Remove emulsion

[jtheobald]

I have an emulsioned plastered wall (not plasterboard) which I want to re-paper. Some of the paint appears secure, but in areas paint is flaking. I'd imagine when I wet the wall with paste and the weight of the wallpaper may make matters worse.

Therefore I've decided the paint some come off. Is there any easy way to do this other than scrape the old paint off. Wondered whether there was a chemical paint stripper but I don't want to damage the plaster?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Zampa]

Your up against it...emulsion can be quite hard to remove..paint stripper may work but it isnt very effective on emulsion...unless you buy the caustic type...which is more suited to moulding etc and it will cost you a fortune.

And the residue from paint stripper will soak into the wall...possibly causing problems when you paint

First thing you should try is washing the emul off...it could be contract emulsion which will wash off with hot water a scourer and plenty of grease..........elbow grease that is!.

Other option will be to try scrpaing it off dry with a window scraper...this might work but you could end up damaging the wall quite badly and end up having loads of filling to do..

I would scrape back the loose as much as possible then seal the wall with dulux stain block, fill around the bits you have had to scrape off, sand down then line it.

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

I think what I'd be most inclined to do is use a heat gun to scrape it off. Both emulsion and oil based paints will soften from heat, but I don't think you can damage real plaster with the 3 or 400 degrees F you're likely to be able to achieve with an electric heat gun. Or, at least, I've never been able to damage real plaster with a heat gun.

And, if it were me, I'd take single edge razor blade and dull it by pressing it face first into a belt sander to take the edge off and leave a square nose on the front of it. Then, use a pair of needle nose style locking pliers to grip the back edge of the razor blade and use that tool along with the heat gun to scrape the paint off your wall.

You can buy cheap heat guns, but once you find out how handy one of these tools comes in, you'll be using it all the time. If you can afford it, pay more for a better quality one with electronic temperature control. That will allow you to remove coatings from wood without scorching the wood.

 

[Zampa]

And, if it were me, I'd take single edge razor blade and dull it by pressing it face first into a belt sander to take the edge off and leave a square nose on the front of it. Then, use a pair of needle nose style locking pliers to grip the back edge of the razor blade and use that tool along with the heat gun to scrape the paint off your wall.

Or in other words...a stanley window scraper...

Blimey Nester mate we are talking the UK here...not a remote village in Albania

Interesting thoughts about using a hot air stripper though...never tried that with Emulsion...I'll give that a go next week in work

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

Zampa:

No, not a Stanley window scraper. I call it a "Nestor scraper" because I think I "invented" it, for lack of a better word.

You take a single edge razor blade and grip it in the jaws of a pair of needle nose locking pliers, and hold that tool upside down. The long jaws of the pliers will hold the razor at a shallow angle to the surface, which turns out to be close to the angle that the razor blade is sharpened at, and that means it holds the blade at a near perfect angle for scraping.

BUT, the only time I use it that way is when I'm using that "Nestor scraper" to shave old mastic off of plaster after removing ceramic tiles. This is the ONLY tool I know of that will remove that old mastic quickly and easily. It cuts through hot mastic very efficiently.

When I use it for scraping paint off wood, I dull the blade of the razor to avoid gouging the wood. Also, since the blade is dull, it's not important to hold the tool upside down to get the blade at the right angle. If the paint has been softened by heat, then you can scrape it off wood effectively regardless of what orientation you hold the scraper in. I figured that he'd be as likely to gouge the plaster scraping paint off of it just as he would with wood, so I figured it'd be better to dull the blade just as I do with wood.

If you ever need to remove old ceramic tile mastic from a wall, remember this post. That tool I describe works very well with a heat gun to remove old mastic.