The short answer
Dream Wallpaper Installers covers Olympia Heights, about ten miles south of Hialeah in Miami-Dade County. We specialize in prepping plaster-over-block walls in ranch-style homes and then installing murals, accent walls, grasscloth, vinyl and more.
Olympia Heights is an unincorporated neighborhood in Miami-Dade County, about ten miles due south of our Hialeah base, and much of it is made up of single-story houses built from concrete block and finished inside with plaster. Those homes are solid, but their walls rarely arrive perfectly flat after decades of repainting, picture hooks, and the occasional remodel. That is where our work starts. We prepare and repair the surface, then install the wallcovering you have in mind, whether that is a classic print, a grasscloth, a mural for the family room, or tough vinyl for a busy kitchen. Removal of old paper, peel and stick, ceiling installs and commercial projects are part of what we do here as well.
Reading a plaster-over-block wall
Concrete block is not usually the problem. The trouble lives in the layers on top of it. Over the years, a typical Olympia Heights living room may have been painted half a dozen times, sometimes in glossy enamel, sometimes in flat latex, with patches of joint compound where shelves or TV brackets once hung. Each of those areas takes primer and paste differently, and a thin wallpaper will reveal every one of them.
During our walk-through, we run a light across the wall at a low angle to spot ridges and dips, press on suspicious areas to find loose plaster, and check corners for cracks that open and close with the seasons. Exterior walls get extra attention near the floor and under windows, where moisture from heavy summer rain sometimes wicks in.
- Loose or hollow plaster is cut back and refilled
- Hairline cracks are opened slightly, filled and taped where they tend to move
- Gloss paint is scuffed so primer bonds
- Heavy texture is skim coated to create a smooth plane
- A wallcovering primer goes on last, sized to the paper you picked
Family rooms, murals and feature walls
Ranch layouts often have one long, uninterrupted wall in the family room or along a dining area, and that kind of surface is ideal for a mural. A landscape, a botanical print, or an oversized geometric pattern can turn a plain space into the room everyone gathers in. Because a mural is printed as a set of panels, the wall must be flat and square enough that each panel lines up with the next. We check plumb and level before the first panel goes up and plan where seams will fall so they do not split a focal element.
Smaller statement walls work well in bedrooms and home offices. A bold paper behind a bed or a desk changes the feeling of the room without the commitment of covering every surface.
Climate considerations for an inland neighborhood
Olympia Heights sits inland, so it feels less salt air than coastal neighborhoods, but it shares the same muggy wet season from May through October and the same afternoon downpours. Houses in this area often have older window units or ducts that do not cool every room evenly, which can leave one bedroom noticeably damper than another. We ask clients to run the system steadily during installation, and we may suggest a portable dehumidifier for a room that stays clammy.
From June 1 to November 30, we watch for tropical storms. When one is approaching, work is rescheduled. After heavy weather, we make sure walls are dry before covering them.
Removing old paper the right way
If a previous owner left wallpaper in the kitchen or bathroom, we take it down completely, including the backing layer, and clean off the old paste. Skipping that last step is a common shortcut that causes new paint to crackle or new paper to lift. Where removal pulls up a thin layer of plaster, we skim and sand the spot so the wall is smooth again.
Kitchens and bathrooms are good candidates for vinyl afterward, since it handles steam and wiping far better than paper-faced products.
Around Olympia Heights
We regularly work in the surrounding communities of West Miami, Sweetwater, Doral, Miami Springs and Miami. Shops, offices and clinics in the area can book commercial wallcovering installations, including heavier vinyl rated for high-traffic corridors.
