Painted wall cracking
- Thread starter ekmdgrf
- Start date
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The paint is clearly failing to adhere to the substrate.
What sort of paint is it (make and type?)
What sort of surface is under the paint and what preparation was done prior to painting?
What sort of paint is it (make and type?)
What sort of surface is under the paint and what preparation was done prior to painting?
It also looks like it has been applied way too thickly, which will cause it to crack as it dries out if it's not adhering to the underlying surface.
The paint (Dulux Matt Emulsion) was applied with a roller pretty evenly.
The wall was replastered about year and a half ago, we painted it with two coats of white and two coats of the Dulux Matt Emulsion back then (after the wall had fully dried out) and had no issues.
Earlier this year we decided to move some light switches and sockets on the wall, so had to cut new chases, these were filled with Easi-Fill and left for a good two weeks before sanding. Then I gave the wall a coat of the Dulux again and this happened.
The weird thing is that pretty much all the refilled chases were fine, apart from a couple of bits. There were also other areas that flaked off that we hadn't even filled. When it did flake off it took off both sets of paint and went right back to the plaster.
I'm going to have to use filler on those bits to try and get the wall even again, but don't want to fall into the same trap. We've done a lot of chasing of cables and painting over with similar paint over the past 2 years and haven't seen anything like this before.
The only other thing I thought it might be was that maybe I didn't clean down the wall enough after sanding and some fine plaster dust reacted with the paint and caused the issue. I'm clutching at straws though.
Any thoughts welcome.
The wall was replastered about year and a half ago, we painted it with two coats of white and two coats of the Dulux Matt Emulsion back then (after the wall had fully dried out) and had no issues.
Earlier this year we decided to move some light switches and sockets on the wall, so had to cut new chases, these were filled with Easi-Fill and left for a good two weeks before sanding. Then I gave the wall a coat of the Dulux again and this happened.
The weird thing is that pretty much all the refilled chases were fine, apart from a couple of bits. There were also other areas that flaked off that we hadn't even filled. When it did flake off it took off both sets of paint and went right back to the plaster.
I'm going to have to use filler on those bits to try and get the wall even again, but don't want to fall into the same trap. We've done a lot of chasing of cables and painting over with similar paint over the past 2 years and haven't seen anything like this before.
The only other thing I thought it might be was that maybe I didn't clean down the wall enough after sanding and some fine plaster dust reacted with the paint and caused the issue. I'm clutching at straws though.
Any thoughts welcome.
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That extra info makes things clearer for us.
It is very likely that the dust has caused an adhesion issue but also you state that when you painted the new plaster 18 months ago you applied two coats of white. Was the first coat a mist coat?
The reason for mist coating isn't necessarily just to allow you first finish coats to adhere (which often appear to be fine) but also to avoid issues like you have encountered further down the line when you redecorate.
The best thing you can do now is to scrape off the loose flaking paint back to a sound edge, mist coat the bare areas, fine surface fill to feather in the proud edges, re-mist the filler and then repaint the whole area.
It is very likely that the dust has caused an adhesion issue but also you state that when you painted the new plaster 18 months ago you applied two coats of white. Was the first coat a mist coat?
The reason for mist coating isn't necessarily just to allow you first finish coats to adhere (which often appear to be fine) but also to avoid issues like you have encountered further down the line when you redecorate.
The best thing you can do now is to scrape off the loose flaking paint back to a sound edge, mist coat the bare areas, fine surface fill to feather in the proud edges, re-mist the filler and then repaint the whole area.
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