Activator: A substance that contains wallpaper adhesives to improve bond plus additives to increase slip and work time for easier installations. 

Adhesive: A substance that causes one thing to adhere to another; most wallpaper adhesives are cellulose-, clay- or starch-based.

Adhesive Removers: Solutions that are applied to walls to aid in the removal of old wallpaper glue and adhesive residue left on the wall surface after wallpaper removal. 

Allowance: The extra amount of wallpaper allowed at the top, bottom and/or sides of a strip that is trimmed off after the strip is placed on the wall. 

Booking: A term used to describe how wallpaper is folded after it is either pasted or pulled through a water tray. Generally the top of the wallpaper is LOOSELY folded (not creased) shorter on the top and longer on the bottom end and allowed to book (relax) per manufacturer’s recommendation (generally 5 to 10 minutes.)

Bolt: A double-roll of wallpaper (50-56 square feet) is called a bolt. A bolt of border is 15' long.

Border: A band of wallpaper used for decorative purposes, usually at ceiling height or at a chair-rail height (32" from top of baseboard) or around windows and doors.

Butt Joint/Butted Seams: A joint at which edges of wallpaper meet but do not overlap.

Clay Adhesive: Clay pastes are best suited for hanging heavy commercial vinyl and "dry" hanging. A clay paste is one of the strongest wallcovering adhesives made. Clay is generally recommended when hanging over paneling or cinderblock walls and many liner papers spec a clay based adhesive to install the liner for a strong bond.

Color Run: The amount of rollage of a particular design produced of a single color combination in a single production run of the design . Subsequent runs of the same design and color may be slightly different. (This is why it is important for purchasers to retain the run number in case additional rollage is needed). Also referred to a Dye Lot. 

Colorway: The combination of colors in which a design is printed. Any given design is usually made in from two to six colorings. 

Design: The imprint on the wallpaper such as florals, solids, stripes, geometrics, etc. 

Double Cut Seam: Type of seam used in situations where it is necessary to overlap two strips of wallcovering and yet avoid a raised ridge. One example would be when a border is being installed and a second border is needs to be joined to complete the run on the wall. The pattern would be matched laying one border over the other and a cut would be made through both layers. Once the cut is made, the overlap (top cut-off section) and underlap (bottom cut-off section) is removed, the edges smoothed and joined together, leaving a tightly butted seam. 

Double Roll: A bolt of wallpaper, generally containing 50 to 56 square feet or about 32 linear feet. 

Drop Match: A drop match simply means your pattern does not match straight across the wallpaper but instead drops a certain distance on the opposite side of the paper. Once you have decided on pattern placement on your wall, every other piece will generally be the same. 

Dry Scraping: A method of wallpaper removal where one scrapes through the wallpaper to expose bare or painted walls: can go through several layers of old wallpaper; for use on plaster walls only. 

Dye Lot Number: A set of numbers and /or letters given to a particular batch of wallpaper rolls printed at the same time; each time a new ink or different batch is printed, the dye lot number (sometimes called the color run number) will change; it is important to ensure that all rolls have the same dye lot number before beginning a job, sometimes referred to as a run number. 

Embossed Wallpaper: The application of pressure and heat to create a permanent texture; because of an additional finishing process needed for the emboss, it is slightly more expensive; two types are Random and In-Register. 

Engineering the Room: Planning where your seams will fall to eliminate small strips next to doors, windows, cabinet, etc. and determining where your pattern should be placed for beautiful finished results is a technique called Engineering the Room. With a pencil mark off your seam placement to eliminate any problem areas and adjust your starting point. Take the pattern (size, design type, repeat) of the wallpaper into consideration when deciding pattern placement at your ceiling and floor. 

Expanded Vinyl Wallpaper: A heavy textured vinyl wallpaper, great for use over damaged walls and rough surfaces, sometimes referred to as blown vinyl, usually paintable. 

Fabric-Backed Solid Vinyl Wallpaper: Highly durable wallpaper with a woven or non-woven fabric ground (mesh-like textile backing) and a solid vinyl coating; used almost exclusively for commercial and institutional applications.

Gravure Printing: A high-speed, cost-effective and the most common wallpaper printing process; utilized copper cylinders, with one color per cylinder, etched with the pattern design; can achieve fine detail and a wide range of tones in as many as 12 colors. 

Ground: Raw stock onto which a coat of pigment has been applied before the top colors are put on in wallcovering manufacturing.

In-Register: A type of embossed wallpaper where the emboss is synchronized with the pattern in the wallpaper; has a silk-like, shiny appearance, fairly common; also called Light Reflective.

Level: A tool which has liquid in a small glass cylinder that moves to indicate when it is positioned perfectly vertical. A 2 to 4 foot carpenter's level is useful in drawing a "level line" to start the first strip of wallpaper on a wall. Levels are used for determining the straightness of seams and can be used to pencil in horizontal lines to lay borders along.

Lining Paper: Blank wallpaper stock that can be applied to provide a smooth surface and minimize the possibility of mildew and staining. It is hung horizontally (sometimes called railroaded) to ensure that its seams and the wallpaper's seam do not fall on the same vertical line; should be left to dry on the wall for at least 36 hours before wallpaper is hung; super-heavyweight strippable lining paper can be used directly over properly primed and prepared paneling, tile and cement block. Sometimes referred to as blankstock, some lining papers require priming over its surface before painting or wallpapering over them, some liners are now pre-pasted and do not require priming the surface.

