removing paint from a plastered wall

Over the past year or so, i have noticed that the bathroom paint on my bathroom wall has started flaking in parts. Other parts of paint have been patched upwhere large "bubbles" of paint have come off (almost blistered)

My question is how can i remove the paintwork without damaging the plaster underneath. As i recall, there is an undercoat of magnolia emulsion also

Any help would be grateful Craig

Reply to
Craig Keightley
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A steam paper stripper will also help in removing paint from the walls, and must be used with a sharp scraper. The scraper must be used gently though, and the steam stripper kept on the wall until you see the paint begin to peel.

It might not take all the emulsion undercoat off, but it will loosen it quite a bit so it should peel off eventually.

If you want to paper on top of the paint, then score the surface with a metal comb and apply a coat or two of size to it. This gives the walls a sticky top coat which will take pasted paper better.

Reply to
BigWallop

i thought about using a steamer but wasn't too sure if it wiuld affect the plaster board and plaster underneath What i intend to do is undercoat the walls with a damp proof paint as i have noticed that there are damp patches appearing through the paintwork will the steamer affect the boards?

Reply to
Craig Keightley

Steamer should be OK providing the walls are dry, and obviously providing you don't saturate them with too much water in the process. However, if the walls are wet, the steamer can cause the moisture in the walls to boil, blowing off the front face of the plaster. However, it can also be a good technique for blowing off the paint on the walls, i.e. wet it, let it soak through the paint, and then steam it, whereupon the moisture behind the paint boils are blows the paint off. I discovered this by accident on some heavily painted lime plaster walls, and have used it deliberately quite successfully a couple of times since. Probably depends on the type of paint though.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

its B & Q bathroom paint and i remember it being laid on quite thick in some places and sparing in others

Reply to
Craig Keightley

If it has any form of vinyl base in it, which I think these kitchen and bathroom paints do, then it should be OK to use a steamer on it to loosen it off a bit.

Having read your reply about the damp patches on the plaster though, I would recommend using the steamer sparingly on these parts of the wall. If the plaster is loose and crumbling around these damp spots, then try just lifting the paint off with the edge/corner of a scraper to see what happens first. If the plaster also falls away with the paint, then you really need to make the walls good again by removing the old plaster board and fixing what ever is causing these damp spots to appear.

Plaster boards are really cheap, sometimes cheaper than the paint, so it isn't a hugely expensive job to replace the lot and start again afresh.

But it's still worth giving the steam stripper a try first though.

Reply to
BigWallop

the damp patches appear as large circles on the wall does any one have recommendations on how to treat these patches once i have removed the paint.

At present there are areas where the paint has flaked away from the walls.

Reply to
Craig Keightley

If the plaster board is so bad that it is crumbling, then you're better off replacing it. You will have to make sure that find the source of the dampness and cure it / fix it before you replace the damaged parts of the plaster board though.

Could the damp patches be from steam condensing on bare parts of the walls, or even running down from the ceiling behind the plaster board? If it is, then it could be as easy to remedy as squirting some sealant along any open joints.

Reply to
BigWallop

its the paint thats crumbling, the pasterboard looks fine underneath as far as i know, the plasterboard is attached to a brick wall behind (done before we moved in)

Reply to
Craig Keightley

If the plaster board is sound, then the damp patches are more likely to have come from splashes or condensation on the surface that you can see, as opposed to coming in from behind the plaster board.

If that is the case, then all the plaster board needs is dried out and protected with something water proof (which I suspect is actually what you're trying to do to it already). The paint is already flaking off on parts of the walls, so I do think the steamer will make an impression on removing the rest it quite easily for you.

After using the steamer to get the old paint off, allow the plaster board to dry out for a day or two before applying your new paint to it. It might also be a good idea to use a cheap under-coat paint on the bare walls first, just to make sure the plaster has soaked up all it can and the surface is sealed enough to make your top of paint stick and stay on.

Reply to
BigWallop

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