Interior house paint question

jon f mn

Well-known Member
Been working on the castle some lately, and as always, it turned into way more than thought. One of the things we are having trouble with is the old paint, something is wrong with it and we can't figure out what. It is peeling off, but not like normal. It seems almost like the paint never dried. If you can get a corner loose you can pull off large sheets of it, sometimes several square feet, and it's rubbery, not dry like you expect. The grandkids were rolling it into balls and throwing it around. I've never come across this with old paint before. Anyone know what would cause this? We have had a devil of a time getting it cleaned up so we can re-paint.
 
Yup, what the Beagle said. Not enough "tooth" for the latex to bond to. The stretchy/rubbery consistency is pretty much normal for latex.
 
That, and the fact that most people don't do any prep work before slapping on a coat. Needs to be clean, clean and clean. Years of smoke, grease etc on old paint will prevent any good bond. Wash with a strong cleaner, and if shiny a light touchup with sanding pad will help.

And, like mentioned earlier, latex paints never get hard. They're latex.
 
jon,

I've never run into what you have, but it seems to me that you will want to get that old latex off no matter what. Scraping? Paint remover? Something. I think that if you just put a primer over top of what you have, you'll always be able to see where the latex is still on their. I would think that there will be a "bump" where the latex ends and the undercoat (enamel?) begins.

Nasty mess, but I'm sure you'll get it fixed right.

Tom in TN
 
We removed what we could, then skim coated everything. We also had to pull all the rock tape because it was cracked and letting loose too, so while we were re-taping we skim coated everything. Then primed and painted. So far it's looking good.
 
I just wonder if someone painted over tar and nicotine with Latex paint? Don't think latex will bond very will to tar. People that burn a lot of candles might have a wax build up on the walls. Or near a stove grease build up on walls and ceiling.

My vote is someone painted over dirty walls.

You may want to go to a paint store and ask if you should use a primer to bond to you walls?
 
Good old oil base paints were a linseed oil base. The laytex stuff is water. Now we all know this but oil will stick and kinda blend or mix in with crud on the wall. No such with laytex. No no no. Talk to your local paint store like Sherwin Williams or such. You need a heat gun to get the old paint off or marine stripper. Next all surfaces need to be washed with trysodium phosphate or some other really hard cleaner. Going to be a lot of work to get that mess cleaned up. One of my dads friends redid all of the painted over wood trim in an early 20th centery house. When he got done it was a stunning house. He bought paint stripper in gallon cans by the case. Hope you don't need to get that involved.
 
We bought my dad's homeplace and moved into the farmhouse in 1978. The house was heated with wood and grandparents cooked on a wood cookstove. Walls had a smoke layer on them. Where we painted we used a latex primer on everything...sometimes 2 coats. We were fairly certain that painted surfaces had oil based paints. We have never had any peeling as described. Primer worked for us.
 
Modern paints are now paint and primer in one.
Older paints needed to have the surfaces primed first. If it is raw drywall and drywall mud under the paint it will do just as you say.
I just went through that a couple of weeks ago.
Pull off as much of it as you can then prime it.
Then you can paint.
I mostly detest homowner fixes because they don't know how to do things right.
 
Usually when paint peals like that is when someone puts latex paint over oil based paint. The only other time I've seen paint peal like that is with Benjamin Moore paint.

You can tell if the paint is latex by rubbing it with a rag wet with naphtha. If it's latex it will try to dissolve onto the rag somewhat. If the paint is oil it will ignore the naphtha.

If there has been latex paint put over oil then to have any long term results it will need to be stripped. That is such a bad job most people will just touch it up and live with it.
 
Cheap paint before hand is also a culprit. 30 years ago, when we bought our house, I wanted to clean up the garage. Bought the 5 gallon bucket of cheap white latex, where you hang the roller strainer over the side of the bucket. Doing the same stuff. If I take down a coat rack board, it tears off a 12 inch circle on each stud !
 
My wife has painted lots of houses for others and ours,she doing the outside now. She said always use Kilz primer or 123 bullseye primer, just like JD said. She gets it at Menards.
 
I have seen paint peel off like wallpaper as you describe. It was usually the result of painting over smoke without proper prep.
 

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