Flacky plaster or paint - what to do

[jonwestuk]

Hi all,

I am fairly new to plastering and have come up on an issue. I skimmed 5 rooms of my house, ceiling and walls and had no problem. The last wall that I undertook was down my stairway. Long story short I got cocky and 90% down the wall ran out of plaster. Having quickly mixed another batch, I then had to hurriedly smooth the top of the stairs and run around managing the setting of the wall, it was all very frantic but I thought it turned out ok in the end.

Having let the plaster (multi finish) dry-out for 3 weeks I then applied a mist coat to it and went about doing minor touch-ups and lightly sanding all the walls ready to decorate. However this wall (in particular the end half which I mixed up at the end) is being a little problematic. The paint or very top surface of plaster is very very sensitive and is quick to flake. Light sanding with 220 grit will take off the top surface leaving a slightly rough surface underneath. I have now gotten to the point where all the parts that will be visible are filled with filler and the wall would be acceptable to paint, but I am concerned whether the surface will continue to be sensitive after I put on an undercoat and 2 coats of emulsion.

Are there any useful problem solving undercoats that might give the surface a little more strength?

Can anyone advise me what is actually wrong with this section of the wall? Whilst I did apply it quickly, it did still get smoothed down properly.

Thanks for your help,

Jon

This will be hidden behind a radiator so I didnt bother filling it

Untitled

• jonwestuk
• 6 Jan 2015
• 1

 

[jonwestuk]

probably worth noting that when I say that I will undercoat and then apply two coats of emulsion, I mean that I will put a further watered down (probably 80% emulsion) white coat of paint on. This is as I have some parts of the walls that are back to the plaster where I have sanded and smoothed out blemishes.

The final emulsion coats will be Dulux Trade Diamond Matt (for high traffic areas) and regular matt everywhere else.

 

[jonwestuk]

Reading around there seems to be a lot of suggestions of using Zinsser Bulls Eye on problematic walls. Does anyone know if this would be useful in my case?