If the paper is bubbling inside the seams, there’s a paste syringe you can get that allows you to squeeze the paste into the bubbled area and flatten it out.”

Q: We recently bought a home with a white-washed hardwood kitchen floor. I sweep it and do spot cleaning, but what’s the best way to really clean it?

S.G.,

Lake Forest

A: “It’s really going to depend on the kind of floor you have,” says Alex Ruben of Hardwood Center in Santa Ana. “If you have one of the newer floors with a urethane or polyurethane coating, you’re probably doing all that’s needed, just dusting and occasionally spot cleaning with alcohol.

“If it’s a white-washed floor with a wax coating, you’ll have to use a wax remover and a cleaner. If you’re not sure about what kind of floor you have, you may need to have a hardwood floor expert take a look at it. There’s also the possibility that while it may look dirty, it’s actually scratched, in which case it has to be screened and have the urethane reapplied.”

Q: I want to paint a concrete wall on the inside of my garage. How do I prepare it?

T.L.,

Anaheim

A: “Use a wire brush to clean off the dirt and dust, then wash it with a mild soap,” says painter Steve Harding of Santa Ana. “Then you should probably prime it with a thinned mixture of latex masonry paint. Let it dry out fully, then apply the finish coat.”