Nightmare ceiling - possible distemper

[Eveofdiscovery]

Hi there,
I've been reading the posts here with interest, and wish I'd found this site at the beginning of the week!

I'm decorating my daughter's bedroom. We are newly moved into an Edwardian housing association property, hasn't had much love or attention over the past 20/30 years.

I've stripped the flaking satin ceiling paint. In most parts it came away in sheets leaving a chalky coating beneath. I filled, sanded and then washed the ceiling before emulsioning it this morning. An hour later I discovered large stains coming through the emulsion. Went to B&Q bought some Zinsser BIN. When I applied this to the ceiling the new emulsion started flaking off on the roller. So I once again scrapped the ceiling but the white chalky stuff was pretty much impossible to remove completely.

I carried out a test patch of the sealer on the freshly stripped area and it seemed OK so have now coated about 1/3 of the ceiling in sealer before running out! (I only bought a 1l tin as it said it would cover 12m2) My problem is that now it has dried, the finish is far from smooth, more like an 80s paint effect where sand is added to emulsion! I plan to seal the rest of the ceiling with the Zinsser and daren't sand it all down again for fear it will lose it's adhesion. Any suggestions for how to get a decent finish that doesn't look like stipple paint?

thanks

 

[TheDec]

The only way to achieve a good result would be to remove the distemper using warm water and a broad edged scraper, then when dry apply an oil based primer sealer such as Dulux Trade. Then apply any filler that may be needed and after sanding apply the sealer to the filled areas. You should then be fine to continue.

Dec

 

[Eveofdiscovery]

Thank you for that.

What should I do about the 1/3 of the ceiling I've already sealed with Zinsser, but is looking grainy and rough? I tried to scrape this at the edges this morning but doesn't seem to want to shift, which I guess is it's purpose.

Once I've treated the rest of the ceiling as you suggested is there any sort of top coat I could apply that might smooth out the finish?

Thanks

 

[TheDec]

The grainy effect of which you speak is caused by the distemper and to achieve a good result you should remove it before you attempt to re-decorate, where distemper is concerned there really isn't any form quick fix available and it really should be removed.

Dec