Decorating Advice

Yorkshirelass_2

We've recently bought a 15 year old house, and have discovered that other that the original cream emulsion put on by the builder, the walls haven't been touched.


They are all in matt emulsion and are dusty and powdery if rubbed.


We have tried to make a start, but the walls are just sucking up the paint. In the hall the surface of the plasterboard has lifted in one place.


My questions are;
1. do we need to do any preparation before emulsion ?
2. how to tackle the surface lifting.


Any advice would be much appreciated!!


Many thanks

jcb208

Without seeing it is really hard to tell but you don't normally stabilize interior paint If it has the original paint it would of been contract matt..I would rub the walls down with either a pole sander or hand sander,dust off then apply a thinned coat of your finish which will seal the walls.Depending what paint you buy most decent paint can be thinned 20% for a sealer coat.It sounds like the paint your applying is to thick and due to suction is pulling the old paint and joint cement off.These contract matts don't always adhere very well on plasterboard especially If decorated in damp conditions.To get over the lifting areas let it dry then scrape back to a firm edge and fill with some thing like easifil,rub down and touch in with a thinned emulsion

Yorkshirelass_2

Many thanks for the help.



I did suspect that the walls may need some sort of prep, such as the thinned paint, but wasn't sure what exactly.


My OH doesn't really like painting at the best of times and think the problem in the hall may be due to too much paint, and the wall getting too wet ,if you know what I mean (he was pretty fed up by this point!)



Thanks once again!

jcb208

I do it for a living and know what you mean as I have come across this before where the old paint starts lifting when applying new paint.Problem is on site the painter just about gets paid enough to throw the paint on the walls so no mist coat applied and If the walls are dusty this can weaken the bond too