Another wallpaper/paste question

[DaveG]

Apologies to ask this again. I have looked at other posts but the ones I came across were almost 15 years ago and things can change.

So my daughter wants one wall in her bedroom wallpapered and it’s an exterior lime wall.
We do have some damp issues but these appear mainly on the ground floor walls and the upstairs walls seem nice and dry.
The wall was actually already papered with a lining paper first and then a patterned wallpaper over the top of that. There were no telltale issues like with the downstairs walls where paper is literally crawling off.

Anyway, wife spend some time removing the old stuff and the lime plaster underneath is in excellent nick.

Is she ok to use a standard solvite wallpaper paste?

She also bough a solvite wall sealer to prep the surface for better adhesion.
My thinking is “no” to the sealer but “yes” to the adhesive.
Any thoughts?

While I’m here, the rest of the walls are getting clay painted. The walls do have a dusty feel to them. Would a simple damp soapy cloth all over be all the prep required or would you suggest anything else?

Many thanks as always

 

[Cubist]

It's a very long time since I've done any wallpapering and my reasons for stopping are rooted in too long a long story to recount here.

At that time it was normal practice to 'size' walls with the same paste that would then be used to hang the paper. This was done with two principle objectives, the first being to prevent a very dry wall rapidly pulling the moisture out of the paste and thus preventing the easy manoeuvring of the paper and also to aid a uniform bond of the paper to the wall. If the wall plaster was at all delicate, unstable and perhaps desiccated, the sizing operation would have been conducted a couple of times ahead of the final paperhanging to seal the wall.

To my mind, despite my lack of recent experience, I would agree you don't need the sealer - but check its component contents as these may be a diluted form of the paste - and, after you've wiped off any loose dust, give the walls a light coat of the paste as you begin hanging the paper.