If you have noticed some interior paint peeling, it’s probably a stressful, annoying and frustrating situation. After all, chances are you spent some good time and money painting it. It’s even more frustrating when it’s fairly new paint. Even if you are only seeing a small bit of paint or chipping right now, the issue could get worse in the future. Chances are if you are having paint peeling inside your home, there is a reason for it, usually surrounding around how or when the walls were painted. If you did the job yourself or you hired a painter to do interior painting and its peeling, continue reading below for some tips on how to make it stop or in some cases do it over again and prepare the wall and paint properly so this doesn’t happen again in the future.
Painting Latex over Oil Based
One of the biggest reasons why people have walls and trim that peel is because the original paint on the wall was oil based and the owner tried painting the wall over with a latex paint. Latex paints cannot stick to oil based paints – no matter how many coats you paint on. Even if it looks okay in the first few weeks, chances are you will start to experience chipping, peeling and warping within a month or so. Plus, it’s just a waste of time and money so don’t do it. Instead, if possible, figure out if it’s an oil based paint. If it is, and you want to paint it with a latex paint, you will need to put down a primer first. While this is not always needed, it is needed if you are painting a wall with latex paint over oil based paint.
Paint Drying Out
If you know you painted the walls correctly and you are still seeing peeling paint, it’s probably because the air is too dry or in some cases, too wet. This is especially true in smaller rooms where it gets too cold or too hot and the paint peels like bathrooms and basements. If dry or wet air is what is causing your paint to peel, it’s a good idea to consider buying a humidifier which will make dry air not so dry and wet air not so wet. You can also consider calling on a painter for interior painting and ask them what the issue is. Perhaps they can offer further insight and help figure out the real culprit.
Starting All Over Again
If you have painted over a wall with new paint that already had old paint on it – this may be the problem! Sure, it’s a pain in the butt to start brand new and it would probably take less work, less time and less paint to actually cover a wall that has already been painted, but when adding new paint to an old painted wall, well, you end up with the pro0blems above. Why not just do it the right way the first time and start anew so you won’t have to worry about it warping, peeling or chipping in the near future? Also, if the house is an older one, you have no idea what is under the second layer, third layer, fourth layer, etc. You could have 6 different layers of paint, wallpaper glue and whatever else under there. In order to start new, you will have to remove ALL the old paint. You can do this in a two-step process. First take a very thin putty knife and start to scrape off any old paint, debris, glues, etc. After you scrap a majority of the paint and materials off the wall, you can then use a sander (automatic) or manually use medium grit sandpaper to remove the rest of the paint. Please make sure you are wearing goggles and a face mask for this – definitely not good to breath the powder in! Once you use the sandpaper to remove the rest of the paint, you can then use a warm towel to remove any fine dust from the wall. Let it dry for a day or two and then you can start to paint the brand new wall!