How Long Does Wallpaper Take to Dry?
Why drying wallpaper quickly is the fastest way to ruin it, what the room should be doing for the first two days, and when you can put everything back
Twenty-four to forty-eight hours in ordinary room conditions. Keep the windows closed and the heating at its normal setting while it dries. The single most common cause of open seams is a wall dried too fast, not too slow.
What is actually happening
The water in the paste has to leave, partly into the wall and partly through the paper. As it goes, the adhesive bonds and the paper settles onto the surface.
Force that process and you get a surface that is dry while the bond behind it is not. The paper contracts slightly against an adhesive that has not yet gripped, and the result appears as a line at the seams a day or two later.
The timings
- Touch dry: a few hours.
- Properly dry: 24 to 48 hours.
- Longer in a cold room, a room with no ventilation at all, on a solid external wall, or where the paste was applied heavily.
- Heavy-grade paper takes towards the longer end, because it is twice the weight and takes more adhesive.
- Peel and stick has nothing to dry. It is finished when it is hung, though it is worth leaving a day before hanging anything on it.
What to do while it dries
- Close the windows. A through-draught is the fastest way to open a seam.
- Leave the heating as it normally is. Not off entirely in a cold house, and certainly not turned up.
- No fan heaters, dehumidifiers or hair dryers pointed at the wall.
- Keep radiators off on any wall you have just papered, for 24 to 48 hours.
- Leave the room alone. Bubbles and slightly raised seams while it is damp are normal and usually gone by morning.
When can I put furniture back?
After 48 hours, and leave a small gap behind it for the first few days so air can move.
When can I turn the radiators back on?
After 48 hours.
When can I hang pictures or fix shelves?
After 48 hours.
When can I paint the woodwork?
After the paper is dry, and mask carefully. Better still, paint the woodwork first.
When can I use the bathroom normally?
After two days, with the extractor on or a window open.
When can I judge whether something has gone wrong?
Not until 48 hours have passed. A great many faults that look alarming on the first evening have gone by the second morning.
Drying in a cold house
In an unheated room in winter, paste can take considerably longer and may not bond well at all. Bring the room up to an ordinary temperature before you start, keep it there steadily throughout, and allow the full 48 hours.
Steady is the important word. A room that is warm during the day and freezing overnight is worse than one that is consistently cool.
How long does wallpaper take to dry?
24 to 48 hours in ordinary room conditions.
Can I put the heating on after wallpapering?
Leave it at its normal setting. Do not turn it up, and keep radiators on freshly papered walls off for 24 to 48 hours.
Should I open the windows to help it dry?
No. A draught dries the surface before the paste behind it has bonded, and that is what opens seams.
How long before I can move furniture back?
48 hours, and leave a small gap behind it for a few days.
My seams look raised while it's drying: is that a problem?
Usually not. Damp paper is slightly expanded and settles as it dries. Judge it after two days.
How long does peel and stick take to dry?
It does not dry, because there is no water in it. Leave a day before hanging anything on the wall.
