Help- Re-painting water damaged area

[xplosiv]

Hello

I had a bad leaky roof which is in the middle of a repair. Water came in through the area around the window, also through the brickwork, which has caused damaged and bubbling paint.

Once everything has fully dried out I want to re-paint the areas affected. The thing is, if I simply scrape/sand away the bubbly paint and then re-paint over it, it'll look really naff as the different levels of paint will be obvious (I know this from a past incident!).

How would I go about making the paintwork smooth and like it was before the leak? I assume it needs some kind of micro-skimming job which is probably beyond my capabilities.

Do you have any tips, or am I better off simply getting in a professional decorator to deal with it? I'm guessing a job like this will be like bread and butter for a pro?

Thanks in advance for any comments / tips!

 

[misterhelpful]

EasiFill is the most forgiving product if you are not confident of doing the job well. It can be mixed quite thinly allowing minor levelling jobs to be done comfortably and is very easy to sand flush if you over-fill.

The most important part of the job is to allow the area/s to dry thoroughly before starting. Scrape away all flaky paint, plaster, etc and seal the surface with something to stop water stains bleeding through. To do this, you can either use alkali resisting primer directly onto any bare plaster then fill, sand, mist the filler with diluted emulsion and paint or mist the bare plaster with diluted emulsion, then fill, sand and apply a stain blocking paint* before the finish coat/s. Oil based undercoat can also be used to cover some water stains but doesn't always work on heavily stained areas. Remember to mist the filler before using your finishing paint/stain block otherwise you may get adhesion problems and patchiness.

*Stain blocking paint will flash through the topcoat/s when wet, but will dry out evenly.