Peeling paint

[Timothy Murphy]

I have a ceiling with some mild peeling of the paint, and SWMBO has ordered me to cure it. Is it a good idea to stick small undetached peels back against the ceiling with a touch of paint?

[stuart noble]

IMO better to drag a chisel across the surface at 45 degs to detach all the loose stuff. Also, new paint will tend to create more loose stuff. Not a rewarding job

[Scott M]

Bloody disasterous job. Had a bit of ceiling to paint where it'd peeled (probably due to folded back loft insulation), so scraped it back and back and ended up with quite a bare patch as whoever painted it originally put it on at an 'ell of a thickness so it peeled away like wallpaper with little effort and without leaving a mark behind.

Painted. Went away.

Next day, new peels at the edges I'd created.

At some point I'm going to have to enlarge the patch. I've a horrible feeling that'll be most of the £$%^&* ceiling.

[stuart noble]

I think that first coat needs to be very thin so that the weight of the new paint doesn't drag the existing coat off the ceiling. Hopefully the thin coat gets under the edges and acts as an adhesive. That's the optimistic view :-)