Wallpaper & Wallcovering
Installation.

Prep Is Eighty Percent of the Result

Almost every wallcovering failure we are called in to fix traces back to the wall, not the paper. Wallcovering is a thin membrane pulled tight across a surface — it does not hide substrate defects, it advertises them. A ridge you would never notice under flat paint becomes a shadow line under grasscloth.

What a wall needs before paper goes on it:

• The right finish level. A minimum of a well-executed Level 4, and Level 5 for thin non-woven goods, grasscloth, murals, and any light-colored paper on a wall that catches side light.
• No texture. Existing orange peel or knockdown has to be skimmed flat. Hanging over texture telegraphs every plateau through the face of the paper.
• A wallcovering primer. Not wall paint, and not standard drywall primer. A dedicated acrylic wallcovering primer seals the substrate so the paste stays workable, gives the paper something to grip, and — critically — allows the paper to be removed years later without destroying the drywall face.
• Clean, sound, dry substrate. No dust, no glossy patches, no efflorescence, no fresh compound still releasing moisture.

If a bid for wallcovering does not include prep and priming as line items, it is not a bid for wallcovering. It is a bid for hanging paper and hoping.

Materials We Hang

Material	What It Demands
Non-woven / paste-the-wall	Flat substrate, dimensionally stable, forgiving to install — the current designer default
Grasscloth & natural fibers	Panel sequencing, accepted seam visibility, no paste on the face, color-lot planning
Traditional vinyl & commercial goods	Booking time, seam rolling, durable in high-traffic areas
Paper-backed & hand-printed	Careful handling, expansion control, trimming to pattern
Murals & panel sets	Panel-by-panel layout from a scaled plan, exact wall dimensions before ordering
Peel-and-stick	Immaculate flat substrate; realistic expectations about longevity

Grasscloth deserves a specific note, because it is where expectations most often go wrong. It is a natural material woven in lots — visible seams and panel-to-panel color variation are inherent to the product, not an installation defect. Good installation minimizes and sequences that variation; it cannot eliminate it. We say this before the order goes in rather than after the client stands in the room.

Layout Before Adhesive

Hanging paper is the last ten percent. The decisions that determine whether a room reads correctly happen before the first strip:

• Seam placement. Where the first plumb line goes determines where every subsequent seam lands. We set it so seams miss the focal wall's center, avoid landing at the edge of a window return, and do not leave a sliver strip in a corner.
• Pattern repeat and match type. Straight match, half-drop, or random affects yield significantly. A large half-drop repeat can add substantially to the material required.
• Out-of-plumb reality. No corner in a real house is truly plumb. We hang to a struck plumb line, not to the corner, and plan where the accumulated error gets absorbed.
• Ceiling height and datum. On patterned goods we decide which horizon the pattern registers to, so the eye reads the room as level even where the ceiling is not.
• Switch, outlet, and sconce locations. Cut-ins planned around the pattern rather than through the middle of a motif.

Working With Your Designer

Most of our wallcovering work comes through a builder with a designer's finish schedule in hand. What makes that go smoothly:

• Get us the spec early. Material, manufacturer, pattern, and repeat let us calculate yield and tell you the real overage before the order is placed.
• Order overage. Roughly 15–20% over measured coverage is a sensible planning figure for patterned goods, more for large repeats. Running short mid-room and having to buy a new dye lot is the expensive mistake.
• Material on site ahead of schedule. All of it, from the same dye lot, checked for lot numbers and damage before we mobilize.
• Sequence us correctly. After trim and paint, before final flooring and fixtures wherever the schedule allows.

We also handle removal and repair — stripping existing paper, remediating the drywall face where a previous installer skipped the primer, skimming the wall back to a hangable plane, and re-priming before new goods.

Why Builders Send Us the Wallcovering Scope

Because the wall and the paper are the same problem. We are the company that finished the drywall, so when a designer specs grasscloth on the entry wall, we already know that wall needs a skim coat and a Level 5 finish — and we can put it in the drywall bid instead of discovering it the week the paper arrives. One contract, one company accountable for the substrate and the surface.