Dreamscape Wall Mural

[JonWolf]

We're working on a project that features a lot of wallpaper - hundreds of linear feet. This is for an interior exhibit that will be up for several years and receive a lot of traffic.
Been testing the various solvent-printable wall films, and have narrowed the list down to two. At this point it's between the MacTac Deco Satin and Dreamscape Caviar.
We need something that's matte, durable, self-adhesive, and preferably has some texture to it. Will be printing on an Epson S30670 eco-solvent.
(PhotoTex is out because it's not opaque/darkens at the overlaps)

I love the texture of the Dreamscape Caviar wall film. My concern is that when tiled it will curl up at the edges.
The MacTac DecoSatin has less of a texture, but seems to lay flatter than the Dreamscape.

Does anyone have experience with tiled wall murals using Dreamscape wall wrap or MacTac Deco Satin? We want the self-adhesive for ease of installation.
Any thoughts or info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[genericname]

Just curious, why not go with a cast/cast vinyl/lam combo? A good cast lam will minimize any possible edge curl, can add the texture you're looking for, and add longevity to the inks.

 

[MikePro]

no experience with the self-adhesive here, but I use Dreamscape - Suede & wallpaper paste all the time with zero issues.

I've also saved quite a few thousand$'s over the years, by placing 300ft. roll orders, that get shipped from manufacturer... to the tune of nearly 4-150' rolls for the price of 3.
they are much too big to fit onto a printer, but spooling onto two separate rolls takes almost no time at all.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Can I ask why you are using a self-adhesive material over a true paste-up media? I'm guessing by the nature of this post you don't have a ton of experience with wall murals like this. I don't mean that to be offensive so please don't take it that way, just curious. If you've not don much of this, I can tell you self-adhesive material is NOT ideal for any sort of a large scale or long-term installation.

It sounds like this is a pretty large project, and I'm assuming it's intended to be up for a while (but correct me if I'm wrong). If that's the case, I would not consider self-adhesive material as an option. You will find that a paste-up material will last significantly longer, give a much more professional finished look, will give you a vast array of textures to work with, and ultimately will probably cost about the same, if not less.

We've printed many many thousands of square feet of Korographics wall media and have yet to have a failure with it. We routinely see bubbling, peeling or lifting issues with self-adhesive materials on even short-term or promotional jobs (and we've tried just about everything out there, including Phototex, Avery and Oracal "wall vinyls", cast vinyls, Dreamscape adhesive wallpaper, etc).

I would also look around your area and find a good, experienced wallpaper hanger. While you can try to hang paste-up material yourself (and it's not really hard), in the long run it's more efficient and cost effective to pay a professional to install it for you. You'll find that the self-adhesive material is more expensive per sq. ft. (general speaking, I'm sure there are some exceptions to this) than non-adhesive paste-up wallpaper, and once you factor in your labor to install it vs. outsourced labor to install paste-up material, you'll come out even or possibly slightly ahead, and with paste-up material you will be giving your client a FAR superior product.

My only other comment, regardless of whether you go with self-adhesive or paste-up material, is about abrasion protection. When you're printing on textured materials, you cannot laminate with a film laminate. And, when you're solvent printing textured material (especially with smaller eco- and mild-solvent printers), the final prints are very prone to scratching. If these are going in any area that gets even a moderate amount of "traffic", you will want to strongly consider a liquid clearcoat or liquid laminate of some sort. Without some sort of clear topcoat you will find your beautiful graphics are going to be scratched up pretty badly after a short time, just from people walking near the wall and rubbing against it, or a purse sliding along it, or a chair sliding up against it. Heck, it's going to get surprisingly scratched up just from installation; that texture means easy to scratch. Again, this is (lots) of experience speaking, eco-solvent on this material with no topcoat is asking for trouble. We've since switched to UV printing all of our wall graphics and that eliminates the need to topcoat it, but if that's not an option you need to factor it in.

 

[PhotoTex Group Inc.]

Photo Tex Solvent Opaque (OPA)

Just want to give an update that the Solvent Opaque Block-Out Photo Tex. It is on order and in the making and should have stock in March. The Latex/Water-Base/UV Photo Tex Block-out know as Photo Tex - OPA (Opaque) is in stock NOW and your going to love the white point. Happy to send anyone a free sample roll to test. walterjr@phototexgroup.com

 

[hansman]

We used the Dreamscape non adhesive backed (standard wallpaper fabric) it was a nice sand type matte. It damaged easily.
Bottom line we ended up using an old school HP-9000 standard solvent printer and a professional wallpaper installer.

 

[MrRu]

Insignia, you mentioned you are running your wall graphics on a UV printer. I've been running an Océ 460GT for a couple months or so but have yet to attempt printing wall media. One of my vendors is pushing the Fibermark line. Do you have any experience with that brand and UV printing on it?