Paint problems

Chr15_2

Heres a strange one..when we recently moved into our new house we started decorating, pulled the wallpaper off and put on a base coat having washed the walls thoroughly. This dried well and we had no problems, then when we put the paint on it started to crack in places. I've tried re doing it but this still has the same effect.

I'm running out of ideas, has anyone got any ideas?

hayden

perhaps the walls were never sealed so the patchy? residue wallpaper paste is the problem -rub it all back,seal and paint

Chr15_2

Hi thanks but did all that and resealed when we did it.Im lost what to do now and I hate wall papering

hayden

what did you use as a basecoat? Should seal with diluted PVA perhaps

misgrace

When you washed the walls, did you use Sugar Soap did get all the paste residue off?

Washing down with just soapy water isnt enough, the Sugar Soap gets rid of any paste residue, and avoids any reaction from the paint.

Also if the walls were previously painted with a silk paint, then painting matt over it can cause hairline cracks, as well as even the smallest bit of paste residue.

If it is silk paint, then you need to sand back the silk, to dull the silk finish to take the matt.
You can sand out the cracks if they are hairline and havent actually opened up yet.

Here is a couple of tricks that I have used, and they are tried and tested, but on no account you ever use PVA prior to painting, whether its on bare plaster, new plaster or previous painted walls.

A cheap option is to after you have sanded the cracks, or rubbed them out, is to brush over the hairlines cracks with diluted oilbase undercoat, leave till dry 18-24 hours.
Then get your matt, dilute a little bit, and brush a couple of times of where you have appled the undercoat, then roll the area again to get a uniform finish.

Or buy a tin of 'Soft sheen' paint (again watered down) and use that, but this is usually used to go over a whole wall/room that has had silk and you want to go matt.

You can paint silk over matt no problem, but painting matt over silk you have to be careful, as it can either crack, lift, or flake.

But if its not silk, and the walls havent been washed properly and rinsed, then rub out the cracks like mentioned above, and dab with the undercoat.

If there is too many hairline cracks, you muight have to resign yourself to lining.