Paint peeling off wall, what to treat wall with?

valve90210 · 22 Jan 2018 at 10:02

I'm in the process of repainting my kitchen and annoyingly in one area of one of the walls there was a small area of paint which had flaked off when some blutack had been used to attach a birthday banner. I figured it'd be fine to just rub it down and paint.

However with a little rubbing down it became obvious that this was more than just a little bit of paint lifting, it seems there's a whole area where the paint hasn't really bonded with the wall and it's easily flaking off. My plan now is to scrape off as much as necessary but I'm not quite sure what to use on the wall to treat it so I when I repaint I don't have this issue again?

For info, the wall under the paint is quite a pink sort of plaster material that sands easily.

valve90210 · 25 Jan 2018 at 11:58

No idea, it's paint from before I lived there.

This is the wall:

The yellowy colour is the paint which is flaking away, the pink is the plaster which is very easy to sand. I've been looking about and have also seen recommendations for Zinsser Gardz (http://www.zinsseruk.com/product/gardz/) which does sound like it might be suitable to stabilise the plaster and edges of the paint etc. Ideally I'd like to order something on Prime today so I can use it over the weekend...

valve90210 · 25 Jan 2018 at 13:02

valve90210 · 26 Jan 2018 at 11:29

Adam said:
Perhaps the wall wasn't sealed properly when it was first plastered?

ChroniC said:
I had the same problem after plastering. I just rubbed it down and painted lots of cheap white emulsion on it. That absorbed into the wall and dried and gave the good paint something to fix too. I swear these one coat paints don't get absorbed or adhere well to surfaces.

I think this is quite likely to be the problem. I've ordered some Gardz which I'll slap on there ro sort the surface out and then hopefully all will be well for painting after that.

valve90210 · 26 Jan 2018 at 13:10

samcat said:
That looks almost exactly like a problem wall I also dealt with. Not properly sealed. Gardz or 1-2-3 will sort it.

That's very good to hear!!

valve90210 · 29 Jan 2018 at 15:40

I gave the Gardz a go over the weekend, seems to have worked really nicely. It went on very well as it's very liquid, similar to water down pva, and as has been said, dried hard and sealed down edges of any flaking paint areas. Repainting over it has been fine and given a good finish. I'm very pleased with it! Thanks for help guys