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Paint chipping

3K views 8 replies 9 participants last post by  Will22 
#1 ·
Hello. I am not a painter nor pretend to be. A house I am renovating, the homeowner is running into issues on his ceilings. The house is approx 1960's in nj. As he is rolling the paint on, the existing coat is chipping and peeling off. I assume it to be the humidity and specified to kick the central air on the extract some of the moisture. Any tips or suggestions you could give would be appreciated. Thanks
 
#2 ·
who knows now . maybe it's age old primer, water damaged plaster patches, If you paint over that sort of thing, you get air bubbles that appear for no obvious reason, so it's back to proper preparation, When paint dries it shrinks, and the tension holds it on, you know what else I hate,, when they plaster over wallpaper glue instead of trying to wash it off. One really cannot make an educated guess without knowledge in the first place, but putting on the air conditioner is not connected with paint adhesion in my opinion ,
 
#3 ·
I'm with Pete on this, nothing to do with the humidity. The most logical reason is an issue of adhesion betwen one of the previous coats, never been an issue until the roller is run across it and it is now failing. Who knows why.

To fix it I would tackle scraping it by hand and see what comes off, maybe all of it or perhaps some patches. If that is too time consuming rent a powered drywall sander.
Determine what type of paint is on the exposed layer, wipe it with denatured alcohol, if it comes off onto the rag it is latex, if none comes off it is oil.
I would then sand the ceiling (if scraped by hand) if it is oil paint then prime it with oil Kilz Original. If it is latex then you can prime with a good quality latex primer.
Make repairs / skim coat or what ever is needed, if anything and then spot prime the repairs.
Paint with two coats of finish paint.

If it is a homeowner do restoration work then the labor shouldn't be a problem.
Good luck.
 
#4 ·
Definitely, after you get the loose material off, prime it with a heavy coat of oil base primer. Better yet, spray it on if you can. Water based primer can further destabilize the failed coatings and cause it to come off on the roller. Oil based primer will act as the barrier and keep the moisture in the finish away.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Inform the customer that he has a major paint failure, go from there.
Scrape off all you can, maybe use Peel Stop to coat the edges of the scraped areas. Repaint and make sure the owner knows this may be only a stop gap measure. The alternative to doing other than a stop gap measure seems pretty hairy, scary if you warrant your work. If your customer is the type that might want to hold you accountable for this job, walk away...no, run away.

Making the customer understand that stop gap measures are all you are able to do is key.

I'm talking about an alternative where the entire ceiling has to be torn down to fully remedy the situation to perfection.

Most customers will understand your explanation of a stop gap measure when you explain to them (in a proposal/contract) that the only way to fully insure no more peeling is to tear out the ceiling and replaster it.

Stripping peeling paint off plaster? I'll pass, thank you very much. :laughing:
 
#7 ·
If you end up going through the top layer of plaster ( will probably look white) into the base which usually looks grey and pourous like cement use a good quality oil primer before you patch or paint, even if u don't go through the plaster I would use oil. Don't forget to dig out the cracks if there are any. Enjoy.
 
#8 ·
Well a house built in the 1960s could be plaster or drywall, if the paint is peeling and falling off ceiling then the ceiling could have been painted with oil base paint which latex paint won't stick to, he should have pole sanded the ceiling then primed it to seal the old paint also he needed to break the original paint surface so the latex has something to bond to.
 
#9 ·
Rewetting an old coating (ceilings generally don't get painted very often) can result in delamination, especially if there are layers of old coatings. Remove loose material to a sound surface, clean, and primer/paint. Sometimes, it seems like a simple job becomes complicated in a relatively quick time frame.
 
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