Hanging stuff on glossy dorm walls?

October 26, 2017 7:32 PM

What will stick to a dorm wall without eventually tearing off the paint? The paint is new, glossy latex over cinder blocks. We've done the whole dance with 3M Command Strips, hot glue on painter's tape, and more. Everything falls down. :7( Holes are, of course, right out.

My daughter's dorm walls look freshly painted for the new school year. Nice! But nothing sticks to them for more than a couple of days. Boo!

We are well-versed in using 3M products, but the Command Strips keep falling down after a few days. (Yes, with the rubbing alcohol. Yes, with multiple pieces. Heck, we even called 3M!) We tried hot glue on painter's tape, and the tape itself let go.

None of the items are very heavy: 8"x10" photos, part of a string of lights, stuff like that. Thanks for any suggestions!

posted by wenestvedt to Home & Garden (20 answers total)

Well nails go in surprisingly well and are tiny enough holes that patching at end of year is easy. Uhhh answering for a friend.
posted by chasles at 7:51 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Extra-strength glue dots are not quite as strong as 3M strips, but because of their gooeyness are lots more tacky/grippy on challenging surfaces. Not technically removeable, but comments suggest you can get the stuff off easily with steam when you're done.
posted by Bardolph at 7:57 PM on October 26, 2017

Best answer: Sanding the paint would probably eliminate the gloss and allow the command strips to stick but is probably more damage than you'd like to do.

Depending on the width of the walls (IE: less than 8') you could use a 1x6 cut to a 1/8th of an inch shorter than the wall and placed at the top of the wall as an improvised picture rail. Use a couple cedar wedges (available in the door section of the Borg you get the 1x6 from) as a jam wedge at the end of the board.

On a longer wall you can do a similar thing vertically with the assistance of a cork board or white board (available in many different sizes from office supply places). Cut two 1x4s (or 2x4s) slightly shorter than the height of the wall. Place the 1x4s against the wall the width of your chosen cork board apart. Use wedges at the floor to jam the 1x4s in place then mount the cork board to the 2x4s. If the ceiling is gyproc and not concrete you'll want to place a length of 1x4, say half again as long as the cork board width, between the vertical lumber and the ceiling (wide dimension flat against the ceiling) to prevent the verticals from damaging the ceiling.
posted by Mitheral at 8:03 PM on October 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

What about rubber cement?
posted by bondcliff at 8:03 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

You want outdoor mounting tape for the posters. have glossy painted cinderblock walls in my classroom and can hang large laminated posters on it. The "permanent outdoor" part seems very dire and like it will never come off, but it DOES, I promise: the important thing is that it is thick heavy-duty so it all peels off in one piece, but only once you have decided it is time for it to come off. This is much much better than doublesided foam tape that is all crumbly and terrible always leaves that one thin piece of its outside and this is also yes, much better than command strips.

Try some, you'll see. Worst case scenario you're out $6.50.
posted by charmedimsure at 8:11 PM on October 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Painters tape is less adhesive because it is designed to be removed.

I know a bunch of classroom teachers with painted cinder block walls and they use various things to hang posters and artwork. Blue-Tack/ripoffs of Blue-Tack, hot glue gun right on the wall/items, and Mavalous white tape/Blue Dorm Tape are the most popular. If you continue to have problems I would just use a bit of sandpaper to remove some of the gloss and stick some Blue-Tack on those areas. They will just repaint at the end of the year.

(When I lived in a dorm I just nailed/stapled stuff right onto the walls and filled the holes with toothpaste. I was a rebel.)
posted by xyzzy at 8:34 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Nthing just to nail it in and fill with toothpaste at the end. Nothing works great on dorm walls but I love the idea of a ceiling hang.
posted by Marinara at 9:34 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Just wanted to point out that anything hung from the ceiling is unlikely to survive an inspection by the fire marshal.
posted by musicinmybrain at 10:19 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Did you already try mounting putty?
posted by Knowyournuts at 11:04 PM on October 26, 2017

I'd try gaffer's tape, and use that stuff to tape a surface, like cardstock or cardboard, to which you attach your goods, so that the tape isn't on your poster or photo.

