Paint bathroom window sills and surrounds while still using the bathroom

[jaimeobeirne]

Hi all,

I painted my bathroom taking several days to do so without using the bath/shower and giving it several days to dry.

The paint is cracking/peeling around the windows which are recessed. This was the original reason for re-painting it and I "thought" I did scrape off all the old paint properly and painted it with Zinsser primer etc. but it still is peeling off and either showing the old paint, or bare plaster.

Q1: Could I repaint those window surrounds (they are both recessed) still use the bathroom by taping off the area with plastic sheeting or similar (so no steam gets in)? I would be able to take down the tape from 9am til 7pm every day to let it dry properly but having no bathroom and 3 kids is tough. Is this just a stupid idea and asking to paint it infinite times?

Q2: The condensation is bad in the bathroom even with an extractor fan (new). Partly because window at the end of the bath doesnt even open (no handle its not that its broken). It is only particularly bad around the windows - all the other paint is sound, it was still sound from the painting 3 years ago where the paint around the windows was starting to crack/peel. Is there a special type of paint I should use or something else I can do to improve it?

Thanks for any tips.

 

[opps]

Photos would help.

 

[jaimeobeirne]

 

[jaimeobeirne]

 

[jaimeobeirne]

 

[jaimeobeirne]

Posted photos thanks for your suggestion, and advice appreciated

 

[opps]

I would scrape away the blown paint, sand it and then use a shellac based primer, and then paint over that.

I suspect that the main problem is that your airflow is insufficient.

I don't know what paint you currently have. If you opted for a water based eggshell, the moist air will settle on the underside of the window reveal, and just drip down.

The other possibility is that the exterior part of the window is allowing moisture in- on the balance of probability, that seems very unlikely.

 

[jaimeobeirne]

Thankyou - just to be clear you are saying after shellac based primer you would use eggshell? Also what did you think to the idea of taping off the areas I want to paint so the bathroom can remain in use? Is that just silly?

 

[opps]

The shellac primer will be touch dry in less than 30 minutes. The water based eggshell will be shower proof (steam) in about 4-6 hours.

You may however find that water drips down to the lower part of the window reveal. It would therefore be prudent to use waterbased eggshell throughout.

 

[jaimeobeirne]

Ah ok great so I can just paint during the day when the kids and wife are out of the shower- perfect. I should get a good 12 hours with nobody using it. I’ll use water based eggshell round the entire recess window/s then. Thanks for the tips much appreciated