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Preparing for the Apocalypse
Installing murals for a museum exhibit

The contractors met the challenge of installing these murals in the rough, uneven concrete.

The Legacy Center Museum had a short time to get 20 murals installed before its preview day and facility opening. Baughman Wallcovering had a week to convert a concrete wall into a showplace. For now, just getting out of the car was a hassle as construction and remodeling hindered transporting materials to the jobsite “The only parking available was off site on side streets. Our access was with city streets and sidewalks and then on to unpaved, wet dirt roads,” said company owner Michael Baughman.

Each mural would have its own spot, but right now things were rough around the edges. “We had to fix void areas between the drywall and the concrete facia during the installation,” said Baughman. “Where the concrete was tight to the drywall, we had to trim tight to curves and jagged concrete edges.” Working with wallcovering contractor Jonah Travisano, Baughman plotted out a five-day timeline.

Day one: Removed loose concrete along the edges, then patched voids in the drywall with Zinsser Ready Patch. Used Kilz to stop bleed-through from permanent markers, which the construction crew had used to mark walls for correct mural placement. Then applied two coats of Zinsser Gardz.

Day two: Applied one coat of Kilz Premium.

Day three: Mural artworks, totaling 1,003 square feet, were delivered to the jobsite. We reviewed each image placement and applied alignment marks using chalk lines to insure correct placement. We rolled each mural on separate PVC pipes and labeled them to avoid confusion and aid in installation. We wrote the mural names on painter’s tape and applied it to the front of each wall where it would be installed.

Days four and five: we rolled on the wallcovering adhesive and allowed it to tack. We applied adhesive a second time by roller and also cut in with brushes. We unrolled the artwork and smoothed it to wall surfaces using a combination of wallpaper brushes and soft plastic smoothers, then we tucked it into the gaps between the drywall and the concrete facia. Where the where the concrete was tight to drywall, we carefully got out our Olfa blades and trimmed the artworks tight to the jagged concrete edges.

Each mural in the right place and ready on time!

The concrete was primed to accept the murals.   The placement of the murals was mapped out before the job began. The contractors met the challenge of installing these murals in the rough, uneven concrete.

Key Products

• Zinsser Ready Patch
• Zinsser Gardz Primer
• Kilz Stain Blocking primer
• Kilz Premium primer
• Dynamite 1 (wallcovering adhesive)