Paint from hell - fixing plasterwork

Steve

I am having to strip paint from my internal walls mainly because of a terrible finish left by the previous owners. They used some horrible paint - either oil based or acrylic (complete with heavy brush marks / runs / snots everywhere) and then put matt emulsion over it which is now peeling. I've tried everything I could think of to fix it, it won't sand - just clogs straight away, tried steaming but it turned into a sticky mush - and have now resorted to stripping it.

Underneath is taped and filled plasterboard. The stripping is going fine on the bare sections of board (apart from the odd paper tear) but where the joins are, it's suffering from scraper marks and gouges as the joins were not particularly flat to start with.

I have used joint filler and scrim where necessary to fill any larger holes - its great stuff as it goes off fast but does not sand back easily if overfilled. The original builders used joint filler and then a layer of something over it. The top layer is white, more chalky and goes grey when dampened (as opposed to joint filler goes pink-ish) This stuff sands well and seems to allow a nice feathered edge on the plasterboard.

Can anyone tell me what it is??

I've heard of 'joint finish' but never seen it in builders providers - could this be it? if so do the likes of Chadwicks normally stock it?

I know the right thing to do would be get it skimmed but I don't have the cash for this right now.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

P.S. the walls are also suffering from pop-outs a lot - I'm putting drywall screws either side and then bashing the nail back in and filling the dent - is this OK???

Carpenter

Hi
Call tennants up beside the red cow they will sell u finish for your walls

Gandhi

Is this throughout the house? If it is only one or two rooms, then you might be as well off just ripping down the plasterboard and putting up new stuff. That is exactly what I am doing with a spare bedroom right now. Tried stripping off several layers of wallpaper and concluded the plasterboard would just have to come down. Putting up plasterboard is not that difficult.

Steve

Carpenter wrote:

Hi
Call tennants up beside the red cow they will sell u finish for your walls

Cheers, any idea what the stuff is called?

CJhaughey

Whitish joint filler is ProFin semi lite, it's good stuff.
Much whiter than other joint fillers and doesn't set as hard.
Sands easy too.

Steve

Gandhi wrote:

Putting up plasterboard is not that difficult.

Had mulled that over but it's hall/stairs/landing - would be a bit of a job. Lots of corners & doorways & 2 windows = lots of edges to get right, not to mention re-doing the coving.
I reckon if I can find out what the 'finisher' was I can get it right - I've used the polycell (I think) smooth-over stuff but it's €40 a tub!

Steve

CJhaughey wrote:

Whitish joint filler is ProFin semi lite, it's good stuff.
Much whiter than other joint fillers and doesn't set as hard.
Sands easy too.

Thanks CJ, any idea where I'd get it? is it powder or premix?

Carpenter

stevec wrote:

Cheers, any idea what the stuff is called?

I think its called lafars joint finish

CJhaughey

Premix comes in a white tub with blue writing on it.
I think that nearly everywhere should have it.
Stay away from the Gyproc stuff it is shít.

Steve

Thanks guys, got my hands on some ProFin - will give it a go later.

GreeBo

Gandhi wrote:

Putting up plasterboard is not that difficult.

as long as you have proper internal walls and not this carboard, sandwich, pre-fabricated crap that I have upstairs :mad:


<end of rant>

Rusty Knight

Pop Outs are very close to my heart.............in that they nearly gave me heart failure last year!

Yes, keep using those dry wall screws, the nails are a joke, even when used by exprienced contractors; they are just too close to the surface. I used them extensively on partitions complete with slamming doors etc and not a budge out of them!

Good Luck!

Rusty Knight

'....I used them extensively....' etc

That is, I used SCREWS...... sorry 'bout that, but you know what I meant!

Steve

Have tried the pro-fin and got a great finish with it. Easy to go on and sands great.

Thanks for he advice CJ.

CJhaughey

No probs, glad you were able to get a good finish.
If you want a mirror finish, wait 30-45minutes and get bucket of water, dip your trowel in and run it down the joint.
You won't get a smoother finish any other way.