What is lining paper?
Lining paper is a plain light colored paper that usually has 2 uses, which are a base paper to reduce any blemishes on a wall before hanging your chosen paper, or it is hung on the wall and then painted with a colored emulsion paint to produce a smooth colored finish. If you are going to paint the paper wait 24 hours after hanging it for it to dry out first and then paint it.
What sizes does lining paper come in?
Lining paper comes in all different thicknesses, the thinnest being what is called 800 Grade, increasing to 1000, 1200, 1400, 1700, and then the thickest being 2000 Grade.
The most popular choice when using as a base paper is 1000 or 1200 Grade as they are easier to work with, cover minor blemishes on the wall and provide the ideal base to hang your chosen paper on. If the wall is in a very poor condition, sometimes a thicker paper is then needed and the 1700 or 2000 Grade would be used. If the lining paper is to be painted on then generally the 1400 or 1700 Grade is chosen as it is thicker, more resilient and can absorb the paint better.
How to hang the paper
When used as a base paper, the tradesman quite often hangs the lining paper horizontally instead of vertically which is called "Cross Lining", mainly so the joints of the chosen paper are not directly above the joints of the paper. However, lining papers can be 560ml wide, as against wallpapers, which are generally around 525ml wide. This means that you could hang the paper vertically and there is little chance of the joints matching until 13th or 14th drop, and on one wall it would have to be approximately 24ft long for this to happen.
How many rolls will you need?
The lining paper also comes in 3 different lengths. They are the usual standard size of 10 meters which is the same length as a standard roll of wallpaper, and a "Double Roll" size of 20 meters, and a "Quad Roll" size of 40 meters.
Most walls from the top of the skirting board to the ceiling are 2.2 meters high, so from a standard roll you will get 4 drops + 1.2 meters waste. After using 4 rolls you will have 16 drops + 4.8 meters waste. However, by using a quad roll of 40 meters in length you can get 18 drops + 0.4 meters waste. It is far more efficient to purchase 2 double rolls, or 1 quad roll as against 4 single rolls.
Fiber lining paper
Some Wallpaper Companies produce a "Fiber Lining Paper" which has a much smoother finish and is ideal for painting. These are slightly narrows around 530 / 545ml wide and are also more expensive than the ordinary paper, around £ 8 per roll compared to £ 3 per roll.