Problem with cracking paint

[oliroe]

DIYer in distress

First of all we sugar soaped existing Matt emulsion and painted 2 coats of B&Q Colours Matt emulsion over it. Cracking appeared so we sanded the cracks down and painted a third coat. Cracking appeared again so we sanded them down, washed the cracks (just in case sugar soap remained on the walls) and applied a unibond PVA solution on the advice of a decorator. These are the cracks that have appeared barely 24 hours after

Options

1. Paper over the problem
2. Re-skim walls (hopefully not as we now have brand new carpet down)
3. Enlarge cracks, fill in and then cover with some sort of sealer. Maybe Polycell Hairline Crack Filler

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance

 

[JohnD]

is the plaster skim coming off the walls?

If you paint on top of PVA the paint will come off.

How old is the house?

What has been done to the plaster previously?

Are the walls plastered brick or what?

The pictures need something to show scale, and size of cracks. a ruler, hand or 10p coin is good.

 

[oliroe]

The house is a 1930's semi but I don't know what is under the plaster. When we bought the house it had Matt emulsion on the walls which had no signs of this cracking. We painted on top of this coat

In one place the plaster skim appears to be coming away from the wall but the rest it's just the paint cracking. These hairline cracks appeared on the first, second and third coats before we ever put PVA on the wall

The inital matt emulsion that we were painting over didn't have this problem

Could residual sugar soap cause it?

 

[JohnD]

has the wall previously been wallpapered?

 

[oliroe]

Not to my knowledge, when we bought the house it had emulsion painted directly onto the plaster

I'll add some pictures showing the scale tomorrow

 

[EdwardCurrent]

Hello All,
This is exactly the same problem as I have at the moment !!!
Rubbing down seems futile unless I do all the walls 100% back to the plaster(not happening), whilst painting over the cracks repeatedly with emulsion and rubbing down over and over again does not work either.
Is there a 'really thick' paint I can apply ? then rub it down and put a finish coat on I wonder ?
And also, I have heard conflicting views on using a PVA?/paint mix to begin with, some people do not advise, whilst other swear by it ??

Many Thanks For Your Time

Ed

 

[Growler]

oliroe
Looks to me like you've painted over distemper or limewash.

No short cuts here i'm afraid. If it was me, I'd wash the lot off or use a steamer (gently without blowing the plaster).

 

[DominicJ]

Hi All
A similar problem,

Wall was wallpaper, that was steamered/scrapped off, its been left bare for, a couple of years.
I painted, not expecting great results, and this has happened.

I scraped the paint off, expecting to get off everything behind it that was causing the problem and repainted. Its reoccured in some places, but not others.

If I scrape (sand?) it off and repaint a couple of times, will I clear off whatever is causing the problem?
Or am I going to have to get it wall papered?

 

[dcdec]

Agree with Growler my money would be on distemper which you normally wash off or seal or both before painting.

Dominic your problem is you didn't get all the paste off.


Never ever use PVA in any application involving paint use zinsser gardz instead

 

[opps]

You could rake out and fill with Red Devil OneTime, then paint with Zinsser BIN. being shellac/alcohol based, it will not activate the sub coats.

It can be tinted to the required colour, colour matching will not be exact though.

Or just use it as a base coat.

 

[sie1uk]

i had the same problem and spoke to numerous diferent paint manufacturers to try and sort the problem, the only thing that eventually got rid of it was to roller on Crown one coat Satin White (same as you would put on wood) this sealed it and then following day applied the emulsion no problems whatsoever !

Was quite frustrating painting the room 5 or 6 times until i found the satin method.

hope this helps

sie