Paint problem - bubbling

Kimi

Kimi

Kimi

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Joined
25 Feb 2009
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3,605
Ive just started to renovate my lounge and the previous owner had some horrible wallpaper. After stripping it i found a load of paint bubbles under the paper. I started to wash the wallpaper paste off last night and pretty much instantly it started to bubble up all over the place. If i sand it back and paint it now the moisture in the paint will do the same i assume?

Has anyone had this before? what are my options to fix it? i can only think of either stripping all the paint off the wall or wallpapering back over it? its quite a large wall so it would probably take a week to strip:(

Heres a couple of pics to show you what i mean

6mL7f8l.jpg

The bubbles start like this
aJp7CUK.jpg

Then you scrape them and they go like this.
1QL6yzC.jpg

Sf9iffS.jpg
 
You sure that's bubbles in the paint?

Looks more like you've only stripped off the top layer of wall paper? And you're now left with lining paper underneath?

Strip it to the walls, they look in good condition from your pics.
Then fill any small gaps, holes, or cracks.
Make sure everything is smoothed over afterwards, simple wipe and or light sand down should do.
Then undercoat and paint afterwards

Sounds like a lot of hassle, but it should give the best results and the worst bit is stripping the wall (and lining) paper.

How did you strip the main wall paper? Steamer?
 
Yea i used a steamer, then a warm cloth to get the small bits that were left off. Thats the original paint underneath the wallpaper. The rest of the room is magnolia and i guess they decided to make a feature wall and wallpapered over it.

After i scrape the bubbles the paint starts to flake off and you end up chasing it all over the wall with the paint flaking off. There seems to be a weakness in the paint and im worried if i sand the edge of the parts that have lifted. Put fresh paint, the moisture in the new paint causing new bubbles and start the vicious circle.

This was the wallpaper, maybe i should have just painted over it:D
lHA1I5c.jpg
 
that looks like it was painted too soon after new plaster, or not painted correctly for new plaster (no wash coat / seal); either way it looks like you have a task on your hands!

A few walls in my house were similar to this, but I can't say they bubbled up instantly when they were washed - what were you using? just water? or sugar-soap?

In my case I was dealing with walls and ceilings that had been wallpapered and pulled off a lot of paint with them, but left an equal amount behind too; very patchy.
after brushing, scraping and swiping as much of the loose edges and flakes off I used a combination of Zinnser Peelstop and Zinsser Gardz. it's inexpensive but it seems to be working great for problematic surfaces with mixed materials on them. I bought 5l of each as I knew it was going to be handy and now I use Gardz just as a formality.

have a read through the bumf and see if it sounds like it would work for you
http://www.zinsseruk.com/product/peel-stop/
http://www.zinsseruk.com/product/gardz/
 
R B Customs said:
I used a combination of Zinnser Peelstop and Zinsser Gardz. it's inexpensive but it seems to be working great for problematic surfaces with mixed materials on them. I bought 5l of each as I knew it was going to be handy and now I use Gardz just as a formality.
Click to expand...

Zinsser's inexpensive?! First I've heard of it! Zinsser is famous for being very good but pretty expensive.

Agree with RB Customs, that wall was not prepared properly after plastering.

You'll need to get a proper large decorator's scraper and get busy scraping. Alternative is to re-board and re-plaster, which might be quicker (marginally) but would be more expensive.

Looking at the quality of the plaster, I would scrape the whole lot off then mist coat, undercoat, and emulsion.

A lot of walls in my house were painted after the plaster had been PVA'd. I've had to get very friendly with my scraper. It's very annoying as bodge-job Eddie has obviously had a field day or two in my house.

By the way if you simply can't bring yourself to scrape it all off, you could try undercoating with an oil-based primer. Must be oil-based, or the residual wallpaper glue will mix with the water in the emulsion and cause further problems.

However I certainly wouldn't trust that paint on the plaster and it will likely cause other paint to fail eventually. There's no evidence of a mist coat.
 
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Participant said:
Zinsser's inexpensive?! First I've heard of it! Zinsser is famous for being very good but pretty expensive.

Agree with RB Customs, that wall was not prepared properly after plastering.

You'll need to get a proper large decorator's scraper and get busy scraping. Alternative is to re-board and re-plaster, which might be quicker (marginally) but would be more expensive.

Looking at the quality of the plaster, I would scrape the whole lot off then mist coat, undercoat, and emulsion.

A lot of walls in my house were painted after the plaster had been PVA'd. I've had to get very friendly with my scraper. It's very annoying as bodge-job Eddie has obviously had a field day or two in my house.