Or just nail it. Even if you dont' trust the toothpaste method, putty is cheap, and you can get a very small jar/bottle of hobby paint which will cover your sins. Just take the stuff down and putty up in enough time for the putty to dry before painting.

Seconding sanding the surface, too. Hot glue will prefer a sanded surface, and you can always use more of it. Even your basic party glue, the low-temperature hot glue, should be perfectly fine for this application and, pro-tip: dab (seriously, just dab, don't pour it on or it'll mess the wall) a little nail polish remover on it and it'll become tacky and release from the wall later on.
posted by Sunburnt at 12:06 AM on October 27, 2017

I've been printing my trade posters on a sticky fabric which my print shop does for me, unsure of media name but it sticks to anything - plywood, whiteboards and gloss surfaces, even damp surfaces and tent walls - and then peels off again, rinse and repeat for 90 times. I'll find out name next week.
posted by unearthed at 2:28 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've used sewing needles to hang things on drywall with minimal damage, but I'm not sure if they'd go into cinderblock.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:11 AM on October 27, 2017

I lived in a dorm for all four years of my undergrad. You know what I did? I used tacs and just paid the 20$ "tack damage" fees. Because it was worth 20$ to me to not have things fall down all the time.

your fee may be more than 20$, so do your research... but yeah, sometimes the fee is worth it....
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 5:25 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

When I was in college with similar walls, we used the blue tack originally (I remember that we called it sticky tac but that that wasn't the actual product name; the bookstore sold it). It did well until winter, when the very dry and very hot heat in my dorm room dried it out a bit. Eventually though we just used nails or pushpins and then filled in the holes at the end of the year as best we could. I don't think I did a particularly good or complete job filling in the holes and I didn't get fined or in trouble, but my dorm building was old, so maybe schools would be stricter in other circumstances.
posted by Caz721 at 6:51 AM on October 27, 2017

Response by poster: I also thought of sanding this morning, and then realized the Res Life inspectors would notice it (given the proximity to a big window) as soon as they walk through the door next spring. :7( Same thing for even tiny holes: the roommate already damaged the paint by hanging something sticky, and they girls know they're going to get inspected verrrry closely. The paint is a weird, neutral color, and I don't know where I would be able to get something that matches in that town.

But I really like Mitheral's ideas of a making frame to brace in and then hang stuff from. It's got me thinking about what's in her room, and whether I might be able to get working -- but I hadn't planned to be back up there for a while. Hmmm...... off to the drawing board!!
posted by wenestvedt at 9:23 AM on October 27, 2017

Response by poster: (And that reminds me: has anyone ever contacted a college's Residential Life staff with a small suggestion, like "please run a strip of 1"x3" across the wall in the space over the desk, to allow student to hang lightweight items and not have to waste brain power finding adhesive solutions" with any success? I am going to Tweet this at them, but I would love to have some anecdata, good or bad. Thanks!)
posted by wenestvedt at 9:25 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Straight pins leave holes so small that I'd be shocked if they were able to find them. I've also heard of people using things like spray starch or fabric paste to hang light things like fabrics or posters (only works for stuff that's water-safe or you don't mind ruining later).
posted by dust.wind.dude at 11:15 AM on October 27, 2017

Some years ago, my college dorm room had that wooden strip. Hanging posters is a requirement of dorm life, c'mon.
posted by theora55 at 3:24 PM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hot glue peels off cinder block without pulling off paint, if you are carefully about prying it up with say, a putty knife.
posted by raspberrE at 5:11 PM on October 27, 2017

At work on our cement walls (and in film) we use what we call snot tape. It seems a painter's tape company has co-opted that name, but the Googles show me that it can also be called toffee tape or rubber resin tape or Butyl Tape.
posted by peagood at 8:38 AM on October 29, 2017