How do I handle this situation: I bought a beautiful blue/gold marbelized York wallpaper for my powder room. The specs had the 1 wavy line that means: “spongeable at time of hanging”, so it’s not scrubbable or washable. It’s probably too delicate for a powder room but I love the pattern. My contractor had his usual wallpaper guys install. After they were done I noticed some scratches at random places on the walls but especially the seams. The scratches expose a silver metallic background even though the actual paper is blue/gold. I pointed it out to the wallpaper hangers and they said once the paste got on the front, the finish just wiped right off. They showed me on a scrap piece with paste on it. The pattern didn’t really wipe right off. You had to scrape it with a fingernail or hard object. But it did come off easily. I was really disappointed but figured it was my fault for purchasing delicate wallpaper. The room isn’t in use yet, so it took me 2 weeks to notice most of the corners of the room had the finish scraped off & in 1 corner a whole line of chips were coming off, from floor to ceiling. So I did a tiny bit of research that explained how paste on the pattern side of wallpaper can remove the finish from foil wallpapers and you have to be very careful when installing. Clearly they were scraping at it as they were installing. Especially in the corners.
Is the normal way to install wallpaper by scraping at it? Or are there different techniques? I just assumed professional wallpaper hangers would know how to handle metallic wallpaper without damaging it. I had shown it to my contractor the next day but he just looked at it and looked at me. I felt a bit intimidated and like maybe it was my fault for getting a delicate wallpaper so I didn’t insist anything be re-done. In the meantime they have installed the toilet, vanity and medicine cabinet. But I’m really disappointed and it looks bad. It’s York brand wallpaper, so an established company. I don’t think it’s my fault anymore for purchasing it. I think maybe it wasn’t installed properly? Contractor says he’ll credit me for install and I can leave it up, or he will credit me and they will remove it but refuse to reinstall same paper. They will install different paper. Or I can have someone else hang the same paper again. What would you do?