The front entry hall of my house is like the technical challenge on a Great British Decorate-Off.
The problem wall is made of breezeblock, unplastered. It is painted in some kind of gloss paint, which was ridged somehow to give an effect of big stone blocks. I'm guessing the paint dates back to at least the 1930s. I need to get rid of that effect as much as I need to get rid of the paint.
I have tried nitromors. No impact. I tried a heat gun. No impact. An angle-grinder just about scraped off a bit (exposing very thin red and green coatings underneath)-- it would be possible to just attack all the ridged lines this way, but that would still leave the indestructible glossy paint. Sandpaper or any electrical sanding device I have tried doesn't even scratch the surface.
What I am thinking now is to paper the walls with anaglypta, which would cover the ridges. But would wallpaper paste even stick to the glossy surface? Is there a primer I can apply (zinsser BIN?) that would form a surface suitable for papering?
Alternatively, I'm wondering if the best bet would be to angle-grind down the ridges (hoping there is no lead primer under the gloss! but who would have lead-primed interior breezeblocks?) and zinsser BIN it for painting. They claim it will stick to anything -- is that actually going to work?
The problem wall is made of breezeblock, unplastered. It is painted in some kind of gloss paint, which was ridged somehow to give an effect of big stone blocks. I'm guessing the paint dates back to at least the 1930s. I need to get rid of that effect as much as I need to get rid of the paint.
I have tried nitromors. No impact. I tried a heat gun. No impact. An angle-grinder just about scraped off a bit (exposing very thin red and green coatings underneath)-- it would be possible to just attack all the ridged lines this way, but that would still leave the indestructible glossy paint. Sandpaper or any electrical sanding device I have tried doesn't even scratch the surface.
What I am thinking now is to paper the walls with anaglypta, which would cover the ridges. But would wallpaper paste even stick to the glossy surface? Is there a primer I can apply (zinsser BIN?) that would form a surface suitable for papering?
Alternatively, I'm wondering if the best bet would be to angle-grind down the ridges (hoping there is no lead primer under the gloss! but who would have lead-primed interior breezeblocks?) and zinsser BIN it for painting. They claim it will stick to anything -- is that actually going to work?