Hi,

I am a complete newbie to full on decorating. Previously I've been lucky
that all I've needed to do is a bit of painting here and there.

I've recently moved into a new property that needs a LOT of work doing.

With the bedroom I'm working on at the moment, when we pulled the wallpaper
from the walls (yes, it WAS that easy) it also caused the ceiling covering
to come away at the edges. We wanted to re-do the ceiling anyway, so pulled
all the ceiling covering off. That too came off real easy.

I then filled a couple of cracks, rubbed down any loose areas and cleaned
the surface of loose dust.

When I then attempted to apply the new ceiling paint (a polycell product)
with a foam roller, it appeared not to be sticking to the surface. It was
being pulled off by the roller. I tried with a medium pile fibre roller and
the same happened. Using a paint brush initially seemed OK. So I started to
paint a larger area, with the intention of covering properly once dried.
However, that too ended up causing the same problem.

Upon closer look, where the paint was coming off, it was not JUST the new
paint coming off. There was a layer of something else (green - grey in
colour) on the underside. So it would appear that whatever this layer is,
the new paint is causing it to come away. This also leaves a yellow-ish
surface underneath (which presumably WOULD keep the new paint).

Investigating further, scrubbing the surface "sort of" removed the offending
surface covering. It comes of quite a nasty, sludgy, grey-green mess. Also,
applying a brief spell of steam & then scraping seems to remove it, but not
without making a huge dusty mess.

Could someone please tell me what this stuff might be & why the paint not
only won't key to it, but infact pulls off the initial surface?

What would be the best way of dealing with this with minimum fuss (and
prefereably mess)?


Sorry if this is complete basics, but I AM a complete novice. :/

Thanks,
Simon