I bought my house almost 8 years ago, looking back it had clearly been bodged to sell, hind sight Ey?!! I'm currently redecorating a bedroom, it was decorated previously by myself about 7 years ago without any problems yet now, while painting one of the walls with a medium pile roller and matt emulsion the paint is bubbling and peeling off once the new paint has soaked in a bit. The wall looks like it was re-plastered before I bought it, to be honest it looks like the plaster was thrown on from the other side of the room!! I've looked at the stuff that is peeling off and can distinguish between the paint I used to decorate originally and what seems like a really thin stretchy layer that must have been applied to the new plaster. I'm thinking that the cowboy that bodged it used too strong a mix of PVA and emulsion. How can I solve this problem? Once painted, it can be peeled off on hand sized sheets but where it is dry it's hard to get any off with a scraper. I don't want to waste paint just to be able to peel it all off and start again and I could do without sanding off all the dry paint. Will I be able to PVA over everything, let it dry then begin painting again. It will be patchy of course but I want to give it 2 coats anyway.
Hi Bomber. Your best bet is to try and get as much off as possible, as it's clearly not stuck on properly. If the paint comes off quite easily right down to the plaster - or the 'sticky layer' - when you roll on a fresh coat, then it'll also come off with just s spray of water, or even gentle use of a steam stripper. That, along with a nice wide scraper - should shift most of it. Once it's clean, then seal/prime it with something like Zinsser Gardz or Everbuild 406 - stuff that'll soak right in to any exposed plaster, but will also coat and seal any other stuff that's on there. If the thought of removing the old paint is too much to bear, then you might get away with simply sanding the surface down to the point that it's fairly even (I mean, you are bound to have some ledges there betwixt the paint layers and the non-painted bits), and then go over it all with one of the above products. These should seal the surface ready for a fresh coat of paint. Don't use PVA on walls or ceilings before painting. It is sometimes used before a skim of plaster, but not paint. Keep PVA well away from paint. In fact, make up a label right now saying "Keep out of reach of paint!" and stick it on your tub of PVA. Make a similar label for the paint. Then put them in different rooms. At opposite ends of the house. In fact put one in the garage. And lock it. In fact...
So don't use the PVA, right??!! Excellent, thanks for the advise Devil's Advocate, I'll give it a spray with water and see what happens. Either way I'm going to take it back to plaster and start from scratch and do it properly. Note to self, when contemplating buying a 100 year old house......don't, or at least buy one that hasn't been bodged!! Got the bathroom, stairs and landing to tackle yet!! Thanks again.
What do you suggest, KIAB - a good coat of Gardz to seal it all and work from there? Bomber, see what happens with a spray of water - give it a few minutes and see if it's a possibly goer scrapping it off. Or, do you have a wallpaper stripper? If so, try that - 5 seconds or so and see if that works. If it turns out to be a hellish mess like KIAB suggest, then perhaps a light sanding followed by Gardz. Once sealed, you then do whatever is necessary to get it looking smooth again. Perhaps a test-run of both methods?
Prepare the wall as best you can then seal it with an oil based primer sealer such as Albany Primer Sealer from Brewers. Any making good required use easI fil.
Thanks for the pointers. I've set about it with a spray of hot water, it is coming off but not as easily as it did with a coat of paint. I was tempted to buy some cheap paint and roller it on then scrape it straight off, had the new carpet not gone down yesterday I would have done that. It seems that whatever the clown put on the new plaster is thicker in some places or not even on in others! I've got the majority of it off now and am going to seal it tomorrow with which ever product you have both mentioned that i can get my hands on. Thanks again.
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