Crazy Painting

[Ed Sirett]

For some reason when I apply white emulsion paint it shrinks and cracks over a couple of years.

See photo

don't think this is the paint as it's the same paint as has been used elsewhere without the crazy cracks. It's just some places that give me trouble.

So... How can I know when this is going to happen, what can I do to stop it. and what can I do to put it right?

[Andrew May]

I had a similar situation in the bathroom. Wouldn't last more than twelve months. It was probably exacerbated by the steamy atmosphere but I am pretty certain that the underlying cause was that the original emulsion had been put on top of an oil-based paint.

I tried everything. Dulux suggested eggshell but to no avail. Crown suggested Zinser primer/sealer but that didn't help either.

Eventually, earlier this year I used a water-based paint stripper to strip as far back to plaster as I could and re-coated with vinyl matt. It now looks fine but only time will tell whether that has cured the problem. If it had been a larger area I would probably have given up and had it re-skimmed.

Andrew