Help!! Paint peeling - distemper?

[SamanthaB]

Help! I've just bought a 1930s 2 bedroom flat. In the bedroom the paper was flaking right off the wall, so I stripped it all off with a steam stripper. The wall underneath was a mixture of flaky old paint, and what looks like plaster (it's grey-ish and speckled, like concrete).

I tried to paint over this - what I did was filled and sanded the wall, then applied a mist coat of white emulsion, then painted all-purpose primer all over the wall. However the paint is just peeling right off in huge strips, when you feel the back of the strips they are totally dry and obviously not adhered to the wall. Lots of the wall is now stripped back to the raw plaster/concrete. However there's also patches of yellow, powdery paint.

Could this be distemper? I want to put lining paper on the wall, but do I need to seal it first? I've scraped off as much white paint as we can, but it's a big job, does it all need to come off?

Any help greatly appreciated! Don't want to line the whole wall and then have it come off! We're using 'Wall doctor' paste the wall lining paper.

 

[roughcaster]

Sounds to me like it's old distemper. You really will have to take it all off. Use the steamer to get as much off as you can. Once you've got the wall back to the plaster, you'll need to seal it. You can buy sealers for that kind of job, but good old oil based undercoat will do the same job. Once you've sealed the wall, you should then sort out any surface blemishes etc as required, using appropriate fillers. Once you have the wall surface touched up, give it sand down, prime it, and then either paint or paper the walls. To be honest, i'd get someone in to do it,,, contact a reputable firm/s in your area, get some info from them, plus get some quotes for doing the job.

 

[SamanthaB]

Thanks very much for the advice! Unfortunately we are working on a very tight budget, so I don't think getting someone in is an option

Luckily it only seems to be happening on 2 (small-ish) walls. Hopefully I can get it done myself. Do I need to still prime the walls if I paint them with Dulux plaster sealer first? We're going to put this 'paste the wall' lining paper on top. Not sure if I need to size them as well...

 

[roughcaster]

Thanks very much for the advice! Unfortunately we are working on a very tight budget, so I don't think getting someone in is an option

Luckily it only seems to be happening on 2 (small-ish) walls. Hopefully I can get it done myself. Do I need to still prime the walls if I paint them with Dulux plaster sealer first? We're going to put this 'paste the wall' lining paper on top. Not sure if I need to size them as well...

As long as you get the old distemper off that's the main thing. If you dont, the paper wont stick to the wall properly,, especially after it has dried out. As i said earlier,, remove all the old distemper, prep/sand the walls, seal/prime the walls, then paper,,, that's what you need to do. Others on here might offer advice too. Good luck to ya.

 

[AbnerWright]

Remove old plaster and then prepare wall accordingly otherwise paper will not stick properly and will wreck out after a short period of time. I am with roughcaster.