 |  | Our South Jersey Chapter of the NGPP held this month's meeting at the Freehold Substrate & Wallcovering Test Facility, otherwise known as Cliff's basement. The theme was "murals", and we test-hung an 8-panel mural that was donated to the cause by Environmental Graphics. Since the test facility consists of two roughly 6' x 7' drywall partitions, we chose to hang half the panels using the Environmental Graphics method (paste the sheets with supplied cellulose and hang over unprimed, cheap, flat latex paint), and half the panels with the "paste the wall with straight Pro 880, and mist the back of the sheets with water" method. In a nutshell, the "paste the wall" method was so far superior to the EG method, that it barely merits comparison. The "paste the wall" installation was clean, easy, and effective, while the "paste the sheets with cellulose" method was clumsy, time consuming, and not too effective, as the sheets didn't stick well at all and had to be repasted before they would really lay down. Even at that, there were a couple of loose corners the next day. It should be noted, however, that both test surfaces had been thoroughly primed with Shieldz Clear, so perhaps hanging the cellulose-pasted sheets over crappy flat paint (as suggested in the instructions) would have been a bit less of a hassle than hanging over a sealed surface.
Here are some pictures:
This is the mini pump-up sprayer that was used to wet the backs of the mural panels. It's made by Allpro, and I believe it's available at Sears, as well as through paint stores carrying the Allpro line.
Rich Jones wets the back of a panel. It didn't take very much misting to amply wet the material. If the water puddled, it was too much. Just a light misting sufficed, and the panels were rolled up "poster-style", not booked back-to-back.
Phil Reinhard sets a bottom panel. The instructions suggest hanging the top panels first for the sake of ease, but we opted to hang from bottom-to-top for the sake of the overlapping edges facing downward. (Mural edges are printed to be overlapped, but not doublecut.)
Phil and George Diener match a top panel to a bottom panel. It's no fun hanging from the bottom up, so we eventually changed our tactics and hung the top panels first. Since we were wetting, not pasting, the panels, they didn't set as fast on the wall, and we were able to lift the bottom edge of a top panel and tuck the top edge of the bottom panel under it, keeping the overlapping edge facing downward.
George swipes a panel with a china bristle brush. With the wall pasted, a conscious effort had to be made not to swipe past the edge of the material, or else you ended up with a smoother full of paste.
George and Rich work across the top.
Rich trims an edge.
This side was hung by the traditional method of pasting the panels with cellulose.
This side was hung using the alternative method, and it was a much easier means to an identical end.
The mural was somewhat larger than the wall itself, so we had to make some design decisions about how to balance and crop the scene to fit the space. The picture below is the actual scene, as printed on the label of the mural box.
"You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane..." | |
