Bathroom wall

[garyslater]

I hope that somebody is able to help. I need to decorate my bathroom and plan to paint it. The problem is that the surface is in very bad condition. The existing paint has 'cracked' over large areas as shown in the picture. Does anybody know what may have caused this and what preparation I should do before I redecorate?
Many thanks in advance for any help.
//media.diynot.com/48000_47624_58334_22408238_thumb.jpg

Untitled

• garyslater
• 16 Mar 2013
• 1

Untitled

• garyslater
• 16 Mar 2013
• 1

 

[dcdec]

It could be several things including matt applied over silk, paint applied to thickly or not given enough time to dry between coats.

Needs to be scraped off really, prime bare spots with thinned emulsion, easy filled or similar (two coats), rubbed down, primed and painted.
A coat of peel stop from zinsser may be useful, perhaps try it on one wall and see how it goes.

 

[garyslater]

Thanks - is there anything I can apply to make the paint easy to scrape off as it doesnt sound easy!

 

[dcdec]

Hi Gary, not really, its probably a case of removing whats loose or will come off and then trying the peel stop. A wall paper steamer may soften it a bit but don't buy one specifically. The peel stop should bind down the paint and prevent anymore lifting or cracking, what i'm not sure about is if it will 'fill' the cracks or even if subsequent coats of paint will, its hard to judge without seeing it for real but i think it will work, like i said though try it out on a small wall first.