LESLIE: Well, is your wallpaper falling off the wall like our friend Deidre in Georgia?
Deidre, what happened?
DEIDRE: I think it’s just from taking showers. The wallpaper is coming up around the top of the shower.
TOM: OK, well can you stop taking showers? (Leslie laughs)
DEIDRE: (chuckles) I don’t think so. (Tom laughs)
LESLIE: Unless you have smell-impaired friends, I don’t recommend that option. So now is this always happening? Is it sort of coming down continually or it just sort of bubbles up after the steam happens?
DEIDRE: Oh, as of now it’s completely off. It’s curled up and it’s coming – it’s continually to come off after each shower.
LESLIE: And it’s only in the area right by the shower; not in the entire bathroom.
DEIDRE: Right, just by the shower.
LESLIE: Well, there’s a couple of options. One is a product called Seam Repair and you can get this at any sort of home improvement store. And Tom, how does this work?
TOM: Well, basically, what happens is with a seam repair product, it’s a special glue that’s made to reattach loose wallpaper seams and it works most of the time but …
LESLIE: But that’s only if the seams are sort of puckering.
TOM: Well, yeah. In this case, though, it sounds like you’re getting a lot more separation. Is that true, Deidre? I mean how much of the paper is coming off?
LESLIE: From the top of the wall right to where the shower is.
TOM: Well, I’ll tell you what I would recommend then. I would suggest that you remove that wallpaper altogether. And then what you want to do is prime the wall underneath it; this is going to give you a good surface to adhere new wallpaper to. And then you use sizing, which is like a precursor to the wallpaper paste and it leaves the wall just slightly tacky. And then if you put some new wallpaper up, it’ll stick really, really well. Make sure …
LESLIE: So it’s glue for your glue.
TOM: Yeah, it’s pretty much glue for your glue, exactly. And make sure that you take like a plastic wallpaper tool or like a credit card and burnish that paper down. Rub it down really good so you get good adhesion. And that’s probably the best way to get that to stick. And then …
LESLIE: And control that moisture in the bathroom.
TOM: Yeah, exactly. That’s the other thing I was going to say. Make sure that you put an attic fan in – I mean a bathroom fan, if you can help it, to try to reduce that moisture.
LESLIE: And one that does not exhaust into the attic. I see where you were going, Tom.
TOM: Yeah. You know what I meant. (chuckles)
LESLIE: (chuckles) Yeah, really. If you can take that moisture out of the air so that as you’re taking a shower and the steam is building up, it’s taking all of that wet, heavy air and putting it outside of the house, that’ll really help you. And another tip is leave that exhaust fan on like a half an hour after you take the shower. Because once you’re done, that moisture still stays in the air but if you keep it on, you really get rid of all of it.
DEIDRE: Well, thank you. OK.
TOM: You’re very welcome, Deidre. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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