Advice - Painting / Plaster

[dantheram]

Hi,

i'm trying to correct a mess that i've inherited from the previous owners of our house.

i have silk paint over bear plaster which has essentially formed a sheet of paint which, with very little encouragement, peels off the wall.

What we have been trying to do is paint over it, trying not to lift the silk paint off the wall whilst doing so.

On the whole it's been fine but, as you can see below i have had to peel sheets off in certain places and in one spot the plaster came off too.

1) Hole in plaster




2) Peeling paint




3) More peeled paint




what i'm after is the best the solution for the holes in the plaster, assume just fill and sand back, and the solution for the paint - do i peel it all off and paint a watered down emulsion over the plaster or just paint over it as it is, removing any really loose bits?

Any advice much appericated

 

[blightymam]

Yes, fill any holes and sand down. The paint am afraid needs to be scraped off as much as possible - any loose bits, not just the very loose bits. Any stubborn parts can be sanded down & feather the edges otherwise you'll be left with outlines showing through the paint. Sadly you've got the result of a previous owner not using a mist coat - we did too here in our house in the one room we didn't have distemper on the walls. We took nearly all the paint off, bar a couple of small, well stuck bits.

And yes, mist coat the bare plaster otherwise you run the risk of it happening again when you paint. Best of luck!!

 

[dantheram]

Yes, fill any holes and sand down. The paint am afraid needs to be scraped off as much as possible - any loose bits, not just the very loose bits. Any stubborn parts can be sanded down & feather the edges otherwise you'll be left with outlines showing through the paint. Sadly you've got the result of a previous owner not using a mist coat - we did too here in our house in the one room we didn't have distemper on the walls. We took nearly all the paint off, bar a couple of small, well stuck bits.

And yes, mist coat the bare plaster otherwise you run the risk of it happening again when you paint. Best of luck!!

The opposing wall has the same issue but the silk paint is not peeling (I could easily peel it off if I wanted), is it better to pull it off or paint over it here? Bearing in mind it's not started peeling anywhere.

 

[blightymam]

Entirely up to you. You could just take your chances and hope it stays up over time! You may find knocking or scraping into the walls accidentally may start it peeling off. Personally speaking I'd do it well once and for all, but I appreciate the effort it takes to remove paint. Perhaps that wouldn't be too bad at yours if you say you can easily peel the paint off. Good luck with whatever you do!