ideas for cleaning up "grafitti" on emulsion wall

[jkn]

Hi All we've had a minor domestic incident where a relatively newly-emulsioned wall has been sprayed in parts with ... deodorant, or hair spray, or similar (still trying to sort out what, exactly, but notionally 'colourless'). As a result there are now patches of the wall with a 'sheen' to them.

The wall was going to need a second coat anyway; the first was a few months ago, so it is perfectly dry. But I am wondering what might be done to these areas to (a) ensure maximum adhesion of the next coat, and (b) keep any show-through to a minimum.

I am thinking of a step-by-step process of experiments, something like:

- dry sponge

- damp sponge

- mild sugar soap

- IPA or meths

to see if any work, and to what extent. Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks, J^n

[Scott]

What about stain block paint? We used this after a roof leak.

[TimW]

Yes, clean, abrade and apply the expertise of ICI rather than ukdiy. Maybe check with their technical helpline if they have one. Any silicon or wax is going to be a problem but not one that can't be painted over. TW

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Well any wetting you will need to get very dry first, but I had good results many years ago, just using very fine sandpaper. It very much depends on the paint being applied afterwards, if its slightly silky then you cannot see any blemishes, but really matt can end up egshelly or even looking like its a slightly different colour.

Brian

[Andrew]

I have been using wet-and-dry sanding blocks recently in wet mode to remove high spots from my early poor attempts at plastering.

I'm surprised at how effective they are are removing just outer layers of paint leaving a really nice smooth surface but using a coarse grade of W-and-D with a sanding block gets through undulating multi-finish quite easily, albeit slowly.

You also need to use a ground sheet taped to the bottom of the wall to catch all the dribbles.

You could convert the wall to silk finish with spray varnish or similar :-)

[Steve Walker]

One worth trying is the Melamine Foam cleaning sponges (such as the JML magic erasers). We found that they, very successfully, removed crayon from emulsion and, some time later, it painted perfectly.

[jkn]

Thank you - actually I had already thought of those but forgot to put them to my list. I have occasionally found them very useful; they can't do any harm so I will probably try them as my first experiment.

Thanks for the other comments; still haven't quite decided how to proceed...

Cheers J^n