Exact Answer: 1 week to 6 months
A well-plastered, smooth surface is considered ideal when one wishes to apply a fresh wallpaper. Building materials like lime and cement are combined together with filler materials like sand or crushed stones to plaster uneven walls. The walls are then considered ready for a coat of paint or wallpaper- both of which help enhance the beauty of the edifice.
The interior aesthetic of a home is created by the choice of wallpaper or paint selected by the homeowners. Oftentimes, residents of a house will select a wallpaper that goes with their sense of style and beauty to further add to the understated appeal of their home.
How Long After Plastering Can You Wallpaper?
When painting or wallpapering freshly plastered walls, one has to keep a few key points in mind. The timeframe for wallpapering a newly plastered wall is contingent on a number of important factors. Usually, tenants or homeowners are advised by builders to not apply wallpapers to their newly plastered walls immediately after the process of plastering is completed. There is a very important rationale behind this advice.
The preferred time frame for wallpapering a plastered wall is 6 months. Within a period of 6 to 12 months, a newly plastered wall dries completely. After this period of time, it is ready for the application of wallpaper. However, this is the case with walls that have been freshly rendered, skimmed, and then plastered.
The general norm for walls that have just been re-skimmed is to undertake wallpapering within a week or two after the plaster dries. This is considered enough time for the walls to dry favorably. Again this can be done only after a couple of coats of size have been applied to the plastered wall. The sizing solution seals the plaster and helps your wallpaper remain smooth.
This sizing solution must also be applied to the wall when wallpapering is delayed to a 6-month period. Painting or wallpapering walls with unevenly dried plaster coatings can have a disastrous impact on the end result. Moreover, you can facilitate the faster drying of the plastered wall by installing heaters that help accelerate the process. The intense heat from the heaters will help the walls dry faster, thus, making them ready for wallpapering much faster.
In summary:
| Plastering Condition | Application of Wallpaper |
| Fresh Plaster after Rendering | After 6 to 12 months |
| Plastering After Re-Skimming | After 1 or 2 weeks |
Why Does It Take So Long To Wallpaper After Plastering?
The science behind plastering is responsible for the proposed delay in painting the walls or applying a fresh coat of wallpaper on them. Plastering walls implies coating them with lime and cement. Both these agents take a certain period of time to dry completely.
It is almost impossible to drastically hasten the process of drying a newly plastered wall. A newly plastered wall is essentially porous. It is susceptible to the absorption of moisture. When you paste a new coat of wallpaper on such a plastered surface, the wallpaper layer will inevitably suck out the moisture out of the paste. This will affect the plastered wall as well as the look and feel of your new wallpaper.
It is always advisable to seal the plaster before applying a layer of paint or coating it will a new wallpaper. The sizing solution or the seal used to lock the plaster is coated before the wallpaper can be pasted on the newly plastered walls.
In the case of a freshly rendered, and skimmed wall, the plaster takes longer to dry. This is because it has to be given time to deeply penetrate the wall. Thus, 6 months to a year is the ideal waiting period before a layer of wallpaper can be applied to such a wall.
However, in the case of a re-skimmed wall, the plaster does not need to go deep into the edifice. It simply must dry enough to not ruin the wallpaper. Thus, wallpapering can begin much faster in such instances. Usually, this happens within a week’s time.
Conclusion
Wallpapering can be a fun and simple wall of elevating the aesthetic appeal of your home. Different wallpaper designs can be selected to match one’s personal taste and improve the look and feel of the walls. However, when opting for wallpapers instead of paints, one must keep in mind that a smoothly plastered wall can make all the difference in the world.
Usually, the newly plastered has to be allowed to dry completely before one can begin wallpapering. A freshly plastered wall takes up to 6 months to completely dry. Thus, sometimes, wallpapering plans have to be delayed for quite some time after the plastering of the walls is completed. However, if the wall has been simply re-skimmed then wallpapering can begin as early as within a week of the plaster drying.