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Removing Emulsion Paint From Plasterboard

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Ian Kirk

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Nov 5, 2001, 5:28:38 PM11/5/01
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Hi all,

I have a plasterboard ceiling in a smallish room that (due to earlier roof
leakages) was peeling its emulsion paint covering badly in several areas.
Prior to repainting I stripped off the flakey stuff, then the poorly
attached stuff adjacent to it, and now I have a half-bare, half-painted,
ceiling with the paint providing a approx 2mm "ridge" at the not very
straight boundary between the two regions.

If I just paint over this as is I'll get a very noticable ridge in the
finished item, and I'm currently wracking my brain trying to work out a way
to resolve this. Possible solutions, none of which I'm very confident
about, are:

1) Paint stripper to clear the remainder of the ceiling. None of the
commercial strippers mention plasterboard as either "OK" or "no way", but
I'm a bit concerned about noxious gunge soaking into the board and being
impossible to remove.

2) Feather the ridge with filler, to make it less noticable. Not sure this
will work at all.

3) Chip away the rest of the paint, bit by slow bit. Would take ages, and
may well loose bits of the base plasterboard as I do it.

Has anyone got any views on these solutions, or suggestions for
alternatives?

Thanks in advance for any and all responses!
Ian


John

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Nov 5, 2001, 5:58:49 PM11/5/01
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A 2mm ridge sounds a lot of coats of paint. Are you sure it is not the
'skim coat' of plaster you have removed. Can you not feather the edge by
sanding down the ridge(s) or sand down the remaining top surface of paint
and reskim the whole ceiling as it is in a smallish room?

HTH

John
忽帕
~

Ian Kirk <ik.new...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
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chris Venn

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Nov 5, 2001, 6:49:04 PM11/5/01
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Try a steam wallpaper stripper, worked wonders for me stripping a piss poor
application of artex off the ceiling and I used it in conjunction with a
scraper for patches of emulsion paint that was left on the wall when
stripped the wall paper

"John" <jo...@idontlikespam.co.uk> wrote in message
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Natural Philosopher

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Nov 6, 2001, 2:03:51 AM11/6/01
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The standard technique seems to be to paint everything first with dilute
PVA solution, to bind up the loose stuff, then apply a skim of - say -
polyskim to everything to even it up, then paint it.

Actually it sounds a lot of hard work, but it isn't.


> Thanks in advance for any and all responses!
> Ian

--
The real question is, does the mortar hold the bricks apart, or does it
stick them together?

Stuart Noble

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Nov 6, 2001, 3:26:24 AM11/6/01
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Ian Kirk wrote in message ...

>1) Paint stripper to clear the remainder of the ceiling. None of the
>commercial strippers mention plasterboard as either "OK" or "no way", but
>I'm a bit concerned about noxious gunge soaking into the board and being
>impossible to remove.
There is virtually no residue left with paint stripper, only the starchy
stuff used to thicken some brands. The noxious element evaporates off pretty
quickly. It has the advantage of re-liquifying the paint so that (in theory)
you can redistribute it evenly with a brush. Once it dries the paint itself
is unaffected.
Not much fun applying it to a ceiling though.

>2) Feather the ridge with filler, to make it less noticable. Not sure this
>will work at all.
Ordinary Polyfilla would do the job, depending how nifty you are with a
trowel.

>3) Chip away the rest of the paint, bit by slow bit. Would take ages, and
>may well loose bits of the base plasterboard as I do it.
If it's not properly stuck to the board, a sharp chisel pulled across the
surface at 45 degs will flake it off at an alarming rate.

>Has anyone got any views on these solutions, or suggestions for
>alternatives?
I'd go for filler on the ridge and stripper for the odd bits.

Ian Kirk

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Nov 6, 2001, 6:22:17 PM11/6/01
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"John" <jo...@idontlikespam.co.uk> wrote in message
news:9s75ff$6q5$1...@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
> A 2mm ridge sounds a lot of coats of paint. Are you sure it is not the
> 'skim coat' of plaster you have removed. Can you not feather the edge by
> sanding down the ridge(s) or sand down the remaining top surface of paint
> and reskim the whole ceiling as it is in a smallish room?

Thanks for the suggestion John - looking at the ridge again it's actually a
bit closer to 1mm (it just takes on Grand Canyon magnitudes when I try to
visualise it :-( ), and I'm pretty sure it's all just from paint rather than
missing plaster or anything else.

From earlier attempts to sand paint from that roof I fear I'd generate more
paint dust than could be sanely coped with if I tried to clear all of the
remainder that way.

As my plastering/skimming skills are quite limited I'll try various other
approaches to remove the paint before resorting to that as a penultimate
resort. (The last resort's paying someone that knows how to do the job
properly to come in and rescue me!).

Thanks again,
Ian


Ian Kirk

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Nov 6, 2001, 6:35:28 PM11/6/01
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"Stuart Noble" <stu...@waxworks.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:9s8bnp$1l5$2...@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk...

