patching up emulsion that peeled away from bare plaster

[AL_n]

I just stripped the wallpaper from a bedroom in myhouse. Underneath was a coat of emulsion that had been painted straight onto the grey plaster. Unfortunately, that emulstion had not adhered well in places, and while stripping the wallpaper, some of the emulsion has peeled off. I want to repaint the walls with emulsion. What is the best way to repair the bits that have peeled off, so that the edges don't show up when I repaint? Polyfilla? Something else?

TIA

[Andrew Gabriel]

You may find that if you take the steam stripper to the remaining paint, that the moisture behind it left from stripping the wall paper will blow it off the wall easily too. This happened to me once.

[Chris Bartram]

I had reasonable success scraping the loose stuff, polyfilla at the edges to feather it, then paint, but make sure the stuff left really is well attached, or it will fall off when you paint.

[AL_n]

[e-mail] (Andrew Gabriel) wrote in news:iuspug$6r0$ [e-mail]:

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't have a steam stripper. I soaked the paper with a spray bottle. I could attack the emulsion with a heat gun, but I'm concerned that I'd be letting myself in for more work than I bargained for - e.g., if some of the paint did adhere properly to the wall. It could be that the peeling bits are the few spots that they missed with the sizing or pva solution prior to painting.

Al

[Charles]

Before you start filling ... you must make sure the rest of the emulsion is properly stuck on the wall.

1. before you repaint you must wash the wall(s) properly so any paper glue comes off. Get the wall wet (use sugar soap which you must rinse off), use a paper stripper (scraper) to scrape the glue off as just washing it will just keep spreading it around.
2. On the edges of the remaining paint, once wet from washing it, you can easily find out if the paint comes off the wall. If it comes off, you have to strip it or it may come off when you try to paint it (you will see bubbles forming) and as paint takes longer than water to dry off it will have more chance of bubbling.

See below.

The peeling bits were emulsion badly adhered to the plaster. There should not have been any PVA between plaster and the coat of emulsion (underneath the wallpaper). PVA under paint will make the paint peel off.

Anyhow your choice if you want to do the work. There are some sealers that are supposed to help but I ain't sure and I have not used them.

1. Polyfila, or Allabastine filler or Toupret (the last one seems to have the best name) are what you can use (I prefer the powder versions).
2. Fill by running the filling knife parallel to the edges. Try to feather from the edge of the paint as far as you can.
3. Any area of exposed plaster or filler will need a mist coat. Matt Emulsion non-vinyl is best for mist coat and has to be diluted by some

20% or more of water before used (see manufacturer's instructions). All emulsions (Crown trade ones anyway) can be used for a mist coat but the dilution varies. Using paint thick, it will peel off next time it is painted.

If it helps a little. Charles

[Nick Leverton]

Unless it's gloss, in which case it will need a lot of extra steam to bubble ...

Nick

[AL_n]

Charles wrote in news:4e123c18$0$2488$ [e-mail]:

Charles,

Thank you very much indeed. I couldn't have hoped for a more comprehensive reply.

Al