I realise I've cocked this one up but please help if poss! I used neutral cure silicone to affix a large (2m X 750mm) splashback to the kitchen wall last night. Due to the unevenness of the wall and also the fact that the upper half of the wall was covered with wallpaper (lower half with plaster) it's only now stuck in certain places and seemingly not the top half at all. Didn't think about the possibility that the silicone wouldn't stick to the paper and now the splashback back is in situ I'm wondering if (rather than take it off, strip the paper and fully level the wall) I could apply some other kind of sealant down the back of it from the gap at the top to fill up the space and then seal the edges with silicone after? Any advice gratefully received. Thanks
What’s the splashback made from ? As you now know, you’ve done a bodge job and now realised it - fair enough, now time to rectify the job and do it properly You can’t / shouldn’t / stick another surface like a splashback to wallpaper with sili or any adhesive - what happens down the line if the paper then looses adhesion to wall ? Splashback is just ‘glued’ to the paper surface Remove splashback (depending on what material made from, and how well it’s stuck, depends how easy this will be and cleaning off all the sili) Remove paper, clean up wall, make good and level, seal plaster / filler /, and start with a decent flat surface Please don’t attempt another layer of bodge on top of what you’ve already bodged !! Really not worth it, and I’m guessing you’ve now realised this so fair play to you …. Time to do a ‘proper job’ Remove splashback and clean up, remove paper, post some pictures of wall surface and more advice will follow on best way to proceed ….. it’s what the weekend was made for !!
Silicone is not an adhesive. It sometimes works like an adhesive and does have some sticky properties and I guess a lot of folk use it in place of a proper adhesive. We have lots of bathroom mirrors (nearly 200) at work (student accommodation) and the numpty installers affixed these to the wall with silicone. Guess what. Yeah, started falling off one by one. Not good as these are 800 x 500 ish and probably 5mm thick. Quite a heavy lump of glass. Luckily no accidents / injuries yet and so we have now started the process for checking for any loose ones. And affixing any with Geocel Mirror Fix. Moral of the story, use a proper adhesive.
Thanks for the swift reply and I appreciate the candidness lol! However prior to your response we were thinking of adding a further bodge so allow me to just run it past you before I do resort to taking it all off and starting from scratch. The splashback is coloured glass. We were thinking of using expanding adhesive Hippo glue to pour down the back of it and then strip off enough of the wallpaper at the top to seal with silicone to the plaster. We were then going to fit a shelf above which would also keep it in place. Unless that sounds ludicrous of course! Cheers.
Thanks for the reply. I used the neutral cure silicone adhesive that the glass splashback company supplied and recommended.
What do I know??? Or what do they know, Lol. As it is glass then the Geocel Mirror Fix may be a better option for you. Be interesting to hear what others think about silicone as an adhesive. My thoughts is that folk use it as an adhesive because it has good adhesion properties What is neutral cure silicone adhesive? It is a premium low modulus silicone which has been specifically designed to have excellent adhesion and elastomeric properties for sealing joints in the bathroom and kitchen where movement can be expected. But that to me means that it sticks TO things, NOT that it sticks THINGS TO THINGS. (Or items to substrates). But maybe depends on the type used.
As to removing the splashback - that was my first question as to what material is the splashback made from Glass ,,,, as we now know so removal will be tricky / risky / maybe not best idea / Is the glass foil backed ? Run the risk of the foil separating from the glass and damaging the paint surface … Silicone does generally ‘glue’ pretty much anything to anything but as with all methods of adhesion, some prep is required for a strong bond to form As with the splashback - the sili is stuck into paper so the bond is only as good as the paper being stuck to the wall With the mirrors that Tilt mentions, I’m wondering if the sili was applied over a painted wall surface with no further prep ? If so, the sili is only bonded to the paint surface so likely to fail Same as tiling over a painted surface - ok, as long as you don’t just spread the tile ady straight over paint surface Same as No Nails type grab adhesives - no good on dusty or two porous surfaces - like timber onto bare plaster - will adhere to timber then cleanly lift off plaster Mirror adhesive is usually suggested as it’s obviously made for the job and won’t damage the backing on the mirror or glass, which some silicone will eat away (acetic acid in some) Anyway ,,,,,, best way forward ,,,,, not sure now but hope you get it sorted
A huge part of the problem is you have attempted to stick it on top of wallpaper...bad move, the strongest part of any bond is the weakest part...as you have found out to your cost. I'm sad to admit it but @DIYDave. original post it the way forward!
The silicone was well stuck to the painted plasterboard Dave. In every case. I've probably re-fixed about 20 so far. It just hadn't stuck to the back of the mirrors very well. (They may have just not cleaned them tho, eh!) But this is the reason that I mention that the Geocel Mirror Fix may be a good solution for the Op. It has quite a thicker consistency than silicone. He has to do his prep work first though as you say. And common sense says not to try stick anything to wallpaper. .
Yes - the type... you are talking 'normal' bath/kitchen stuff. You can get silicone based adhesives that's even used to build frameless fish tanks. Also the word 'silicone' is used quite loosely these days, for anything that remotely looks like it. A bit like 'hoovering' with a vacuum that wasn't even made by Hoover - scandalous! Neutral (meaning neutral alkoxy) silicone sealants release alcohol as they cure, and has almost no smell, they have better adhesive properties for a greater number of materials including PVC-U, most other plastics, glass, aluminium, lead, stone and masonry, and Polycarbonate. I would try to steam/scrape out the top edge and put a bead of super duper silicone fish tank adhesive down/along the top. This stuff is so good, it holds the weight of fish tank water without breaking down for 100 years (made up the last bit). If you ever take it off in future, you need to cut the silicon else you'll pull the plaster/wall down before the bond breaks. https://www.unibond.co.uk/en/sealants/aquarium-sealant-how-to-fix-your-fish-tank.html
That's like some sort of existential riddle ....... Is sticking to a thing the same as sticking things to things??
Can you get to the top edge...is it under a cupboard ? If not just pump a bead of good adhesive down the top edge and make up some props to shove it home...books stacked up will do. Under a cupboard...use a thin section of d profile to the top edge, you could paint it the same color as the backsplash or cupboard or use tiling d in finish to suite...that comes in all colours these days...or you could just plastic paint it a contrast... If you fancy the faf use some d profile led chanel and put some under cupboard lights in. Lets face it backsplash is purely decorative it has not structural component.
In the end, we used Hippo expanding glue to fill the gap in the middle and it all seems very solid and looks good. Was silly to initially do it over the wallpaper but as it was already in place and stuck, we just thought we'd try that (rather than levelling the wall as it was quite a large area) and it seems to have worked. For the other sections of splashback we have stripped the paper off first though! Thanks again everyone, a very supportive forum. I might be back though cause next job is fitting the extractor hood thing above the splashback! Cheers.