Matching: Hanging strips of wallcovering so that the design will be in the correct relation to the preceding strips. The types of matches are "random", "straight", "drop", and "reverse".

Pattern Repeat: The distance up and down before the printed pattern exactly repeats/duplicates itself.

Peelable: A wallcovering that can be dry-peeled from the wall leaving only substrate (sometimes called paper backing) on the wall, which can then be used as a liner under new wallcoverings. Peelable wallcoverings are usually paper-backed vinyl in which a layer of solid vinyl is adhered to an inexpensive backing.

Pigmented Primer/Sealer: A colored primer/sealer which reduces the risk of show-through with lightweight wallpaper or wallpaper with little ink. Generally show through is caused by sheetrock seams or patterns on old wallpaper. Typically primer/sealers are pigmented white and can be tinted to a pastel color if desired.

Plumb Line: A vertical guideline (sometimes called a level line) necessary when hanging wallpaper; a length of string is usually coated with chalk to which a weight is attached; when the string is snapped, the chalk leaves a straight line on the wall. A level can also be used to achieve the same results by tracing with a pencil on the correctly positioned level.

Pre-pasted Wallpaper: Wallpaper that has been pre-coated with an adhesive. The dry adhesive is activated by pulling the wallpaper through a tray of water.

Primer/Sealer: A base coating designed for use under wallpaper to seal porous surfaces prior to hanging; helps the wallpaper adhere by blocking the wall's capacity to absorb moisture from the paste; makes hanging and removing easier. It is always recommended to prime before hanging wallpaper and to use an acrylic primer/sealer formulated especially for priming for wallpapers.

Railroaded: A method of installing wallcovering horizontally rather than vertically. Generally used on lining papers.

Random Embossed Wallpaper: Texture is created at random all over the embossed wallpaper.

Random Match: A pattern design where the pattern matches no matter how the adjoining strips are positioned; textures and vertical stripes are common examples.

Razor Knife: Useful for trimming wallpaper at ceilings, baseboards, around cabinets, etc. and for cutting through wallpaper layers such as when double-cutting. Change blades often for neat, clean trims.

Relax(ing): - A term used to describe the expanding process of wallpaper after water or adhesive has been applied. Some wallpapers expand 1/2" to 1" during the 5 to 10 minutes following exposure to moisture.

Reverse Match: A method of installing wallcoverings where the top is reversed on each piece (top up, then top down, then top up, then top down). Generally this method is used on commercial 54" goods.

Scoring: Process of perforating or cutting thin lines into old wallpaper so that wallpaper removal solutions can better penetrate the paper.

Scrubbable: Any wallcovering that can be safely washed with a sponge and detergent while still on the wall. Perfect for high traffic areas such as kitchens and baths. Typically scrubbables are solid vinyls and wallpapers will be labeled as scrubbable.

Sizing: A solution applied to the wall to add slip for ease of smoothing and working the paper. Newer solutions such as activators and wall primers have outdated the use of sizing.

Solid Vinyl Wallpaper: Wallpaper in which a vinyl film coating is added to the ground before the pattern is printed; durable, easy to clean, scrubbable and moisture- and stain-resistant; two types are Paper-Backed and Fabric-Backed.

Scraper: A tool used to scrape away old wallpaper, glue and adhesives.

Spackling Compound: A white pre-mixed compound or powder to which water is added for use in mending cracks in plaster, holes in sheetrock walls, skimming old wallpaper seams, should be sanded smooth and flat after drying.

Spray Removal: A method of wallpaper removal where a garden-type sprayer applies wallpaper removal solutions to walls and then paper is removed with a wall scraper.

Steam Removal: A method of wallpaper removal where a commercially-available steamer is used.

Straight Edge: A tool that is helpful in conjunction with a razor knife for mitering straight joints (such as double-cutting through two layers of wallpaper) and for use as a guide in trimming selvages on un-trimmed wallpaper.

Straight Match: A pattern design where the pattern match flows directly across the strips: when hung, every strip will be the same at the ceiling line and the pattern on all strips will be the same distance from the ceiling.

Strippable: Wallpaper that can be dry stripped from the wall leaving very little paste or residue and no damage to the wall surface.

Stripper: A gel or liquid that is applied to walls to facilitate the removal of old wallpaper.

Substrate: The backing of a wallcovering. it becomes laminated to the design layer.

Surface Printing: similar to Gravure printing, but uses aluminum magnesium alloy cylinders; amount of ink laid is much thicker and has a raised printing surface; less durable than gravure; used mostly on higher-end brands and more expensive.

Usable Yield: The amount of actual wallpaper per double roll that can be hung after taking into consideration the waste in the repeat of the pattern.

Vinyl Coated Paper: Paper wallpaper that has a thin layer of acrylic or vinyl applied over the paper; pattern is printed on that. Generally washable but not scrubbable. Best used in foyers, formal areas, bedrooms, powder rooms.

Vinyl to Vinyl Adhesive: A special adhesive used to make sure two wallpaper stick together; recommended when hanging borders or joining wallpaper a corners.

Wall Preparation: The preliminary work on walls to prepare them for wallcovering application, i.e. patching, sanding, priming. 

Washable: A wallcovering that can be cleaned with a sponge, soft towel, mild soap and water.

Water Tray: A specially shaped trough, usually made of plastic, design to hold water for wetting pre-pasted wallpaper before hanging.

Work Table: A work surface that facilitates the cutting and gluing of wallpaper. Makeshift tables can be fashioned with saw-horses and plywood or professional grade tables are available through wallpaper and paint dealers.

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