Painting woes - help!!

[The Y-man]

Hi All,

This would be plain funny if it wasn't for the fact that we just spent the entire long weekend (and a few hundred buck on paint) on the project - only to find it quite literally go back to square one........

We are repainting one of our IP's to put up for sale.

On its wall was (is) shiny gloss paint.

So we went and bought some gloss paint to put over it (going white from a greeny colour).

All good - except we had put water based paint over oil..... so after 2 days of careful painting, my wife pointed out a bit of paint that looked "loose". Tugging on it, created the interesting effect of the entire 2 coats of new paint coming cleanly off like glad wrap - bringing back the (almost) unchanged greenish wall...........

Ok, so we get it - we need to put oil based paint on the wall (take 2).

However, there is still bits of the water based paint stuck on the wall, and not easily peeled or sanded off.

So question to the wise forumites:

1. should we just paint over what has stayed on the wall with the oil based paint

or

2. is there an easy way to remove the water based paint off the glossy oil paint. I spent 3 hours tonight trying to scrub it off with turpentine and sandpaper with limited success - if anyone knows a better way, it would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[Novar]

Been there done that ... but it was only 1 small room ... poor you.

Not much help, it was years ago and I can't remember what we did.

However, good news is, there are some great products now to be found at the paint shop. I think you will find there is something you can paint on before the water based and it makes it stick.

Good Luck

 

[JIT]

Hey Y-man,

You could try posting this query over here too:

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=79

The guys here are really helpful (it's not just a woodwork forum, it's a handyman/tradey forum too).

 

[kathryn d]

We had a similar problem with an old house. Our paint store told us to use a certain type of primer. Your store will know which type to recommend.

 

[fernfurn]

Methylated spirits is the only thing to get water based paint off (not turps)
there is also something called SPS or SPC or something, with which you seal the surface ready to paint over again, but you will see the big patches of previous paint for a start and it was not particularly successful where I used it, with the new paint peeling off again. If it is not a huge area left I would try roughing it up with sandpaper (on a sanding machine if poss) and then spraying on metho and leaving it for a while, then scraping it off with a steel paint scraper. I don't envy you.
How demoralising to go to all that work and then have it peel off. I painted all the skirtings and architraves once and when I peeled the paper off that was protecting the wall, a huge piece down the whole jamb came away, however I wasnt about to give in and just stuck it back on the architrave where it had come off and it stuck and dried. I was wrapped

 

[mystery]

Y-Man

I was a tradesman painter many years ago ... 23 from memory (until I saw the light).

If you are painting over an enamel gloss surface then you need to lightly sand the surface to create a key (rough surface), ... paint with a flat undercoat/sealer, .. we used to use flat enamel undercoat, but I believe they have water based sealer/undercoats to go over gloss surfaces today, but I've never found them that good over enamel ... still, they should have improved by now.

Lightly sand the surface between coats, ... this will help. The water based paint you put over the gloss enamel probably had nothing to grip to if you didn't sand down first, ... it would have been like painting water based paint over glass, .... lift one bit and the whole lot peels off.

I hope this helps .... good luck

Martin

PS ... Go to a specialist paint shop ..... these guy's will know exactly what to do. Not a Bunnigs or Mitre 10 store but a specialist paint place

 

[RumpledElf]

Hah, what is it with older houses and green paint? I'm on my second renovator's delight now. Have seen some frightening things.

We had the same deal in a room we divided. It was painted hospital green (that ikky pale green that makes you sick looking at it) but the edges were painted in STRIPES of dark green gloss. Ended up giving the gloss a rough sand, painting over with oil-based primer, then over that with gloss white oil-based enamel. There's a huge range of primers out there, I'm sure there's one to go over oil paint that you can then paint over with acrylic - which is of course much cheaper and far easier to deal with. Primers are not cheap, however.

If you can, don't paint the walls gloss ... glossy walls are scary.

 

[wylie]

Hah, what is it with older houses and green paint? I'm on my second renovator's delight now. Have seen some frightening things.

We had the same deal in a room we divided. It was painted hospital green (that ikky pale green that makes you sick looking at it)...

I know exactly the green you are talking about, but we call it "toilet green" because every toilet wall must have been painted in that shade at some time in the past.

 

[BAOT131]

Hi Y-Man;

I have the same problem as you have, when renovating our house, with the same green colour but it was on the doors.
We were in a hurry and did not sand down the doors before applying the oil base paint, after a coulpe of weeks, there were some cracks in the paints and I can peel stripes of new paints off.

Like "Mystery" have said, we used scraper to scraped off all the new paints, then lightly sanded back the old green paint, then apply a flat undercoat/sealer and then apply 2 coats of Dulux semi gloss - water base paint. It works for us.


Regards
Tri

 

[ethereal]

Wait!!!! There is a primer which will allow you to paint over the green enamel (oil based) with acrylic without even sanding. It really works as we didi it in our ppor 5 years ago and it is great, not a single crack, peel or blister.
Here is what we did.

1. Thoroughly clean walls with sugar soap and an industrial strength scourer ( the bigger than usual nylon type from bunnings etc. Scrub everywhere. This is important, but easier than sanding.

2. Rinse with water.

3. Paint with Taubmans 3-in-1 undercoat/primer. It is acrylic but designed to go over oil based and it really works. Expensive but so worth it.

4. Paint as usual with acrylic paint.

As someone already mentioned, acrylic paint is soluble with metho so try that to remove the left-overs.

I really feel for you after all that work.. Good Luck.

Louise

 

[Buzz]

I nearly cried when I read you post - it bought back horrible memories of when the same thing happened with our first IP many years ago.

I did 3 coats and then had to sand and start again. My simple weekend project took weeks.

Good luck, it is kind of comforting to hear that others fell into the same trap though.

Jane

 

[Dis]

3. Paint with Taubmans 3-in-1 undercoat/primer. It is acrylic but designed to go over oil based and it really works. Expensive but so worth it.

4. Paint as usual with acrylic paint.

We did this in our PPOR
Used the 3-in-1 over all the skirting boards, door frames, windows, etc. Then painted in aqua enamel . Despite my clumsy vacuuming the paintwork still looks good.

 

[firstmillion]

Hey Y-man,

You could try posting this query over here too:

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=79

The guys here are really helpful (it's not just a woodwork forum, it's a handyman/tradey forum too).

Thanks JIT, its really good.

 

[dreaming]

In the past I've used a Robertson brand paint which was an oil/ latex primer, this seemed to bond the two.

 

[The Y-man]

Hi All,

Thanks or the tips and sympathy!

Took the day off work yesterday, grabbed the metho and took back the living room back (almost) to day 0. There's fairly large chunks of water based that adhered quite strongly to the wall (probably where I repaired cracks ad sanded quite heavily). I intend to leave these in place and go over the whole lot with oil based paint.

I also intend to go over the bedroom with the oil based pant without taking any of the water based off - hopefully it doesn't bubble or sag....

I just need the thing to look good for a month or 2 while the property is sold...

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[Diane]

There is a product called sealer/binder/undercoat from paint shop which binds together flaking surfaces and lets water based paint adhere to oil based paints. Just sand off flaking surface, roll on, let dry and then paint. It is white in colour so gives a good undercoat. We had to do this in an old unit in Darwin and it worked well. From memory there is a product called penetrol which can be added to an undercoat - ask your paint shop.

Cheers
Diane