Dealing with Distemper Paint

jmsa7

Hello,

This is my first post here in the forum. I bought my first house (build late 50's) and started preparing a room for painting. Most of the old paint was flaky and came off with little effort leaving a powdery chalky substance on the wall. I have been told it is distemper.

I've tried to wipe it off with warm water and sugar soap but it has been a pain and all the other rooms in the house need doing after...

Some people advised me to use PVA:
everbuild.co.uk/building-products/PVA-SBR-Bonding-Agents?product_id=126

Others advised to use a Stabilising Solution:
everbuild.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=148

It says that both can be overpaintable when cured but with PVA I need to add 4:1 parts water to use it as primer/sealer. Which one do you think would be better for distemper walls?

Also the wall has quite a few of cracks that need to be filled:
i60.tinypic.com/6gvvhf.jpg

The distemper is the yellow bit, the bare plaster underneath is gray colour.

Would you normally fill the cracks before or after applying PVA/Stabilising Solution?

Thank you very much.

Regards,

George