Gloss paint on walls :-(

pboae

For some reason known only to themselves the previous owners of my house painted a lot of the interior walls (and some of the exterior york stone) with pink gloss paint. I'm guessing they used gloss because it's lime plastered, and it was either damp (though there is no evidence of this) or they mistook the natural coolness of a breathable plaster for damp. But maybe they just had a job lot of the stuff lying around.

Either way I'm stuck with huge swathes of pink gloss painted walls, over the top of fairly dodgy plaster. What it really needs is to remove the plaster and start again, but that is way way down the list of priorities, there's too much other stuff that needs doing first.

The worst area is the hallway, stairs and landing, which is like walking into some sort of body cavity. I just want to cover the pink up until we can do the job properly.

I've been looking on google and the general advice is sand it down or use a heat gun to get the gloss off. Neither of which are practical because the plaster will probably come off before the paint does. Also, in places it's about 16ft high, but narrow, and I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to reach the top bits. But I'll worry about that when it happens.

Right now I am just looking for some quick and easy way of covering the pink up. Preferably something I can paint on or paint over (roller on a stick for the awkward bits). I suppose I could paint over it all with white gloss paint, but I'd prefer to avoid that if possible.

Any other ideas?

nickj_2

give it a bit of a sand down , undercoat it and then emulsion on top

Doozergirl

Lining paper? Not a long term fix at all as it will probably get sweaty, like the walls probably already are. I can imagine gloss paint causing damp issues really.

Be careful of false economy as fixing dodgy plasterwork is one of the first things you do (after the electrics and plumbing)

leveller2911

Not sure its a good idea painting over "lime plaster" with gloss paint,its designed to breathe, I would think if it is possible to paint over it would need a microporus paint, they breathe,if you lock in moisture in "lime plaster" your asking for trouble.I wouldnt advise lining paper either, don't think it would adhere to the plaster and you would certainly get mould....

pboae

Gloss paint is definitely not a good idea over lime. It completely knackers the house's mechanisim for dealing with damp. Because of that I don't think paper will stick, because it is already 'sweaty', and I don't think sanding is an option, cos of the state of the plaster and the difficulty in reaching some of it to sand it properly by hand.

I know it's false economy, but I can't stand the pink anymore. We've finally got a boiler and central heating sorted, and the electrics are half way there, next is the flat roof on the extension, (but there's a couple of retaining walls in the garden that might not retain much longer, so they might get moved up the list). Then the drains, then the bathroom, because it'll have to be replumbed after the drains are rerouted. After that it'll be a toss up between the kitchen, (so we can actually have a cooker!) and plastering. Unless the windows get worse in the meantime, or we uncover some new emergency that needs fixing first!

Once we get to it, I want the plaster knocked off and lime plaster back on, with a proper breatheable paint over it, but if I have to live with pink walls in the meantime I think I'll go crazy.