painting coving where paint has come off due to steaming?

[daniella__]

Hi everyone,

First time buyer/DIYer so sorry if this is a stupid question!

When removing wallpaper from the walls, quite a lot of paint from the coving pealed off due to the proximity of the steam to the coving. This has since dried and is brittle and can be knocked off. We've had the walls re-plastered and I'm now looking to paint them!

How do I paint over this slightly damaged coving ensuring an even covering? At the moment I can envisage little 'sink pools' where a layer of paint has peeled away in the coving. These patches are only a few cms at most, this isn't significant damage.

Would sanding the surface around it slightly & re-painting be sufficient? Or do we need to sand *all* of the paint on the coving off?

Thank you so much for any guidance

Daniella

[OchAye]

Daniella

You don' t happen to be in Edinburgh by any chance as that is where the only Daniella I know lives (as if there is only one Daniella).

Anyhow, it is not the steam as such that caused the problem but it does not matter, there is a problem. Can you please post a photograph (or more) of the coving so we get an idea what it looks like and of the damaged areas? Also if the coving is plaster or polystyrene (you can tell by knocking on it) sound like a drum will be plaster, no sound will probably be plastic ... also any info if it is an old flat (I am stuck on Edinburgh), house or a modern flat/house etc.

Do not paint over anything yet because you may see the step from the stripped coving to the non-stripped coving and your eyes will always be drawn at that. What to do will depend on what you got.

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Briefly, for posting photos the longest side has to be <= 1600 pixels.

[daniella__]

Hi,

Thank you so much for the lovely response!! I’m from London actually, but have Irish family and believe it’s a Celtic name which explains Edinburgh? I take it you’re Scottish?

The house is in East London, it was built in 1955 and we’re only the third owners. It’s a three bed terraced home. The last owner did a lot to it, but I suspect her son did some stuff not so well unfortunately as I have a radiator that’s definitely been painted with emulsion!

Knocking the coving I suspect it’s plaster - there’s a photo with some of it exposed which may help? Please see here for the very worst of the damage, the rest is some minor puckering between the wall and join to coving? But pics: https://imgur.com/a/Zauw2Dd

What do you think? I’ve already masking taped it up for the mist coat!

[OchAye]

Hi again

Dani1 (1200x900).jpg (116.48 KiB) Viewed 4357 times

Dani2 (1200x1600).jpg (202.27 KiB) Viewed 4357 times

I am an adopted Scot, and the one Daniella i know (via a friend) is Italian

Looking at your photos. Don't try peeling as I think you will be peeling for ever and I have no idea what gremlins you will uncover. On the corner photo, if you have something like an olfa knife, or razor blade cut the paint a bit away from the "rip" and then peel off to that point. The idea is not to have the edge of the paint lifting as it is now. The same on the photo at the joint. You don't need a clever cut or anything ... just follow the line of the rips ... so when you lift the existing paint it stops where you have put the cut.

If you can sand the edge of the paint a bit - or a bit more - that would be good. Then if you have a filling knife (it is soft and flexible unlike a paper stripping knife) put a bit of filler over the exposed coving. Not thick, just to cover the exposed coving and enough so there is no step from the bare to the painted area. In the very corner .. once you finish with the knife you could just run your finger right in the corner. Practice makes perfect. Once dry sand (fill again if necessary) and put some diluted paint (mist coat) where you have filled and let it dry.

A couple of things.
Watch out when you lift the masking tape. Try to pull it off back on itself by keeping it flat against itself, do not pull it off at right angles away from the wall. It could cause more damage.

The other thing is you have removed wall paper using a steamer. Did you also remove wallpaper from the ceiling? The corner photo shows "things" on the ceiling. It is as if it needs a good sanding. If you have not washed off the wallpaper paste (that means lots of elbow grease and water), you may or may not get away with just applying paint. You may or may not want to spend some money on Zinsser Gardz which can be used to seal paste or wash the walls (and ceiling?) down until there is no paste left. You will know when there is no paste when the surface is wet and does not feel slimy on your fingertips. Gardz is very thin and will drip everywhere.

Now you wish you had not asked

[daniella__]

Thank you so much - this is such a great response & exactly what I needed!! I would never have thought of using filler, but what you call a step is the “pooling” I was worried about. I also feared peeling it any more as I didn’t want to cause huge amounts of damage.

The ceilings were all heavily textured with what I would call gloop. Whilst our bathroom had a pattern (swirls) the rest just looked like gloopy cake icing? Our plasterer had to scrape the very worst of it off, blue grit, then plaster. That corner is the worst for how the finish has come out, would sanding it be sufficient? There are some other points in the house where the ceiling has a flaw, I imagine due to how severe the original texture was on the ceiling.

Thank you so much for this your help is so appreciated!! This room is the worst for coving out of the three because I stupidly allowed the steamer close enough to the coving to lift old paint. The other two rooms are completely fine !!

[OchAye]

I completely missed the room was re-plastered. Please ignore all my comments about wallpaper paste and what to do about it. Sorry.

That corner is the worst for how the finish has come out, would sanding it be sufficient? There are some other points in the house where the ceiling has a flaw, I imagine due to how severe the original texture was on the ceiling.

