Paint Identification....and removal

[lesworth]

Hi all,

I have a nasty feeling that my place has been bodged in various ways over the years by previous owners. I already have some suspected cement render to remove from the plinth outside (doesn't fizz in vinegar).

I think some internal paint finishes were done using modern emulsion and have a few questions:

- is this a definite no no or just something best avoided?
- is there a way to identify the paint type to verify my concerns?
- how do you remove emulsion from the plaster its painted on without damaging the plaster :shock: ?

Thanks!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Hi there. Most likely you'll have either lime plaster, skimmed and repaired with cement (so a right old hodge podge), with a modern emulsion on top. Or, you might have cementitious plaster if someone has stripped out all the lime. With modern emulsion on top.

Drilling little holes for pictures etc reveals a lot. Lime plaster is white, soft, and crumbly, with bits of horsehair. Pretty unmistakeable. Old limewash flakes off and erodes gently in tiny little bits whereas modern emulsion has a tendency to peel off in plasticcy sheets.

If you have modern emulsion on old lime plaster and you wish to remove it then it might be worth either trying a wallpaper steamer and a scraper (very laborious), or a poultice from Strippers of Sudbury. Either way it will be a lot of work.

First of all you have to ask yourself what you want to do with your house and your time. Is your house damp, peeling, suffering? Or is it that you want the look and sympathetic qualities of lime? If there's a strong yes to those questions then it's probably worth stripping back and replacing with lime plaster and either limewash, distemper, or another type of breathable paint.

However, if you aren't really noticing the ill effects of damp, and you don't mind a bit of modern emulsion, then I'd leave it be. Even National Trust properties make plentiful use of modern emulsion. I'm certainly not stripping right back here; life's far too short.

 

[Svenedin]

I've got lime plaster on all my internal walls both solid walls and lath and plaster as well as the ceilings. It looks a sort of buff colour to me and the horsehair is very obvious in the plaster underneath the finishing coat.

I have found distemper on the plaster in a number of rooms that had been wallpapered. One room had soft distemper that washed off with warm water and another had oil bound distemper which was a devil to get off with a wallpaper steamer. My feeling is that non-breathable paints have been around for a very long time now. Oil bound distemper is not really breathable and had probably been on my walls since just before or soon after the war. If there is no damp problem I don't really see the need to totally avoid all modern emulsions. In my case, I always line walls and ceilings with paper and never paint the walls directly so decoration is only ever temporary. I do think that soft distempers have a place on cornices and other decorative plasterwork where clogging with modern emulsion would be a real problem to remove.



Lime plaster wall stripped of wallpaper. German Shepherd lurking in background. Reflections on the wall are from a chandelier

 

[LadyArowana]

Now I'm envious, you have a dog and a barometer, :mrgreen:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Lining ceilings with paper is impressive!