removing gloss paint from bathroom wall.

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We live in a very old house and a previous owner has painted the bathroom walls with gloss paint. The paint is cracking and flaking in places but has also been painted over with emulsion paint at some point!! The walls I think are old lime plaster. I am a bit concerned about the age of the paint (lead?) and how best to remove the gloss paint or even if that is possible. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.

PDC

There was an old thread on this here which might be of help https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1693267

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Thank-you for posting the link. I am reeling at the thought of trying to sand down the walls and think that using paint stripper would be too dangerous. Because some of the paint is peeling and flaking it doesn't leave an even surface to paint or paper over. I am going to have to give this some serious thought.

Reece_

I'd suggest sanding down, just enough to key the surface up, an electrical orbital would make it a lot quicker, then use something like zinsser bin or peel stop to prime before emulsion. After sanding and priming, areas that have peeled and flaked can be filled.

I'm not a fan of wallpaper in bathrooms, but a high grade lining paper will hide a lot of imperfections, again you'd still want to sand and prime to have a good surface to adhere to and any major uneven areas will want filling but depending on how bad it is , it may look better and save filling loads of tiny areas.

button_box

Thanks for your advice. I think this is going to be quite a time consuming project.

Hoploz

Sand it down then if not a great smooth surface then tile?

Southend1

Electric orbital sander would make it much easier as another poster says. If you have one or can borrow one I would give it a go before trying anything else. Warning: wear a dust mask and connect up the sander to an old Hoover otherwise the dust will get into everything