At the moment I'm trying to earn some Brownie Points by re-decorating our bedroom. Trouble is, what should have been an easy job is escalating into a huge time-waster, and it's interfering with my garage duties.

The current problem is the emulsion paint on the walls - started to tidy up the existing paint, ready to put a new coat on. Started to scrape off some flaky bits - and almost all the paint came off in sheets, like wallpaper. I don't think the original painter primed the plaster before putting on the first coat.

The trouble now is that 80% of the paint came off with no trouble - it only took an hour or so - but what's left is stuck on hard. If I overpaint it'll look like a relief map. If I scrape it off, I'll wreck the plaster.

Has anyone else had this problem and, if so, how did they fix it?

cheers,
David

Take an electric sander to the stuck paint. Use some coarse paper and you will soon sort it.

Messy job though.

David

pay someone £200 to do it whilst shes at work, my mrs thinks i'm a great decorator lol. if only she knew

Two problems:

1. I've just paid a packet to a decorator who painted all the wood on the outside of my house, so there's little cash left;

2. Any half-decent decorator has to be booked weeks/months in advance, and I want to get this job done!

Once these walls are done, it's just a day or two's work to finish the whole room - the whole thing's a PITA...

I HATE DECORATING!

Thank you for listening.

David

Only solution i can think of is to sand it off. Very messy. Room might have to be emptied and door taped up to reduce dust in rest of house. You can try doing by hand but itll take ages.

Can you put some posters / pics up over the bad bits?


I recently decorated hall, stairs, landing, kitchen and cloakroom inc ceilings and gloss work. I was the best paid decorator in the county that week - £699. Strangely enough exactly how much my digidash cost!

Paper the room wil blown relief vinyl and emulsion over that. Hides all sorts of wall horrors.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dusty
Paper the room wil blown relief vinyl and emulsion over that. Hides all sorts of wall horrors.

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Rub it down then seal with pva coat with a good brand of paint then flat with light sand
Good top coat and its done.
The key is the PVA glue.....When Jas came round to do the walls in the bath room he used that to seal them.......Yep suprised me too!

U2U a moby number to me and I will ask my decorator neighbour (fellow petrol head)

wood chip thats what you need lol

DJ

Had the same problem in my hallway - an absolute PITFA

In the end I blended the paint to the plaster as best I could by sanding, then sealed the complete wall with PVA. Next I applied a generous coat of Polycell Polyfilla paint - marvellous stuff! It forms a thick skin which resists cracking, fills most minor blemishes and helped reduce the step between the old paint and the plaster. The a couple of coats of the desired colour and the jobs done.

Now I'm just about to move house and start all over again and people keep asking why the car's not finished yet

Glad it's not just me stuck with this sort of crap, and yes, it's stopping em gettign anywhere with the car!
Had exactly the same problem in my daughters room and now have exactly the same problem in my hall way. As stated before sand it or, if you can get hold of one, use a steam wallpaper stripper to soften the paint and then scrape it off. Use carefully so the plaster don't get waterlogged.
Nick 205, thanks for the tip about polyfilla paint, is this the stuff?

[Edited on 19/10/05 by Browser]

This stuff I think...
...worth considering.

David

you could just rub down the edges or make a feature out of it ....
or put sand in the emulsion to give it some texture

[Edited on 19/10/05 by marcyboy]

bring in the compressor from the garage and spray it

quote:

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Originally posted by serendipity123
bring in the compressor from the garage and spray it

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Remember that the man that invented decorating wants fooking, and the man that invented fooking wants decorating

that's the very stuff boys - works a treat, but not cheap

Thanks Nick, I'll see what the chief decorator (a.k.a. SWMBO/The Boss/'er indoors) says

electric sander is the answer

If you do go the electric sander route then get a dust mask.

It killed my father in law. I kid you not.

OTOH a wallpaper steam stripper on the paint loosens it enough to remove it like walpaper with a scraper. Not anything like as messy as sanding.

quote:

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Originally posted by VinceGledhill
If you do go the electric sander route then get a dust mask.

It killed my father in law. I kid you not.

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Don't worry - I won't be doing any power-sanding! Too much dust for my liking (and SWMBO will object).

I reckon I may try the steam-powered wallpaper stripper (as I have one at home anyway), followed by the Polycell BaseCoat stuff. The most I may try is hand-sanding the edges of the painted bits to reduce the step.

cheers to all,
David

lol redecorating atm aswell oldr bother left for uni and we are swapping his room with my younger brothers unfortunately my older brother didnt want the same colour scheme (big brightly coloured squares with a border that has tractors on it ) so we are having to paint over it all weekend was spent flilling the little dents and the lines that we masked off inbetween the squares or colour and sanding down so that its all the same level and now we are painting white ...

white paint over vibrant strong colours = LOTS OF COATS

the whole room has had about 6 coats of white and needs another one atleast

It's probably too late now, but that BaseCoat stuff is supposed to be good for obliterating old colour schemes...

DJ

Dave

move house, problem solved !!!

or, as i had to do in my kitchen as two of the walls were in a terrible condition, was plasterboard them


steve

looks like the last people to decorate my room had the same problem as you, unfortunately they dont appear to have been as dilligent in removing the large patches of stuck on paint could be worse, in my old room when i tried to strip the paper all the plaster fell off the wall, literally. had to strip it all back to the brick bar one wall. great fun! one of those masks would have been nice though!

you could always try this http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=32851

artex the walls. was all the rage in the 80s when i had my first house. someone somewher e hates me now

atb

steve

It was you was you bugger

I think you ought to come round to my new house when we move in and rectify the artexed sealings

I'll tell you something - that steam wallpaper stripper's certainly done the job!

Shifted all the thick paint that needed removing, just leaving me to rub down the rest, unibond, then the Polycell stuff to get it ready for painting. Sounds a lot of effort, but it's just a few hours here and there.

Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions - as for the other 'suggestions' - you're a cruel lot on here!

cheers,
David