Matt emulsion everywhere

[RrogerD]

Just bought a house and the vendor has put white matt emulsion over everything and I mean everything; walls, ceilings, covings, light fittings and switches; architraves and skirtings; banisters and doors etc. What is my best solution in remedying this?
It's likely that no keying-in has been done over the previous gloss and this'll be flaking off soon, no doubt.
I don't really want to be replacing all of the woodwork and starting again if I can help it.
Any advice?
Thanks

 

[sparkwright]

Have you tried leaving a damp cloth on an area?

 

[RrogerD]

Have you tried leaving a damp cloth on an area?

Haven't actually but that's possibly a good idea.

 

[opps]

You can use meths to soften the paint on the light fitting. Leave it for a while and it will become soft enough to remove with your fingernail. The rest, sand it and apply an appropriate paint.

Emulsion over woodwork, whilst not advisable, it isn't the end of the world, assuming the original paint was keyed sufficiently- on the balance of probabilty, that didn't happen though.

Sand it back and all should be good.

The damp cloth trick will work, but only if they used inferior products such as low latex paints.

 

[88v8]

After removing the paint, electric fittings can be polished up like new with Solvol Autosol metal polish.

On woodwork, try sanding the paint down, see if you can get a sharp edge. If you can, then repaint, but if it keeps flaking then the adhesion is not good, burn it off and start again.

Twice now we've bought a house from people who just slapped paint on. I suppose it's what most people do, but if one wants to do things properly, it's a right pain.