Problem with coving that has been glossed.

Loobysaver

Decorating advice would be great.

Many years ago our bathroom had coving that was painted in an awful peach colour (some sort of emulsion). My OH painted over it with white emulsion but the colour bled through so he then used white gloss paint! Since then it has had numerous coats of white emulsion.

Problem - we have high condensation in the bathroom and the paint on the coving is mouldy and cracking, and you can see the original peach in places!

Can we use some sort of paint stripper to get rid of these numerous paints or will aggresive sanding do?

I just want nice white coving!!!

bob_a_builder

or will aggresive sanding do?

What it will do is destroy the surface of the coving, in no time at all.
leaving you much worse off

ScoobieGirl

bob_a_builder wrote: »

What it will do is destroy the surface of the coving, in no time at all.
leaving you much worse off

I can see how that would be the case with the polystyrene type coving but is it true if it's the plasterboard type?

andrew-b

I've spent alot of today filling old coving (and a fair few other days too!). Whoever put the coving up in the room i'm decorating didnt mitre the corners, cut them roughly and filled them very badly both at the corners and edges.

You'll find if you use sandpaper on coving there comes a point when you break the surface (cardboard). From experimentation i found that coarse sandpaper will almost certainly do damage, and medium grade sandpaper used lightly you can often get away with. The squared edges of the coving are particularly prone to damage . It is possible to repair with polyfilla like i am but it can be time consuming (particularly on the corners) and won't look as good as new coving.

You could always rip the coving down and replace - may be quicker in the long run! We did just that with coving that had textured paint on it as it was near impossible to remove.

Andy

misgrace

Loobysaver wrote: »

Decorating advice would be great.

Many years ago our bathroom had coving that was painted in an awful peach colour (some sort of emulsion). My OH painted over it with white emulsion but the colour bled through so he then used white gloss paint! Since then it has had numerous coats of white emulsion.

Problem - we have high condensation in the bathroom and the paint on the coving is mouldy and cracking, and you can see the original peach in places!

Can we use some sort of paint stripper to get rid of these numerous paints or will aggresive sanding do?

I just want nice white coving!!!

Heres what to do.....

Just give your coving a very light rubdown, if its the polysterene type, then just be very careful, as will tear to hell.
Apply a couple coats of oilbased undercoat, thin it down slighty with white spirt, dont do it straight from the can as will be thick, pour some into a container, etc, and add about an eggcup of white spirit and mix well.
Paint that on the coving, if you still find its too thick, then add a tad more of WS.

Do your two coats, wait till the first one is completely dry before you do the second.

When second coat is completely dry, then paint with your emulsion.


Also, you say you have condensation problems in your bathroom, so its not advisable to use your ordinary emulsion, you could use bathroom paint, but its very shiny, and you dont want the shine.

So, in your situation, what I would do, and I have done this a few times, is after you have undercoated, buy a small tin of either oilbase eggshell, which has a flat finish like matt emulsion, but is oilbase, and shouldnt be affected too much by the condensation, it might be an idea to get that sorted out, as you will always have it, and will affect your paintwork further on down the line.

Or, you could go for a satin finish, again oilbase, (they must all be oilbased), which will give you a slight sheen.

But it is advisable to get the condensation sorted, either with an extractor fan, or leave a window open all the time.

Loobysaver

misgrace wrote: »

But it is advisable to get the condensation sorted, either with an extractor fan, or leave a window open all the time.

Thanks very much for the advice misgrace. The coving is the plaster type by the way.

It is my fault about the condensation really. Our bathroom window is really wide so if it is opened even a crack it gets really drafty and makes the whole of the upstairs freezing so I keep shutting it!

In the summer it's fine but now it's getting cold I can expect the black patches to start appearing on the ceiling and tops of the walls!!