preparing painted walls

[Guitardedleon]

I have tried and tried to shift this bloomin paint from the walls!

used a steamer, it works, incredibly slowly and with a huge amount of effort

getting around 0.5sqm every two hours!! well would be had the steamer not packed in!! :mad2:

in this situation what would a professional do?

I do not want to sand the walls down, the room is too small to warrant the amount of dust.

the paint is a silk by the looks, quite resilient and only the one layer on plaster.

can I tile onto this paint if scored to high heaven?

if not, how am I to get this off? I can feel the frustration building to near boiling point! 🙁

 

[John Benton]

You sure its not gloss paint as that is oil based and will just repel the steam and not allow it to penetrate?

 

[Guitardedleon]

its very tough paint whatever it is. I'm not convinced it is gloss though as it is coming off, albeit slowly.

Ill have another go in the morning, in fact i'll pop a photo up too.

I know tiling onto paint is a no-no & would rather a job done properly, even if it means a ton of extra work!

If it is gloss however, How would you remove it?

 

[White Room]

Could be vinyl silk or eggshell, both a pain to get off....

 

[mike1979]

If the paint is on and it's not coming off dare I say it leave it buy a 115mm diamond flat disc from screw fix put it on a mini grinder go over the whole lot to give it a key sponge it clean and tile it I use a water based paint tanking system for pools and tile on it all the time

 

[Guitardedleon]

If the paint is on and it's not coming off dare I say it leave it buy a 115mm diamond flat disc from screw fix put it on a mini grinder go over the whole lot to give it a key sponge it clean and tile it I use a water based paint tanking system for pools and tile on it all the time

oh it's on alright lol.


i don't have a grinder & would rather go without the added expense right at the moment for this job

on my larger rooms & other house I wouldn't mind.

i do have a multi tool if there is a suitable attachment?

tried washing the walls with some detergent & water ..didn't budge what so ever , whereas a Matt emulsion would wash off.
so it's likely a vinyl silk.

ps. Mike, noticed you are from aber! Lovely little place that! Used to go as a child.

 

[mike1979]

oh it's on alright lol.


i don't have a grinder & would rather go without the added expense right at the moment for this job

on my larger rooms & other house I wouldn't mind.

i do have a multi tool if there is a suitable attachment?

tried washing the walls with some detergent & water ..didn't budge what so ever , whereas a Matt emulsion would wash off.
so it's likely a vinyl silk.

ps. Mike, noticed you are from aber! Lovely little place that! Used to go as a child.

yes aber is not too bad I used to work in cardiff for Taylor tiles on cowbridge road but everyone has different views on paint I've tiled over paint and not had any comebacks if it's shiny or very smooth you need to either sand it a little bit or use a wire brush then sponge any dust off let it dry bond it with acrylic sealer not pva that's crap and away you go

 

[area tiling]

I wouldn't be using a steamer it will only weaking your plaster skim coat ! Get yourself a make shift scorer , by cutting the handle of an old saw , and let the teeth on the saw do the scoring of the wall by using an downward or upward motion , pulling it through the paint ! Then remove the dust and prime!

 

[Guitardedleon]

I wouldn't be using a steamer it will only weaking your plaster skim coat ! Get yourself a make shift scorer , by cutting the handle of an old saw , and let the teeth on the saw do the scoring of the wall by using an downward or upward motion , pulling it through the paint ! Then remove the dust and prime!

Good tip, thanks.

What would i prime with?

 

[area tiling]

Always Try to match your primer with your adhesive, if not then Any sort of acrylic primer , by bal weber, Dunlop , mapei or whatever your local supplier stocks, as long as it's not pva !

 

[Guitardedleon]

Always Try to match your primer with your adhesive, if not then Any sort of acrylic primer , by bal weber, Dunlop , mapei or whatever your local supplier stocks, as long as it's not pva !

I have a load of everbuild SBR here left from sealing the sides and bottom of some wbp

Is that suitable?

 

[afright]

Yes I only use SBR have used it for years good all round primer/sealer

 

[Martyn Leeds]

Can it be scraped off? with one of the little scrapers with a new Stanley blade in it

 

[Mr Tiler]

Can it be scraped off? with one of the little scrapers with a new Stanley blade in it

a window scraper

 

[mike1979]

Yes I only use SBR have used it for years good all round primer/sealer

Sbr is amazing I mix it with cement and re fix pool coping and wall coping stones the stuff goes off like iron so you could use sbr instead of acrylic sealer can you if so I will stop using acrylic as I have loads of sbr

 

[White Room]

Can it be scraped off? with one of the little scrapers with a new Stanley blade in it

I find a professional decorators flexible filling knife works for me, less digging into the wall.

 

[area tiling]

Yes mate sbr will also do the job !

 

[Guitardedleon]

Sorry, didnt see the replies


anyway, so far the room is prepped.

what I did:

stripped 90% of the paint off the walls ( absolutely knackering! )
the paint that would not shift , I scored like mad then scraped the loose flecks/dust down
gave it a quick wipe all over

used a 3:1 water/sbr all over - 2 coats and let go off

set the room out and made a cut list. Battened the walls ready to tile in the morning.

should be mainly set to go now.

as an aside:

the main tile is a plain 330x250x8 ceramic and I have a glass mosaic sheet to give it a little something to take away from what would otherwise be a plain room indeed.

when cutting the sheets to length ( say half way through a square ) will a score & snap do the trick?
the sheets are 300x300 grids of small glass squares, I am cutting the sheets down in to rows of 2

I have the worlds worst wet cutter and to be honest never want to use it again if possible!

also when bedding the border I'll need to build up the addy behind, any tips for that? or in general for mosaic/borders

 

[mike1979]

So if I've read this right your putting a 2" border say somewhere in the middle or just below ??? If so I think that's too small it will be a ***** to build that out flush and the weight of the tile above will slightly squash it what I would do is when you get to the border measure out 4 squares batteren it and leave the border till last when everything is set get a scraper and sticky the gap then butter the mosaic hit flush with your grout float let it set a bit then get a damp brush to clean the joints sponge clean job done you could cut the mosaics with a good pair of nippers can be hard until you've mastered using nippers as glass mosaics shatter I hate them wear gloves and goggles trust me

 

[Guitardedleon]

I think I've got that.

so double the height of my border from 2 squares to 4

fit all tiles above & below then, once set, install the border

the border is roughly 3mm, Ive seen guys use the above & below tiles as a guide for like a screed
by dragging a block notched out to the correct depth which leaves behind a solid & built out bed for the mosaic.
is that the right way?

I always wear goggles & gloves, better safe than sorry
I remember slicing my hand on a rough edge once!

 

[mike1979]

Try 3 or 4 see what it looks like I'd go more than two for the border

 

[Guitardedleon]

going with three Mike. looks a bit better.

I wanted the mosaics to at be the final height. as in

four rows of field tiles up, then mosaic strip & then either a bull-nose/tile trim.

the dog tooth method to bed the mosaics wouldn't work here would it as there is not a tile both sides to use or would it.. ?

lastly if I went with trim, will a 9mm be ok? ( 8mm tile & mosaic when brought flush )

 

[mike1979]

Ah rite I'm with you now your not doing a full height just half height ye ?? I'd butter the back of the border and use a grouting float tapping it flush as for the trim I've seen things go wrong with trim as technically one of the mosaics is just stuck to the trim and usually in time they start to just come away from the trim but this is only my opinion others may disagree