Yes, any sticky out bits sand them down but do not put too much pressure if you are using your fingers as opposed to using a sanding block. The professional decorators (I am not one of them) would say, sand where needed, dust everything, mist coat, then fill any problem areas and sand them again, paint.

For other problem ceilings post a photo please, I would rather not guess, it is enough I can't read.

[Tom d'Angler]

If I am understanding correctly, I would be worried about the finish of the newly-plastered ceiling... (if that is what i am looking at in the photos )

[daniella__]

If I am understanding correctly, I would be worried about the finish of the newly-plastered ceiling... (if that is what i am looking at in the photos )

Yeah, the top of the photos = ceiling. The corners are the worst bit of it by far, what would you suggest doing to help even this out, please? Should I poly fill after my mist coat?

For context the ceilings were horrific before - I can't explain it other than american cake frosting with a drip effect. The plasterer had to knock off the worst of it, blue grit, then plaster over. The corners were worst so they've come out the worst D:

[OchAye]

Tom didn't mince his words. Until it clicked on me that the room was replastered I thought it was bits of wallpaper left on the ceiling. On the basis of the two photos you have a problem in the corner and nothing brilliant in the straight part. Do you have more rooms to decorate? At least now you have said you have bought the house, you might as well do it right.

[daniella__]

Tom didn't mince his words. Until it clicked on me that the room was replastered I thought it was bits of wallpaper left on the ceiling. On the basis of the two photos you have a problem in the corner and nothing brilliant in the straight part. Do you have more rooms to decorate? At least now you have said you have bought the house, you might as well do it right.

Yep - basically all around the edges it's not ideal at all.

We've had all 3 bedrooms plastered - this is the only one with this problem, it's a box room and had a heavily textured (drip effect) ceiling whilst the others had a circular pattern on it which was easier to conceal. I'm starting mist coating the box room as proof of concept I can do it myself, if it goes really wrong we will just pay a professional.

Do you think the ceiling is irretrievably bad?

[OchAye]

OK. Everything is fixable, but at the end of the day it is what you are happy with, and since this is a box room you might as well experiment in that room. Filling needs practice. Give me a few minutes to write another post pointing you to some tools and sundries. I don't find this part easy because I know what to do with whatever I got, but when I am buying I want to buy and use something that is just like so.

[Tom d'Angler]

Was the plastering done by a professional plasterer?

It's not very flat or smooth.

If you're lucky, a good (but gentle) sanding should get rid of most of the unevenness. A pole sander will help with the strain of doing it.

[daniella__]

OK. Everything is fixable, but at the end of the day it is what you are happy with, and since this is a box room you might as well experiment in that room. Filling needs practice. Give me a few minutes to write another post pointing you to some tools and sundries. I don't find this part easy because I know what to do with whatever I got, but when I am buying I want to buy and use something that is just like so.

Thank you so much for this

[daniella__]

Was the plastering done by a professional plasterer?

It's not very flat or smooth.

If you're lucky, a good (but gentle) sanding should get rid of most of the unevenness. A pole sander will help with the strain of doing it.

Yeah it was done by a professional, who came highly recommended from friends. The rest of the house is absolutely fine, this room was just the worst :/

[OchAye]

If you have a decorating shop near you it might be worth calling in and see what they got. B&Q and similar you will find the same things at a poor quality and pay more money for them. Examples of what is worth having:

Hand Sander or smaller block sander, there are also cork block sanders. The smaller ones are definitely needed for when painting woodwork. Seeing Tom's post, a pole sander is the hand sander with a broom handle stuck on it.

SandpaperThe Green 120 grit is quite abrasive but very good (expensive but a 10m roll will last you a lifetime). Watch the lower the number the more abrasive the paper. You should not need more abrasive than 120 at this point, and if it is too abrasive apply less pressure.

Filling knives. A 2" is a must, 3 and 4 useful to have. For example filling the coving a 2" would be good, but filling a bad patch on the ceiling it would be too small so you need something wider, see below.

Taping knives and more of the same If you must fill a large area something like that can be useful (or a plasterer's trowel or ....) I use some French designed tools.

Fillers, I am a toupret fanboy. My standard stuff is their Interior filler 2kg powder but you may want to go for the ready mixed. There are other fillers too. For belts and braces always mistcoat filled areas although toupret says it does not need mistcoating. If you chose powder fillers, this little tub is useful for mixing filler (always clean it before mixing the next batch, and until you know where you are at start with 1 finger of water = horizontal finger - and add powder and mix).

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Sticking to your current issue. The idea of sanding is to remove sticking out bits and bumps etc. It is easy enough to fill hollows with filler but very difficult to hide bumps. When you fill you must not leave a raised surface by piling the filler on thick and thicker. Think of it like putting a layer of slippery stuff on a slice of bread ... even layer. When you have filled, where the filler meets the bare plaster it will be like having a sheet of paper stuck on the plaster. The thinner and finer the filler the less you will see the step from the filler to the paster ... but always worth giving the edge a bit of sanding.

Now you know everything I know