On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 21:28:13 +0100, Alan McGowan
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 16:24:39 +0100, Warren Owen
wrote:

Hi,

Having recently bought and moved into a Victorian terrace I've
been feeling pretty pleased with myself for not having any DIY
disasters in the first few months.... but hey it couldn't last.

I was just doing a bit of painting. The living room ceiling,
which has bobbly artex type stuff was painted.. standard Dulux Vinyl
Matt Emulsion - White...no problems. I then proceeded to do the back
room, which has the same bobbly artex type stuff. The paint dried and
immediately started to crack badly and peel in areas where I may have
"overapplied" (in hindsight) paint. I brushed some of it down, and
took the following pictures (apologies for the low quality digicam).

http://www.altcountrytab.com/images/Set35_01.jpg
http://www.altcountrytab.com/images/Set35_02.jpg

There doesn't appear to be any damp... its dry as a bone. The
only thing I can think of is, and this is a shot in the dark, is that
the room has an open fire and I suspect the previous owner may have
"wood burned" on the fire, I wonder if that may have created a layer
of layer of filth in areas than should have been cleaned before I
tried to paint over.

I'd appreciate opinions on what has happened, and what I can
do to rectify the situation... I can't just paint over the top.

Oh and I don't particularly like the artex type stuff, but I'm
not sure if it will come off easily.

Thanks in advance...

Warren

Is the ceiling quite powdery under the peeling paint? I had a similar
problem and used a masonry sealer before repainting - worked a treat

Alan

Yes, brushing off the cracked paint did produce a lot of powder. Did
you apply the sealer on top of the existing good bits of the painted
surface or did you completely strip the ceiling. The thing is that it
is only affecting 20% of the ceiling and I don't want to strip the
whole thing if I can avoid it.... (OK, I know perhaps I should)

I'm thinking of stripping the affected areas, sanding a little to
ensure smoothish progression from stripped areas to OK areas, and then
reapplying paint by brush lightly.

Alternatively I was thining of stripping the Artex, but if it is up
there to smooth over a messy ceiling then I might regret it.

Masonry sealer sounds a bit dramatic (it isn't masonry after all), but
in the absence of other suggestions I may give it a go. Or would
plaster sealant be better... as in...
http://www.diy.com/bq/product/produc...9&CATID=183730

Thanks for the response, it gives me an option, and makes me feel
better in that something similar has happened to others.