Help! Just painted skimmed walls with vinyl paint.

debbie42

My walls were skimmed a few weeks back, and the plasterer said to use a cheap matt emulsion as a base coat. I've just finished painting walls + ceiling with said paint (Focus Vinyl Matt - I just checked).

Just been to pick up the "real" paint, and the shop assistant said that vinyl paint may blister and flake off. Unfortunately the stuff I used is vinyl.

The last thing I want is to have my nice new walls and painting looking awful just cos I used the wrong stuff. What should I do now?

I thought the walls looked pretty good, after all my hard work, so am gutted that I may have used the wrong stuff.

djohn2002uk

Don't panic.
Sand all over the walls with fine sand paper to remove the effect of the vinyl and you'll be fine to paint on top.
You will probably be best with a sander to save time but they are messy unless you connect a vacuum cleaner to the sander to take the dust away.
Once sanded, wipe the walls over with a damp cloth to remove any dust left on there and away you go.

debbie42

I do fortunately have a decent sander I use for woodwork stuff, so I'll try that, thanks.

Mind you, I've a (for me) depressingly large area of walls and ceilings to do (grrrr). How much of the paint layer will I need to sand down to? Just enough to roughen it up a bit?

Luckily I haven't started painting the second room yet, apart from a patchwork of tester pots on one wall.

misgrace

If your walls have just been skimmed, and not bonded and skimmed, you might be okay with the vinyl.
Its not advisable to use vinyl or silk over new plastered walls, you should use ordinary matt emuslion to seal the plaster, then you can put the vinyl over it.

The assistant is sort of correct about your paint blistering or peeling off, but depends on how you painted the walls.

If you have done a miscoat with the vinyl on the ceiling and walls, meaning you watered your paint down by at least 30% before you painted the walls, then I think you will be okay.
If you have painted it straight from the can,:eek:

Like john says, sand your walls down, and if you find that the paint is coming off in strips, then you might have to take it all off, but if its not, then you have got away with it.

When your doing your coat of colour, and bearing in mind we're talking about a good brand, still water down your first coat of colour, by approx 15-20%, just to be on the safe side.

debbie42

I did paint it straight from the can, , as it was pretty thin anyway. In my defence, the plasterer did advise me to do this!

I've had a "test patch" up in one room for a couple of weeks now, with my testers on and it looks fine to my (amateur) eye.

So, what should I look for with the sanding down: large patches sort of rubbing off? I just did a bit with a piece of sand paper, and it's just powdering off, as I'd expect for established paint with no problems.

misgrace

If its just rubbing off like you say, then you could be okay, and if the paint was pretty thin anyway, you might just get away with it, but you wont know for certain till you put the actual good stuff on.

Your plasterer should have been shot for telling you this, am suprised he didnt tell you to use PVA first lol, no offence to jason and nelly

What I suggest you do debbie, is to water down the second coat like I say, specially if its dulux etc, and just do one wall, the shortest one lol.

Wait a few days, and see if the paint is peeling, flaking, or even crazing, (which is like tiny hairline cracks.)

if its okay, then carry on, but I dont mean to be doom and gloom, but it might pay you to leave it at least a week or so.

Any problems will definately show up when you put your other coats on, it might even take longer than a week, but its up to you, do you either carry on and hope all is well, or leave the one wall for a couple of weeks.

The thing is, if it goes pearshape, you will either have to scrape the whole lot off, or use the undercoat trick, there is no point in me telling you this until we know the upshot.

But dont worry it can be sorted, I am always looking in, so if you have any probs, either post a message or PM me, and I will guide you through.:D

debbie42

misgrace wrote: »

What I suggest you do debbie, is to water down the second coat like I say, specially if its dulux etc, and just do one wall, the shortest one lol.

Wait a few days, and see if the paint is peeling, flaking, or even crazing, (which is like tiny hairline cracks.)

if its okay, then carry on, but I dont mean to be doom and gloom, but it might pay you to leave it at least a week or so.

Any problems will definately show up when you put your other coats on, it might even take longer than a week, but its up to you, do you either carry on and hope all is well, or leave the one wall for a couple of weeks.

The top paint is Farrow and Ball estate emulsion.
I'll do as you suggest, and paint an alcove section with two coats of the good paint, then leave it for a week (hopefully more, if I'm on hols, which I'm hoping!).

I have had two tester areas of around 2m x 1m, each painted with around six topcoat paints, and I did those with the vinyl matt first. That lot have been up for around two weeks, while we argued over the colours :rolleyes:, and no problems there.

I've just painted over one of them today (in the back) and still have the other up in the front. So the one in the back is a triple coat of: vinyl matt +tester (two coats of some) + vinyl matt. I'll keep a close eye on that and let you know how I get on.

Many thanks again for your advice.

djohn2002uk

To be fair to the plasterer, he did say "Matt Emulsion". He never said Vinyl. Matt emulsion to me is plain old flat matt.
But I'm sure you'll get no problems just lightly sanding all over and don't miss anywhere. As the plaster was well dried, the vinyl isn't a problem on the wall, it's putting the new coat on top of the vinyl. Sanding will give it a good surface to adhere to. Then as misgrace says using a decent emulsion (which you've got with Farrow & Ball although they charge ripoff prices because toffs will pay it for the name) diluted by 20% and 2 coats should give you a nice finish.