Fiberglass wallpaper in the interior: how to glue and how to care (23 photos)
Content
Today it’s hard to surprise someone with paper and vinyl wallpaper, and maybe with bamboo, too, but painting glass walls that appeared not so long ago on the domestic market attract many sophisticated consumers in decorating their premises. Although in fairness it must be said that cullet is not an invention of today. They were first made in Germany about 80 years ago in the city of Stein at a private enterprise, which later patented the trademark for its products VITRULAN, which soon became a world famous brand. The name VITRULAN was obtained by the merger of two words of the Latin language: "vitrum", which translates as "glass", and "lanum", meaning wool.
Fiberglass wallpaper for painting can be used both as wallpaper for walls and as wallpaper for the ceiling. If there are slight defects on the ceiling or walls, then with the help of glass murals they are easy to hide. At the same time, pasting with wallpaper of any surface, like painting the glass itself, is a relatively simple task and is accessible even to craftsmen without extensive experience in construction work.
A little bit about production technology
Fiberglass fabrication
The process of manufacturing fiberglass fibers begins from the moment when its main natural components come into production in the form of:
- silica sand;
- soda;
- clay;
- limestone.
Using the raw materials listed above, first glass briquettes are obtained, and then these briquettes are melted in special furnaces with an internal temperature of approximately 1,200 ° C.
Then, the resulting mass is passed through platinum plates (dies) with very small holes forming long glass fibers, which, after cooling, are wound on special bobbins.
Glass spinning
Glass fibers are further spun from glass fibers, which may be:
- twisted threads (dense and smooth, used in the manufacture of fiberglass as longitudinal warp threads);
- fluffy threads (more loose and not very dense, playing the role of transverse threads in the fabric).
Fiberglass Fabrication
Cullets are woven using looms of a special design similar to those used in the manufacture of other widely used fabrics. Moreover, such machines can be:
- ordinary;
- jacquard.
Conventional machines use two threads each (one is longitudinal, the other is transverse). On such equipment, it is possible to weave cullets that have a fabric texture that is simple in terms of geometry (i.e. the structure of its surface) in the form:
- Christmas trees
- rhombus;
- parquet;
- matting;
- diagonals
- chess, etc.
Using at the same time jacquard machines, devices controlled by computer technology, allows you to create cullets with a complex pattern of fabric texture. The web made on such equipment has a width of 220 centimeters. About ten centimeters on each side are further cut from this web in order to make the edges of such a web even.The output products in this case are large bobbins of fiberglass cloths with a width of two meters each.
Canvas impregnation
To impregnate fiberglass cloths, a special composition of substances is used, including modified starch, which gives the glass wallpaper a stable shape that is well preserved until it is glued to a surface. Fiberglass wallpaper having a paper base can be either single-layer or double-layer, and, accordingly, have significantly different strength.
The fiberglass cloths are impregnated using an impregnation machine, on which a bobbin with fiberglass, having a width of two meters, is attached. After the fiberglass passes through the bath containing the impregnating solution, it is dried and cut into pieces of a meter wide.
Packaging
Immediately before packaging, product quality is monitored and discarded if necessary. The first-class cullets sold in stores are rolls one meter wide. Their length is either 25 m or 50 m. They are in a sealed vacuum packaging.
What are the advantages of cullet?
The main positive qualities of this finishing building material are listed below:
- It is an environmentally friendly product that does not cause allergies and therefore acceptable for use even in children's rooms;
- does not attract dust;
- interfere with the development of mold, as well as fungi;
- available in a variety of options, differing in texture and style, which are applicable in a wide variety of home interiors;
- It has high strength and resistance to mechanical stress;
- in it flexibility is combined with elasticity;
- can be glued to almost any surface;
- due to the presence of reinforcing properties in the material, the probability of cracking the surface of the walls is reduced;
- has high fire-fighting properties;
- long term of operation (reaches thirty years);
- special care is not required;
- resistant to detergents;
- repeated repainting is possible (in some cases up to 25 times, but on average 10, 11 or 12 times);
- possesses high moisture resistance.
How to glue glass?
Before you start working, you need to get:
- step ladder;
- construction knife;
- foam roller;
- spatula;
- cuvette;
- a thread;
- plastic spatula;
- plumb;
- safety glasses;
- work gloves;
- capacity for the preparation of glue;
- by brush;
- a drill that can operate at low speeds and equipped with a mixer nozzle.
In addition to fiberglass wallpaper, you also need to purchase:
- glue for glass;
- putty;
- primer.
After that it is necessary:
- clean the walls with a metal spatula;
- apply a thin layer of putty on the surface of the wall and smooth;
- Using a roller, evenly distribute the primer throughout the wall;
- let the coating dry;
- using a stepladder, draw a mark with a pencil on the wall above the ceiling above the door jamb;
- draw a line from this mark to the floor, which will be: “A” - a guideline that allows you to glue the wallpaper strictly vertically, and not at an angle, and “B” - the starting point for the work;
- measure the length of this line and designate it as "L";
- cut a piece of wallpaper along the length equal to "L" + 10 cm;
- Determine where the glass side is on the front side and where is the wrong side (rolls are usually wound so that the wrong side of the fiberglass wallpaper is on the outside and a gray strip is applied on it);
- prepare the adhesive composition, following the instructions in the instructions for the purchased wallpaper glue;
- starting from the line drawn before this near the doorway, apply glue to the intended location of the cut piece of wallpaper with a small margin in width;
- attach a prepared piece of wallpaper to the wall, starting from the top end of the wallpaper;
- after the first piece is glued, then, acting in the same way, they glue the second butt to the first, then the third, etc. (excess adhesive protruding to the surface is removed with a bashing);
- leave the wallpaper to dry for a period of 1 to 2 days.
Among the shortcomings of such building materials as cullet, one can name the fact that them:
- difficult to remove if necessary;
- the cost exceeds the cost of paper, vinyl, as well as non-woven wallpaper;
- the price depends on the texture of the fiberglass;
- it is possible to repaint only once, if the relief of the fiberglass texture is weakly expressed;
- the diversity of patterns on their surface is very limited.
Do I need to paint glass?
It depends on your fantasies. If the existing color of the glass wall suits you and fits the idea of your interior design, then, as they say, why there is unnecessary trouble, that is, there is no need for painting.
However, in most cases, cullets have a whitish-gray color, which does not always look expressive in the interior, rather pale and uninteresting, and especially does not please the eye.
What is the best way to paint glass?
An interesting combination of colors, taking into account the texture of the material and, of course, with a creative approach to the process of decorating walls, can turn them from dull mandatory building structural elements into real works of art.
When painting fiberglass wallpapers, you need to consider what you want to achieve. And, based on this, already choose the color of the paint, and the pattern that you might want to put on the wall coating. Most experts recommend using water-dispersion paints for painting glass-walled wallpapers. That is, latex paints and dispersions such as acrylic and styrene-butadiene.
Cullets - this is the latest technology for finishing ceilings and walls, which today is actively used in repairs both in offices and in apartments. They can be found on the walls of hospitals, and in restaurants, in clinics, and in supermarkets, and generally everywhere, where, in addition to beauty, high resistance of finishing materials to fire is also required.