By the way if you simply can't bring yourself to scrape it all off, you could try undercoating with an oil-based primer. Must be oil-based, or the residual wallpaper glue will mix with the water in the emulsion and cause further problems.

However I certainly wouldn't trust that paint on the plaster and it will likely cause other paint to fail eventually. There's no evidence of a mist coat.
Click to expand...

Zinsser stuff is generally expensive, but in particular, 5l of GARDZ is £25 which I thought was good value. my reccomendation for that in particular was to deal with sealing in old wallpaper adhesive residue, which, lets face it, you can't be sure if you have removed it all entirely or not. it's a bit fuss on than an oil-based primer maybe?

I'm still a little bit puzzled as to how the existing stuff is bubbling up straight away when washed though - does that sound odd to you?
 
Thanks guys. I think im looking at scraping the whole lot off. The last thing i want to to get it ready to paint, slap it on then come home from work and find all the paint on the floor:D

The whole house has been bodged together from top to bottom so im not surprised the walls weren't sealed. In the grand scheme of things this is only a small problem. The worst bodge ive come across so far was the extra toilet they installed was leaking from the back, what did they do to fix it, repair the leak? nah just put a strawberry punnet plastic box and fill it with tissue paper to catch the drips, oh yea then we'll tile it in so no one can see it the mess was horrendous:eek:

How would be best to remove this paint? im thinking wet the whole wall and then attack with a scrapper.
 
That GARDZ sounds good and that's pretty reasonable really.

I've had bubbling like that but only ever with wallpapered walls, so I guess it's literally the water reacting with the wallpaper adhesive on the paint, causing the adhesive to contract as it re-dries, lifting up the paint that it's still adhered to on the back.
 
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Kimi said:
How would be best to remove this paint? im thinking wet the whole wall and then attack with a scrapper.
Click to expand...

Get a proper heavy duty scraper with wide removable razor blades, like this:

0VT1qEU.jpg

http://www.decoratingwarehouse.co.u..._pGVx_0f5r41UfR6mj4lD5ZjhOrj7EyVoWRoCtufw_wcB

Not sure wetting it will help much. Once you get going with the above, it should start coming off practically in sheets in the areas its failing. They're only a fiver or so and will save you literally hours vs. those small paint scrapers.

Just be careful not to damage the plaster, as you'll have to fill with Gyproc Easyfill or similar if you damage it. Experiment with both blade edges as rotating it can drastically change the ease of scraping (most scrapers are angled so each side does a different job).
 
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Yea ive got one of those scrappers, ill pick up a new blade for it before i get to work.

If i use some GARDZ, would i first need to prime the walls with a 50/50 wash and then apply GARDZ, or go straight in with it.
 
I'd probably go straight with the Gardz, but only because the tin and product description says you can use it to seal plaster, rather than because I have any knowledge of the product. Not sure if it also requires an undercoat prior to an emulsion.
 
Update, decided to wallpaper it:D

I took a day scraping and the finish just wouldn't be up to my expectations.

So bought this
858-900-X54s.jpg



On a side note, this is the standard to which the previous owners kept the whole house. The amount of masking tape ive found all over the place is ridiculous. This was the best bit tho. lol, whats the thinking behind it? oh ill mask the wall so i dont get paint on it, then just leave the masking tape?. LOL!

rh0ETns.jpg
 
ha, brilliant.
there's some total corkers in my house too. we should really make a thread about it as it would make for a few laughs. I discover bad practice every day in my house, mostly decorating related!

is the wallpaper up yet?
 
ha just noticed the paint all over the window frame as well! have to tend to that later!

Wallpaper isnt up yet, im laying the floor at the moment so hopefully ill be able to get that down, the skirting on and the paper up over the weekend.
 
Put the wallpaper up at the weekend. The paste made the paint bubble in places so hoping it goes down when it dries out. Either way, look better than it did with a hole in the wall:p

hILYJjV.jpg
 
After i removed the fake wood fireplace it turned out to be an old back boiler so rather than fit another ornamental one i decided to just fill it in, gives the room more of a flow now not having to walk around it when you go in.
 
Probably a combination of PVA (bashes head against wall) and the fact you were using a steamer.

Steamers are crap for wallpaper imo, a decent perforator and warm water with some conditioner or DIF in it is just as effective without any risk to the underlying surfaces.

For future reference you'd be advised to scrape off any unsound and then paint with Gardz. Personally I paint any previously papered surface with gardz because you've no guarantee of all of the paste being washed off, it's just better to seal it up and you'll not have problems. For the difference it makes to a room paint is cheap and it's one of the things you should never skimp on.
 
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