Should it be possible to peel paint from the wall?

[robmorris]

Hi

As a guess, the house I recently bought has been re plastered throughout within last couple years and covered in magnolia.

My young children have been 'having fun' in their room and managed to strip half a wall of paint just by using their fingers! The paint comes off almost like it was paper in large 'sheets' leaving what looks like brand new plaster.

I assume this should not be possible if it was painted properly?
I really dont want to have to strip the whole house of paint before repainting - do i have a choice? Also If I was to paint over it and also onto the exposed plaster there is a ridge (from plaster to depth of old paint) can i sand down the edge or do i have to accept the step?

Cheers

 

[misterhelpful]

The plaster wasn't mist coated correctly and has absorbed too much moisture from the emulsion, leaving you with a vinyl film on the surface.

It's too late to mist coat, unless you strip it all off, which is probably not worth the hassle. Remove the paint back to a solid edge, mist coat the bare plaster, use fine surface filler around the edges to level out the 'step', sand and re-mist the filler and then paint the whole wall(s). Hopefully, you'll be lucky and the paint won't continue peeling as you roll over it, but if it does, you'll have to stop and use something like Zinsser Gardz or Peel Stop over the entire surface to form a sealing/binder film between old and new paints. You could do this from the start, but I would try the first method to begin with.

 

[robmorris]

Thanks very much

 

[DavidSWP]

Depends how big the wall is, but i'd use the child labor and encourage them to remove as much as possible, then go over with a paint stripping scraper until you get a firm edge, then paint over with Zinsser Gardz and paint with acrylic matt emulsion or wallpaper. You might want to feather the edges by doing some sanding but you'll hardly notice it if painting with matt paint.