>
> Ian Kirk wrote in message ...
> >1) Paint stripper to clear the remainder of the ceiling. None of the
> >commercial strippers mention plasterboard as either "OK" or "no way", but
> >I'm a bit concerned about noxious gunge soaking into the board and being
> >impossible to remove.
> There is virtually no residue left with paint stripper, only the starchy
> stuff used to thicken some brands. The noxious element evaporates off
pretty
> quickly. It has the advantage of re-liquifying the paint so that (in
theory)
> you can redistribute it evenly with a brush. Once it dries the paint
itself
> is unaffected.
> Not much fun applying it to a ceiling though.

From reading the warnings on the back I can imagine - might be best to try a
gel-based one so it's slightly less likely to run down my arm and do
unspeakable things to my armpit.

> >2) Feather the ridge with filler, to make it less noticable. Not sure
this
> >will work at all.
> Ordinary Polyfilla would do the job, depending how nifty you are with a
> trowel.

Not quite nifty enough, I fear - could probably do some sort of
not-*that*-bad job, but from having tried a similar thing on a wall I found
that the feather was still quite noticable in the wrong light.

> >3) Chip away the rest of the paint, bit by slow bit. Would take ages,
and
> >may well loose bits of the base plasterboard as I do it.
> If it's not properly stuck to the board, a sharp chisel pulled across the
> surface at 45 degs will flake it off at an alarming rate.

Will try that, although I think I've removed all the not properly stuck
sections already - what's left is attached like teflon.

> >Has anyone got any views on these solutions, or suggestions for
> >alternatives?
> I'd go for filler on the ridge and stripper for the odd bits.

Will try stripper if the "environmentally friendly" (and free!) steam
stripper turns out not to do the job - if nothing else works then filler's
the final fall back.

Thanks for your suggestions,
Ian


Ian Kirk

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Nov 6, 2001, 6:25:39 PM11/6/01
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"chris Venn" <ch...@zhardos.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:9s78hh$gil$1...@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...

> Try a steam wallpaper stripper, worked wonders for me stripping a piss
poor
> application of artex off the ceiling and I used it in conjunction with a
> scraper for patches of emulsion paint that was left on the wall when
> stripped the wall paper

Hmmm - now that's worth a try. Already have a steam stripper to hand, and
there's the big advantage that even if it doesn't work the worst possible
side effect is a briefly misty room.

Thanks Chris, I'll give that a go!
Ian

Ian Kirk

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Nov 6, 2001, 6:41:47 PM11/6/01
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"Natural Philosopher" <infi...@nospam.everywhere.net> wrote in message
news:3BE78B57...@nospam.everywhere.net...

>
> Ian Kirk wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I have a plasterboard ceiling in a smallish room that (due to earlier
roof
> > leakages) was peeling its emulsion paint covering badly in several
areas.
> > Prior to repainting I stripped off the flakey stuff, then the poorly
> > attached stuff adjacent to it, and now I have a half-bare, half-painted,
> > ceiling with the paint providing a approx 2mm "ridge" at the not very
> > straight boundary between the two regions.
>
> The standard technique seems to be to paint everything first with dilute
> PVA solution, to bind up the loose stuff, then apply a skim of - say -
> polyskim to everything to even it up, then paint it.
>
> Actually it sounds a lot of hard work, but it isn't.

Something I should have done at an earlier stage, then - at this point I've
given myself a ridge roughly bisecting the ceiling and all the loose bits
are removed anyway!

Oh well - the kitchen ceiling's looking a bit iffy too - might give it a go
on that...

Thanks,
Ian


Larry Hinshaw

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Nov 29, 2001, 4:09:38 PM11/29/01
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"Ian Kirk" <ik.new...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:<QG_F7.22896$N16.2...@news11-gui.server.ntli.net>...

> "chris Venn" <ch...@zhardos.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:9s78hh$gil$1...@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...
> > Try a steam wallpaper stripper, worked wonders for me stripping a piss
> poor
> > application of artex off the ceiling and I used it in conjunction with a
> > scraper for patches of emulsion paint that was left on the wall when
> > stripped the wall paper
>
> Hmmm - now that's worth a try. Already have a steam stripper to hand, and
> there's the big advantage that even if it doesn't work the worst possible
> side effect is a briefly misty room.
>
> Thanks Chris, I'll give that a go!
> Ian
>
> > > Ian Kirk <ik.new...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> > > news:GDEF7.23237$Cl3.3...@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com...
> > > > Hi all,

> > > >t> > > > I have a plasterboard ceiling in a smallish room that (due to earlier

> > >Take a look at our website: custom-restorations.com
Go to professional catalogs and check out the Peel Away line of paint
removers.
Peel Away 1 removes paint from plaster. Does a great job with old
lead based paints.
> >
> >

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