paint over water stain on ceiling

Xennon

had a leak from the upstairs toilet cistern, need to paint over the ceiling down stairs where the water left a stain. I was thinking either some white exterior undercoat (which I have) or perhaps PVA as an undercoat?..

Any advice welcome

mad m

If the exterior undercoat you have is oil based then it will stop the stain coming through, but you might have to leave it over night to dry first. Also you should let the stain dry out a bit also... Pva will not block out the stain.

masseyno9

Let it dry then put a special damp sealant paint on it. a brand-name i've found with a quick google is 'kilz' but not sure if its available over here. Ask in a DIY store for sealant and tell them what its for, they'll be able to help you.

danjo

There is a paint specifically made to cover water stains on ceilings. I cannot remember the name of it but I bought some in Atlantic Homecare last year. It works very well. You need to apply at least two coats.

byte

http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/viewprod/z/ZINCU/

Probably do your job, though I'm not sure if you'll get away with not painting over it afterwards. As per same link, it seems there's a similar product called Polycell Stain Block.

Xennon

Excellent stuff lads, I'll go nose around the paint shops tomorrow.

whosedaddy?

got same problem - but as its my bedroom ceiling I want to avoid high VOC content paints - and all those stain cover uppers are on the hight side of VOC things.. Also I have a pretty big areas to cover.

I'm aware that if I have paint N times with regular low VOC paint, I might end up with similar amounts as with one coat of the high content stuff....

JoeB-

You could consider a product call Zinnser BIN shellac base primer... it is an American product, available widely in Ireland and it claims to have excellent stain blocking properties...

I use it as a primer and undercoat for painted solid wood cabinets and it works very well....