How on earth do you paint polystyrene coving??!!

annoyd

Doing up a house ive bought, previous owners were smokers. All the white bits in the house are yellow and stained. Ive had the lounge replastered but kept the coving as its going to be a rental property so dont want to go OTT. But ive put 3 layers of Crown emulsion on it, it looks good when you put it on but then 2 seconds later it soaks up and it goes yellowy again. The plasterer told me when he did the room that it would be hassle to paint, but my step dads coving in his house covered as easy as the ceilings etc, the only difference is his was near enough white to start with. How do i get it to stick and stay white, im running out of paint and just seems to be going on and on :mad:

Ganga

It,s a bit late now but you should have bought cheap trade emulsion then at least it would have cost you a lot less to get rid of the yellow,you will have to keep on putting more coats on till it looks white.I do not envy you i hate decorating.
PS you could try putting the paint on a bit thicker than you normally do,i know it must be soul destroying to see it dry and not white!

Regards
Ganga

annoyd

Ganga wrote: »

It,s a bit late now but you should have bought cheap trade emulsion then at least it would have cost you a lot less to get rid of the yellow,you will have to keep on putting more coats on till it looks white.I do not envy you i hate decorating.
PS you could try putting the paint on a bit thicker than you normally do,i know it must be soul destroying to see it dry and not white!

Regards
Ganga

so if i keep going it should eventually go white? i didnt want to keep doing it to find out i need a different style of paint etc. Cheers for the sympathy lol its so frustrating

[Deleted User]

Hi,

give it a lick of gloss, should seal it.

southcoastrgi

what you should have done is rip the whole lot down before you had it plastered, if you really wanted poly coving (which doesn't look anywhere as nice as plaster coving) then this is fairly cheap & it has prob cost you more in paint than it would have to replace it

annoyd

southcoastrgi wrote: »

what you should have done is rip the whole lot down before you had it plastered, if you really wanted poly coving (which doesn't look anywhere as nice as plaster coving) then this is fairly cheap & it has prob cost you more in paint than it would have to replace it

ye we was debating wether to rip it down or not, but weve literally gutted the whole house and are doing the whole lot up, and decided to keep the coving to save time, as i need to get it rented within the next month, already been working on house for 2 months now and havnt got a room finished as it needed rewiring, plumbing, plastering etc etc. We would have scrapped the coving fullstop, but the mains water pipe comes up in the lounge and runs through the coving, so it had to stay there

lemontart

sand it gently, wipe down with damp clothe let dry then non drip gloss works a treat .

Ms_Chocaholic

Yeah I would second using non drip gloss which you will then be able to paint over with emulsion, once it's dry.

Non-drip gloss is also useful to cover up any stains on walls/ceilings. I occasionally get marks on my kitchen ceiling from the shower above which no amount of emulsion will cover up. So a quick dab over with gloss before painting over with emulsion does the trick every time. Don't ever waste your money on buying the stain covering paint that costs the earth and does exactly the same job.

Russe11

"need to get it rented"

The question is why are you becoming a landlord?

I would of thought that even if a good covering of paint is achieved the nicotine staining will grow through in a few months.

annoyd

Russe11 wrote: »

"need to get it rented"

The question is why are you becoming a landlord?

I would of thought that even if a good covering of paint is achieved the nicotine staining will grow through in a few months.

im sorry did you not read the whole "gutted, rewired, replastered, replumbed" bit? obviously this means i am going to be a good landlord, i hate when people moan about landlords at any point someone mentions a house being rented... The whole point of being a landlord is to rent the house, every month it isnt rented i would be losing money...ive already spent 24k (including purchase) of my own hard earned money, so i can give someone a nice home for a small fee in comparison to my outgoing costs so far.... if your theory is that someone that paints over coving shouldnt be a landlord, you are living in a dream world lol

sorry to get stressy about it but i just hate everytime i mention "im going to rent the house" etc, all of a sudden everything i cut a corner on is irresponsible and questions my ableness to become a landlord lol

jcb208

You need to use a stainblock paint first, undercoat usually works well