Living Room Paint Problem

4 years ago

Our son bought a small fixer and is experiencing a paint peeling problem in the living room. He's been told all the old paint needs to be scraped, but as you can see in the photo, some of it is stubbornly adhering. And in some areas, the texture is pretty much gone. My question is how to proceed. I say that we leave the paint that is sticking alone. And once all the loose paint is gone, we seal the walls, texture coat to hide any discrepancies created by paint/no paint, prime, paint. Is this the correct approach? Or should we be doing something else. I'm opposed to just tearing out the drywall and starting from scratch because there's really no reason (as far as I can see) to go to that extreme.

Featured Answer

judrand05

4 years ago

Consult a professional painter in your son's area so they can also do the repair and repainting if your son chooses to do so. But above all else, advise your son to do it right, otherwise, it will always look tacky and the old paint may possibly leak through. This is one of those projects in a fixer-upper that is too important to do cheaply.

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Comments (7)

apple_pie_order
4 years ago
How old is the last coat of paint? Is it water based or oil based? How about the blue coat underneath? Was a primer used? Did you test both coats for lead?
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Deborah Spence
Original Author
4 years ago
No idea on the age. We have the paint can, but the label is so faded, we can't read the date when it was mixed. The house was built in 1999, so that rules out lead. Paint can left behind says Behr, acrylic latex, eggshell finish, premium plus ultra, paint and primer in one. Our guess is that, at best, a watered-down primer-and-paint in one was used on the drywall and then the paint we're peeling off now was applied.
Deborah Spence
Original Author
4 years ago
Some of the paint peels off in pieces this big:
apple_pie_order
4 years ago
Thanks for info. I suggest taking the big paint flake and the photos to the best local paint store to ask their experienced staff for advice. It looks like the paint is adhering best along the drywall lines.
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
4 years ago
IMO you would be better off to just replace the drywall since textured walls are horrible and it looks to me like painting over the oil based paint was the issue so now you will need to have 2 pros involved one to remud the walls and one to paint why not just do it right .
Therese N
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Behr has been eliminating VOCs and solids to the point where the paint never cures properly and is left rubbery and barely adhered. They claim to have paint + primer all in one, so it gets applied without priming frst, though in small print it tells the user to prepare the walls properly before painting. That's their "out". I have the same problem in my office. I may try scrubbing with nylon scrubber and sudsy water, but I suspect I will end up tearing out the walls and replacing. There's no use repainting over this crap. The company knows about this problem. There is at least one class action lawsuit against them (unsure of status) and even their reps know. There is enough legalese in their warranty to get out of any liability. We are all left with disasters. I love their colors, but will never paint with their products again. Home Depot needs to dump them. This really sucks. I don't think there is a good fix. All that texture will show through. You could repaint now and replace drywall later when/if the price comes down.