Painting over cracked eggshell on plaster

[bsr]

Hi All

My bathroom has eggshell walls. Since two women moved in, the paint has 'crackled' and peeled in a number of places. Where I've taken it off, this seems to be due to plaster settlement/cracking underneath.

What's the best way to fix this? I was thinking that, as the walls are eggshell, I'll have to use eggshell on top rather than vinyl matt. How do I know when the paint has stabilised... I don't want to fix it, only for it all to fail again in six months.

A couple of other things:

• Where the eggshell has come off, its not come away from the vinyl below - all the paint has come off, down to the plaster
• About 10% of the paint has come off, so I'd rather not try and strip it all - I was thinking about using fine surface filler and sanding

Thanks!


bsr

 

[TheDec]

If I have read this right, the eggshell has adhered over the vinyl but has become unstable only on the skim?

Dec

 

[bsr]

Exactly, in most places where the eggshell has cracked, its taken the underlying vinyl with it, leaving bare plaster.

 

[TheDec]

Sonds to me that these walls were not misted prior to painting, It reall should be removed and done again. But you don't want to hear that i'm sure, so remove all the loose and flaking paintwork and give the walls a good rub down then fill any areas that are in need and when dry lightly sand smooth. Mist the filled areas then carry on with your emulsion, and you may get away with it.

Dec

 

[bsr]

OK, thanks. Does that mean I can safely apply emulsion over oil-based eggshell? I thought it wouldn't stick, so I had to use oil-based paint?

 

[TheDec]

Bsr,

Eggshell paints produce a very low level of sheen far less in fact than any silk emulsion, all that is needed is to remove that sheen before you apply your choosen paint.

Your major concern should be here is the fact that the walls were not prepared correctly, eg the seemingly lack of a mistcoat. So this may come back and haunt you.

Give the walls a very good sanding and face fill any areas of paintwork that appear not to be uniform in appearance, lightly sand the filler and apply a thinned coat of oil based undercoat. Doing such will greatly assist the underlying paintworks adhesion.

You should then be ok to apply your finish coats.

Dec