Paint peeling off bathroom walls HELP!!

Venus_In_Furs_2

Hi there

I have just stripped the wallpaper from my bathroom walls and the paint underneath came off with it - I was happy about this as the walls are now bare plaster (looks as though they had been skimmed - probably during the last 5-8 years)

My problem is this - I want to paint the walls as I hate wallpaper but I want to avoid the paint peeling off. When I moved into my PREVIOUS house the bathroom walls had been skimmed over and painted just before I bought it - after a few months the paint started to peel off and looked like strips of PVC (the bits that peeled off were stretchy!). It looks to me like the previous owners of my CURRENT house had the same problem and ended up papering the walls.

Can you please advise on how I should prep the walls and what I need to do / what I need to use to stop the paint peeling off? I don't want to start the job until I am certain I'm doing it right and won't have peeling walls again!! A friend has suggested that the problem may be due to the plaster being mixed up with too much water - don't know if this is true!

I'm not worried about the cost to repaint - I just don't want to end up wasting money then having to get the job done again if it peels!!

Thanks icon_smile.gif

misgrace

There could be a couple of reasons for the paint to come off in strips, first, is that they never sealed the original new plastered walls with a miscoat, and had applied the paint on too thick.
Another reason could have been that they applied PVA :eek: on new skimmed walls and followed through with silk or bathroom paint .

What I would suggest is that you give the walls a rub down, to get rid of any nibs, bits of paper etc.
Then Buy some ordinary matt emulsion, white, not the paint that says vinyl on the tin, just ordinary white, sometimes its called supermat.
Then thin the paint down by approx 30%, so it looks like a runny cream, then put that on your walls.(this is called a miscoat, and seals the plaster)

leave for a day or two, then either carry on with the white, or whatever colour your using.
The next coat, thin down again, by about 15%, then your third coat, just slightly water it down.
Please use a good make like Dulux.

Now, here you have a choice, you can either go for the bathroom paint(after your miscoat of white) which is shiny, or a silk, which is also shiny, both these paints are usually used in kitchens and bathrooms, but I have used matt paint loads of times on my jobs, but you have to take certain factors into this.
If you have a lot of condensation, or there are loads of you using the shower, baths every day, then stick with the silk or bathroom paint, if its just you,and you would rather have a matt finish, then the matt should be fine.

You can put silk or bathroom paint on top of your matt miscoat, but you cant put matt on top of silk, not straightaway, and you would need to get the sheen of the silk before you used the matt on top if you went down that route.:D

Venus_In_Furs_2

Thans misgrace - that's great advice

I had the feeling I'd need to something along those lines but I read somewhere (on an American site I think) that you should add something called EmulsaBond to the first coat!! Don't know if this is right and I cannot find the item for sale online. I'll follow your advice and fingers crossed it'll stay peel free!!

misgrace

Never heard of it venus, but I would imagine its like a unibond/PVA, and a lot of people get told by other trades to apply a coat of PVA/unibond to new plaster before painting, but that it is a myth, and can give you a load of grief, paint peeling off in strips for one.
Any decorator worth thier salt, and there are quite a few of us lol, will tell you never to PVA new plaster.
hope this helps, let us know how it goes.:D