How to identify, and deal with, old distemper?

BruisedThumb said:

Bosswhite said:

I`ve always painted distempered walls ceilings with Stabilising solution over the years without any lasting problems.

Click to expand...

Bosswhite,

What do you mean by 'stabilising solution'? Do you have a brand name for it?

None of the shops or sheds I've spoken to recently even acknowledge its existence!

Click to expand...

Many different Brands, have always used this on Distemper or ceilinglite , thank goodness its few and far between these days.

Well, it's been a hard slog but we're now at the carpet laying stage!!

First of all, the 'old' walls below the picture rail:
We cleaned one wall and half the adjacent wall back to the original 1935-ish plaster. The other half of that wall was recent plaster from which the wallpaper came off cleanly. We treated both those walls with Zinsser Gardz. Stripping the wallpaper off the third wall revealed a painted surface that looked quite good - we treated that one with Zinsser B.I.N.

Then, the 'old' walls above the picture rail:
These had signs of some sort of paint, possibly eggshell. We treated them with Zinsser B.I.N.

I'd planned to start on the newly plastered wall and the skimmed ceiling with a 'mist' coat of non-vinyl emulsion paint. Having got the paint home I checked the instructions on the tub - it said 'Do not thin, use our interior plaster sealer'!!! But the branch of B&Q where I bought the emulsion paint (Brilliant white Valspar) didn't have the matching 'interior plaster sealer' so I bought B&Q's own and applied two coats.

We then gave ceiling and all four walls two coats of the Valspar emulsion (un-thinned). I then fitted new picture rail to the newly plastered wall. The ceiling and the zone above the picture rail then got two coats of B&Q's own brilliant white vinyl emulsion while the walls below the picture rail got two coats of Dulux Apricot White emulsion.

At appropriate stages we washed down the skirting and the original picture rail and door architrave with sugar soap and rubbed them down and then applied brilliant white 'One-Coat Gloss' (actually, we applied two coats!!). The window board was a bit the worse for wear - I scraped that right back to the bare wood. I'd bought a scraper with a tungsten carbide blade from Brewers, it made short work of that job! The back of the window board was a bit 'carrotty' so I gave it some clear Cuprinol, then Dulux Aluminium primer followed by white wood primer and three coats of the brilliant white 'One-Coat Gloss'.

I've probably strayed off-topic as this is in the painting & decorating section. Still, I don't want to start another thread. The floor boards are in a bad way, not T&G and lots of wide gaps. I'd spotted some stiff plastic sheet among the builders' waste in a garden round the corner and thought 'that would be just the job to lay on the floor before I put the underlay down'. But I wasn't able to make contact with the builders concerned and it all disappeared!! So my re-cycling ambition was thwarted!!

Thank you to everyone who replied to my original post.