Adhesive flakes that are mixed with water to produce wallpaper paste Wallpaper adhesive or wallpaper paste is a specific

adhesive Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation. The use of adhesives offers certain advantage ...

, based on modified starch, methylcellulose, or

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

which is used to fix wallpaper to walls. Wallpaper pastes have a typical shear thinning

viscosity Viscosity is a measure of a fluid's rate-dependent drag (physics), resistance to a change in shape or to movement of its neighboring portions relative to one another. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of ''thickness''; for e ...

and a high wet adhesive tack. These properties are needed to slow down the penetration of the adhesive into the paper and wall, and give slow bonding speed which gives the wallpaper hanger time to line up the wallpaper correctly on the wall. The adhesive is usually sold in pouches or boxes as flakes that are mixed with water to produce the paste. It is also available ready mixed in tubs. The wallpaper adhesive is applied to the wallpaper to let the moisture of the adhesive soak into and penetrate the paper. The paper will thus expand before hanging rather than on the wall, which would cause vertical bubbles in each panel of wallpaper as the adhesive dried from the edges in.Homedepot Graham & Brown Wallpaper FAQ
/ref> When using a type of wallpaper paper that does not expand, such as nonwoven or

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

wallpaper, the adhesive is applied to the wall instead.

References

Adhesives Wallcoverings {{tool-stub

See also

References