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I'm hoping someone can help me out with some ideas of what to do with my walls. We recently bought our first home. It's a 104 year old victorian with plaster walls. I recently began priming the walls in my foyer (to cover some old water stains, the cause of which have been repaired), when the old paint began peeling away with each stroke of the primer! After speaking with several neighbors, I found out that the former owner was rather "cheap" with fixing things up around here, and he would combine several paints (both latex and oil) together and paint the walls (which would explain the 9 half empty buckets we found in the basement). It seems this is what he did when his real estate agent told him to paint all of the rooms white before selling it. I was also told that he did the painting during the dead of winter, and he didn't have the heat turned on in the house at the time. So, the paint may not have set correctly.
Anyway, the paint peeled away, and underneath it are several layers of more paint... Then, I found bare plaster in some parts, and two layers of wallpaper in others! So... should I scrape down the whole room? Or should I just remove the several layers of paint and paint over the wallpaper and plaster? Or something else? I'm really unsure about what to do!
If you can remove the paint by peeling or chipping away, I'd do that. I'd also remove all the wallpaper. If you then have uneven walls, using joint compound and a putty knife, fill in the area's, feathering out to where the paint is stable. Sand smooth. There's a product out there, Zinsser Gardz® High Performance Sealer. It's "formulated to deeply penetrate and dry to a hard, moisture resistant film that seals and binds down porous, chalky and crumbling surfaces, paints and texture finishes". Paint that over everything, let dry and then paint the color of your choice.
Is your plaster that you're finding the finish coat or the scratch coat? Finish coat will be smooth, scratch coat will be rough and if not painted, looks like you've got concrete on your walls. I was told in this 111 yr old house to use the Zinsser shellac based primer.
Thanks so much! I haven't been back to the site in a while. I found out that my house is 111 years old, not 104! I'm assuming from what you've said that I am seeing the scratch coat under the wallpaper. It's really quite ugly!
I've also noticed that since I primed that one particular wall (I primed over all of those layers of paint) the old wallpaper that's under all of the paint is showing through! Looks like I'll have to remove every inch of paint and wallpaper from it...
Thanks for the tips! I'm going to look into the Gardz info right now!
Tammyinpa- when I rehabed my home (not quite as old as yours) I chipped and scrapped A LOT and what I found to be satisfactory was taking off the parts that came easily.I never forced the paint off and gently hand sanded (feathered) the areas that were very uneven so they blended . then the primer, sometimes 2 coats ,then the color,sometimes 2 coats. The plaster walls I skim coated with joint compound in the bad areas if they were bare, hand sanded then primer and paint. Its a very rewarding task in the end but if you seek perfection in an old house you might be disappointed. I always reminded myself that the character acquired over that length of time should be celebrated . It took me 14 months .
