Best way to prepare kitchen walls for painting?

[ray.birch]

Good evening all,

Having installed a new kitchen splash back - we are now repainting the kitchen walls to exactly match the colour. The top coat will be Dulux Trade Diamond Matt (accept that this isn't as wipeable as Eggshell etc, but the low-sheen was preferred by my better half!).

I'm just after some advice as to the best way to prep the walls, given the kitchen environment. I'm wondering whether a light wash with sugar soap and then allowing the walls to dry might be enough?

One thing to complicate matters, having used some Scotch Blue Tape on parts of the existing painted areas recently, upon removal (within only 30 mins of applying), some of the paint came away with the tape. This makes me think that the current paint bond is not as brilliant as I'd like. Is there anything that you can recommend that would solve this issue (ranging from sand the lot down and start again, to some sort of stabilising solution (Zinsser Gardz or Peel Stop?) that might work?

Many many thanks all!
Ray

 

[misterhelpful]

There's no hard and fast rule on which paint must be used in a kitchen but, as you know, acrylic eggshell is far more serviceable.

If the walls are already painted with matt, all you need to do is clean the surface and repaint with the Diamond Matt, paying particular attention to any greasy areas. However, if the existing paint has any form of sheen to it - vinyl silk, soft sheen, eggshell - you should give the whole area a light sanding with 120-180 grit sandpaper in order to avoid the matt paint 'crazing' as it dries.

A sealer might be overkill if you just have a little paint that has pulled away with masking tape, but if you suspect that the existing paint may start to bubble/blister/peel when you apply new paint, Gardz would be a good option.

 

[ray.birch]

Just wanted to pop back and say thank you for replying mister helpful!

I ended up giving the area a sanding with 120 grit sandpaper. In some places where the original paint had been applied pretty roughshod, this meant sanding back almost to bare plaster. As a result (and trying to mitigate the risk of problems down the line), I ended up coating the whole wall with Zinsser Peel Stop first. Given that the 1l tin of Peel Stop was only about £10, and it's meant that the Dulux has applied very smoothly, it seems to have done the trick at reasonable cost!