Basement Retaining Wall Paint Defect

[STEVENk]

Not sure if this is correct section on the forum, but we have a basement flat in Edinburgh and I'm looking to repaint the wall. The issue is the paint appears to be bubbling (?) photos attached. Initally I thought it would be moss etc growing behind but have chipped off some and think this is caused by moisture build-up behind which has just been painted over and over.

Does anyone know of any effective ways of removing this prior to repainting? I've enquired about soda/glass blasting but it's quite expensive considering I'm planning to repaint, or should we just live with it and paint over?

 

[andrew5235]

Looks pretty damp, judging by the green on the steps and the bubbling is build up of salts washed from the stonework. You might be on a hiding to nothing as unless the damp egress is sorted, it will do the same again, however that is likely to be 10's of years of deposit.

I have done something similar before, take a sturdy scraper or a flat spade and scrape of the worst of it and then use a wire brush to smooth it out, paint over. Will not be perfect and may have to do it again in a couple of years, but will be cheap to do.

 

[STEVENk]

Looks pretty damp, judging by the green on the steps and the bubbling is build up of salts washed from the stonework. You might be on a hiding to nothing as unless the damp egress is sorted, it will do the same again, however that is likely to be 10's of years of deposit.

I have done something similar before, take a sturdy scraper or a flat spade and scrape of the worst of it and then use a wire brush to smooth it out, paint over. Will not be perfect and may have to do it again in a couple of years, but will be cheap to do.

Thanks for your comments - was looking at getting heavy duty scraper from screwfix an array of tools to help - think once ive scraped it I may need to repoint some areas which come loose - but seeing its getting repainted then im sure my amateur attempt should be fine.

The wall is pretty damp and our neighbours say they generally re-paint theres annuall - unfortunately it's retaining a public pavement/road so no way of ever damp proofing it