Have I messed up, and what to do next ?

[Fredup]

Hello,

I had a bathroom where the paint was flaking off the walls and ceiling, and off the side of the bath (mdf), the back of the bathroom door, the mdf cistern enclosure, and the enclosure for upstairs soil pipe (its like a hardboard) which runs through the corner of my bathroom.

I stripped the flaking paint and sanded the woodwork to rough it up a bit so the new paint would take.

This left me with some spots of bare wood and a few small patches of bare wall/ceiling - back to the bare surface of plaster.

I don't think the original paintwork was a very good job, because it started to flake a couple of years after I moved into my flat, which had been freshly painted.

I had white Crown Kitchen & Bathroom paint, but I thought I would need some sort of sealer/primer to cover the bare bits of mdf and the bare bits of wall. So off to B&Q I went.
I asked about a general purpose primer they had on the shelves, but one person told me what I needed was PVA. I asked a bit more about it and it seems I could put this on the ceiling, walls and wood, even on the painted surfaces.

Wanting to do a bulletproof job, I painted the whole bathroom - walls, ceiling and wood - in PVA. I also filled minor spots with polyfilla and wood filler and sanded down.
I then used the Crown paint with a roller. I got the walls and ceiling done and the also rollered the cistern enclosure. That all looked fine. I also tried the Crown paint on the back of the bathroom door which was a mess.
I haven't painted the bath panel yet, just PVA'd it.

Anyway, I noticed the paint of the cistern enclosure seemed to wipe off in places.

I spoke to crown and they said I would have adhesion problems. They said the PVA will eventually become brittle and the paint come off.
What I've done is put a water based paint on to this PVA surface.

I am a carer and my flat is 200 miles away from where I look after a relative. Because of finances, I'm having to rent my flat out asap, and I need it to be a proper job that won't need doing for sometime. I only had a short time to get this done and I think I have had my chance at doing it myself.

What should I do next ?
Apart from getting somebody in, how should it be tackled ?

Sanding the walls - will that make any difference ? Some of the Crown will come off, and some of the PVA - but will it be effective.

Overpainting the Crown with and oil based paint on the walls ceiling & woodwork.

Paint stripper - is that what I do ? How would it be used /

All advice welcome ?

Many thanks.

 

[dcdec]

Jeesh fred, the first thing you need to do is track down the idiot that told you to PVA it and break his legs. Was he a B&Q employee? if so my next step would be to ring head office and tell them the story and try and get something out of them.

As for the PVA scraping it off is about the only option, although i distantly remember someone on here having a solution of washing the walls down and scrubbing, but not sure if i remember rightly?

Couple of pointers, anything back to bare timber or plaster always needs to be primed before further paint application. After removing loose paint and priming bare spots you can bring the area flush with the rest of the wall by filling and rubbing down flush. Always spot prime filler with watered down emulsion. Never go to B&Q except as a last resort. The crown kitchen and bathroom paint is fine but trade acrylic eggshell is what the pro's use.
You also sound like you have an extraction problem (or damp) in your bathroom and it doesn't matter how good a job you do it will come back unless you solve the problem.

Good luck and hope you get it sorted.

 

[TheDec]

Fred,

I take that the person from B&Q isn't a friend of yours then, Fred you should sand, scrape, and using warm water wash both the walls and ceiling changing the water frequently. You should do this at least twice then when the areas concerned have dried out paint all the affected surfaces with a thinned oil based undercoat, when this is dry you can do any face filling that is required then when dry sand down and blend in the filler with the existing surface, then again apply the thinned undercoat to the filled areas. You should then be ready to apply finish coats.

Dec

 

[elrobbo82]

i agree with thedec but i would use a product called zinsser BIN primer to prime all effected areas. this is a schelac based product with a very fast drying time and great adhesion properties. you can then apply any finish paint over the top of this. this product can be quite expensive but i would recommend it. however try to establish why the bathroom seems to be damp. have you got adequate ventilation and insulation i.e loft or cavity wall? this dampness is probably what is causing the problems with the paint.