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I bought several rolls of rather expensive wallcoverings made of paper covered with acryl. The wall was already prepared with several layers of different kinds of pop and putty with primer. (Trying to translate pop/putty/primer from Russian into English took a lot of effort and I am still not sure if it's correct.) The prepared wall generally looked smooth to the eye or touch. But after the workers hanged the wallcovering on the wall they appeared covered with tiny bulges all over. They were not visible when the wallcoverings were wet. But when they became dry the bulges appeared. They are very small in size, so tiny that I can't see them from about 1 meter distance. They also don't show up on the photos from my phone unless a bring it very closely to the wall and try to find a good angle. They look like tiny specks of dust trapped under the cover. It's almost like my wall has acne and it saddens me greatly.

Here is photo: enter image description here

The photo shows only several of them but in reality there are a lot. They look rather ugly if you come closer to the wall and look.

The workers claim that because they are made of thin paper and not vlies or vinyl putting them up without these is impossible because all random dust is visible. Workers experienced with wallcoverings in Russia all say that I need to always buy vlies or vinyl and never paper because otherwise high quality is not possible. My question is if it is possible to hang them better without these annoying things? Who is to blame here? Lack of skill or the wallcoverings of paper are indeed not good in general? And why did they appear at all? Is it dust, glue or uneven wall?

Jimmy Fix-it
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Gherman
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  • what is under the wallpaper - is that drywall? – DMoore Nov 03 '20 at 20:23
  • @DMoore Yes, I think it's just putty with probably liquid primer over it. I asked the manufacturer what the problem may be. They said for a perfect result I need vlies put under these wallcovering. Workers didn't know that. Maybe it could solve the problem? – Gherman Nov 03 '20 at 20:27
  • do you have a picture of the wall before or the wall being put up? – DMoore Nov 03 '20 at 20:28
  • @DMoore Unfortunately no – Gherman Nov 03 '20 at 20:35
  • @DMoore Sorry I misunderstood what "drywall" is. I thought it was literally "a wall that is not wet". It's not a drywall, it's a concrete wall of panel building. – Gherman Nov 04 '20 at 11:44

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putting them up without these is impossible because all random dust is visible

This is false. A wall can be made very nearly perfectly smooth and all but the tiniest of foreign materials can be removed. It is all about the preparation. Wallpaper has been a standard wallcovering for many years and not all jobs have "acne".

Often, the person paying for the job is just not prepared to pay for what near-perfection costs. Other times, they pay for near-perfection but the contractor is not capable of providing that. Other times, neither party even discusses what their idea of perfection is and expectations for what good looks like are not aligned.

The wallpaper hanging craft is as much art as science, and professional paperhangers employ esoteric methods that most people do not have in their repertoire. If your workers were not part of your local paperhangers' guild or trade union, I would bet they are not wallpaper specialists.

Jimmy Fix-it
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  • I don't really think such things like paperhangers' guild or trade unions exist in Russia. – Gherman Nov 04 '20 at 08:53
  • This is not a trade issue automatically. If these guys solely got paid to hang wallpaper and they were clear that they were not prepping at least half the fault is with home owner. A lot of time home owners pay for something but expect XYZ to be free and included. I doubt these were dirt/dust pockets. Whatever they are they were deformaties that were probably not very noticeable with dull paint and off lighting. Now that there is sheen you see them all. It seems little and simple but this would have been some work to prep this perfect. – DMoore Nov 04 '20 at 18:08
  • @DMoore They were doing everything from bare concrete including pop, different kinds of putty and primer, many layers of them. And I showed them the covering beforehand. – Gherman Nov 04 '20 at 19:46