Paint flaking on bathroom ceiling - solution? (pic)

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Caporegime
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Warwickshire
Hello all

Next on the list, flaking bathroom paint. This is the problem:

IRPjnoHl.jpg


It seems that this is paint flaking off paint, rather than from plaster / plasterboard.

Do I just scrap away the flaking areas and paint again?
Why has this happened?
How can I avoid it / do a proper job on this occasion?

We've not been in the house long, so I'm not the culprit whatever the issue is :p.

Cheers for any advice.
 
You're not the culprit, actually I think you are :D My guess is the paint they used wasn't moisture resistant, thus causing this.

I'd scrape it all off and start again.
 
Ok thanks, so can I just scrape away the bad areas and go over with moisture resistant paint? Or will I need to strip all of the existing paint?
 
Scrape off the loose stuff, fill where necessary, apply a couple of coats of sealant for frangible surfaces (it's like thin PVA glue), paint with proper bathroom paint that's resistant to damp.
 
Nothing to do with moisture resistant paint, my bathroom ceiling is painted with matt emulsion, as is the kitchen, the problem is the original surface being powdery.

Strip completely, & seal the surface with a coat of Zinsser Gardz or Artex Stablex before painting.

http://www.zinsseruk.com/product/gardz/

http://www.artexltd.com/products/Artex-Stabilex

EDIT: Is it bare plasterboard under the flaking paint, or old distemper type finish, IF it is new plaster board, was the first coat applied a 'mist coat' 50/50 paint & water to seal it first before proper paint was applied.
 
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No mist coat or pva and cracking at the joints that haven't been skrimed or jointed including some kind of movement in the boards.

Scrape it all back and take some more pics.
 
I'm fairly sure they've boarded over something (lath & plaster?) - the house was built in 1960 and when I went up in the attic, there was this board with fold lines in it and some stuff that looked like silver foil that I haven't seen before.

Will strip it in the week and take some more pics. Tempted to rip the whole thing down and re-board. We have another bathroom so shouldn't be too disruptive (messy though I'd imagine!).
 
Stripped some more...any the wiser?

SLYLbUal.jpg


The paint comes off feeling like plastic, it's very poor. Semi-tempted just to over-board the whole lot. Actually scratch that, not a good idea if the paint is falling off. Maybe I rip the whole ceiling down and re-board, but then I'd need a plasterboard lifter thing right?

I think I'll scrape as much as I can and take it from there.
 
There's 2 common reasons for this to happen in a bathroom:
1: The morons used PVA under the paint
2: The morons didn't mist properly

There's some less common reasons but those are the 2 most often associated with it, I cannot stress enough, keep PVA away from your walls and ceilings.

Because of the salts that will have now penetrated the plaster you need to peel off as much as possible with a razor edge scraper, then sand any edges so they feather in.

Then give the surface a coat of alkali resisting primer follower by as many coats of contract matt as is needed (over the whole ceiling).

You could also try peelstop but it doesn't always work in situations like this.
 
Bump. I got a heavy duty scraper from Amazon for 2 quid (silverline) and have just finished scraping every last piece of paint away from the bathroom ceiling. The razor type scraper did an absolutely fantastic job of removing the paint.

Anyway what's clear is that they've plastered the ceiling and then used something to prime the plaster, be it pva or what I'm not sure, but it feels plasticy. So my plan is to patch up the plaster with easyfill where the scraper has damaged it and the plaster has come away from the plasterboard screws, then have at it with two coats of Zinsser perma white satin.

This stuff is a self-priming mould resistant paint and requires no sanding. Expensive but will save a lot of faff. Buying separate primer and matt will probably cost as much as 2.5L of this stuff, which is around 30 quid.

Sound good?
 
Finished this job during the week.

Before:

sEkcvZZl.jpg


After:
iDgdUBq.jpg


Looking a million times better, looks like a new bathroom, can't believe the difference it's made. The Zinsser Perma White is fantastic, so far. Thanks a lot for the help / advice. The Silverline scraper from Amazon is absolutely amazing :D.
 
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Got the same issue in my bathroom. I guess they didn't do a proper mist coat.

So, OP, now that it is sorted, once you stripped it all back, did you just use that Zinsser perma paint and that was it?
 
markyp23 said:
Did you need to use much easi-fill for patching? Does it require a lot of sanding?

About to embark on something similar except my walls are affected as well. They are magnolia though, and therefore I'm not sure I can use Zinsser Perma White on them as it cannot be painted over, is that correct?[/IMG]
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Not much Easi-Fill was required, I only had a few screws and cracks to patch. The amount obviously depends on the state of your walls / ceiling. In my case I scraped ALL the ceiling overcoat off, so I didn't have to patch large swathes of ceiling like I'd scraped off only some.

It sands really nicely, very little effort with manual sanding with sandpaper.

I know you can tint Zinsser Perma White, but afaik it's a finishing paint and not an undercoat per se. Not sure it's designed to be painted over with emulsion for example.

leaskovski said:
So, OP, now that it is sorted, once you stripped it all back, did you just use that Zinsser perma paint and that was it?
Click to expand...

I sanded where I had patched, then decided to lightly sand the whole ceiling to get rid of surface imperfections and pieces of crud left over from stripping the paint.

I then sugarsoaped it and "rinsed" it with a damp cloth.

Then two coats with at least two hours between coats.
 
Thanks markyp23. I'd recommend that you sort out your ventilation issues before doing this. Although the Zinsser has a good reputation for resisting mould etc., I'd feel better knowing I'd done everything else to avoid it as well as put a decent paint up.

There is a school of thought that says if you have decent ventilation then basic emulsion will be perfectly adequate. I duly ignored this though. As ever you pays your money...
 
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