Gloss on top of damp stains as a fix causing much worse issues??

HappyFish2021

I had a decorator use gloss paint instead of stain block to cover over small areas of historic damp stains (damp has been treated by professionals) on my inside walls. He did this on top of a wash coat then emulsioned the walls over. However what he did did not work even for 24 hours and worse still the stains came back and then it started to bubble so it looks way worse than when he started. He has come back a couple of times and used layers of stain block OVER the gloss paint and it still has not worked. The areas now look damp and they never were before.
 
A male friend says the guy is an idiot as the walls cannot breathe as the gloss is the problem here and he should never have used it as the water cannot get out the wall. Adding stain block on top of the gloss is only adding to the problem but the stain block would have worked if applied straight to the plaster. As gloss cannot be removed, he says the only fix is to hack the plaster off the gloss is attached to. Is this true? What can be done?

Doozergirl

Sand it back.  

Bit less dramatic than hacking plaster off the walls.  Gloss paint will stop the walls from breathing, yes,  but what kind of  professionals treated the damp and what did they do? 

Monsternextdoor

Sand it. 

Gloss was an old school fix for damp and easy cleaning.

MalMonroe

"A male friend says the guy is an idiot".  I think it's quite clear that you don't have to be a male to say that!

If anyone is going to sand it back, I think it should be the decorator buffoon who did the job in the first place.

Get him back and tell him you want it doing properly, or your money back. Why should you do it yourself when you could have just done that in the first place?? That's called having a dog and barking yourself.

If he belongs to any trade associations, please do report him to them. He is totally incompetent by the sounds of it.

P.S. Gloss CAN be removed. I've done it myself. Not easy and takes ages, though. I'd be tempted to demand back any money I'd paid him and get a proper professional in to do the job. Or let him have a crack at it and see what happens next time. . . .