getting paint off plaster

[Ireland House]

Just worried that the paint might later decide to peel and bring the skim coat with it. I guess if it is not going anywhere now, chances are it won't later. The paint is up to more than 1/4" thick in some areas and we did not want to make the skim coat that thick if we could avoid it. One room is quite small and an uneven wall would show. The kitchen is all doorways, so I do not think it would be much of a problem. 12x14 room with 7 doorways! Going to take us a while to get to the walls anyway. Ripping up all the sub-floor to fix sags and laying in radiant heat. No room in butlers pantry or kitchen for radiators, so we are running a circuit of radiant in kitchen, pantries and main floor bath.

[phil]

The paint is several layer thick, and only stuck in some places.

so it's not stuck well and 1/4 inch thick paint? that's a lot of coats. yes it can fall off after you put more on.

calcimine paint is water soluble so just chip some paint off and check those layers with a wet sponge.

Your surface finish is related to your techniques for application. I'm sorry I just don't' agree with the statement that drywall compound is bad., not here to argue, we all have opinions. I wouldn't limit my materials personally. If you don't want to use modern materials you can use plaster, You just can't really sand plaster so easily. . there are reasons it isn't used much, it's harder to work with and you need to watch your eyes if you do it overhead. the lye can blind you.

its more time consuming and it's expensive to do today because it takes longer. It's not impossible but not usually very economically practical. depending on how historically important the space is, You still may want to use plaster. you shouldn't "feel bad" for using modern materials. would you feel bad for using a power saw rather than a handsaw? do you drill holes with a brace and bit or would you just use a battery drill and feel ok? do you have to use hand made square nails? where does it stop? That's your decision to make economically, and otherwise while considering your desired end result.

If it's a museum home maybe you'd even want to rewire it with knob and tube with no grounded outlets for originality, or remove running water. You need to step back and decide whats best for you- YOUR situation considering Your time, Your money and how much the space you are working in warrants those things. Those decisions differ.

A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, same goes for your layers of paint.

you can skim coat over anything , you could skim coat carpet nailed to the wall and make it look perfectly flat with mud or bondo or plaster if you wanted. The bond is important.

If you do have a layer that's water soluble you just need to get water in between to break the bond. You can make horizontal slices with a razor knife and wet it with a garden sprayer, when the water creeps in it'll come off easily.
let capillary action do the work.

Phil

[Texas_Ranger]

There's a cheap stripper for oil-based (both linseed and modern) paints that I haven't tried yet - 50:50 mix of linseed oil soap and lime putty. Apparently the soap can already soften the paint (I've read about soaking hardware in cold oil soap and after 2-3 weeks the paint just falls off) and the lime is caustic like PeelAway.

I've been in situations where it was just easier to remove the whole finish coat of plaster together with the paint though. Layers and layers of old oil paint, chipping in some spots, stuck like crazy in other on rather soft plaster.

[phil]

I'd bust the plaster down and put up drywall , no need to fuss with removing old paint etc. It's different if you are uncovering wood, but uncovering plaster just to go paint over it again is sometimes not worth the effort as the results are still a flat painted wall and the bust it down and drywall route is so much faster and easier. it's not for every situation but often people think the plaster is important to them and some just want a clean flat wall.
If you open the wall you can insulate but even if not , taking it down takes a day and then re-sheeting anouther day, but uncovering walls to find cracked plaster and fixing that and removing water soluble paint and fixing the cracks is a PITA and not usually worth it in my opinion. - different if the house is also a museum.

[Texas_Ranger]

Results vary... I've been much happier with plaster than with drywall in the past, so I'd always use it, unless I was building an entirely new wall. And even then I'd probably try to use ANYTHING but drywall. Last year I had to work on a small (3'x4') vaulted brick ceiling with crumbling plaster. I ended up removing roughly 1/3 of the plaster - everything that had come loose - and got the whole ceiling smoothly re-plastered in only 2.5 hours. I'm sure by the time I'd finished plastering I'd only managed to frame a suspended ceiling and maybe, maybe put some drywall up.

[kelt65]

Well, a 1/4 inch of paint is a LOT of paint; what is that, 100 layers of paint?!? I say get rid of it, I'm not sure layering anything on top of it is just throwing good money / time after bad.

While Phil and I disagree about walls, and Phil always chimes in if there's a chance to tell someone to rip their plaster out, it might not be a bad idea in this case.

Phil: I just do not get where you're coming from sometimes. If you're willing to skim with joint compound, why on earth would you just not use plaster? The only difference is setting time; plaster sets a lot faster and there is less time to work it, but I've never found that to be an issue. It just isn't that hard, and the difference is remarkable.

[phil]

oh maybe it's just in my nature to try to see both sides of the coin. I'm not against repairing plaster, I just see a lot of people going to huge efforts and I know from my experiences that just opening up walls and re-sheeting with drywall is often the most practical. It's not so bad if you just have a few cracks but when there are multiple layers of paint and wallpaper it means removing that and then when you finally do get down to the plaster and repair it it's still more work than just taping and filling it.
I think there is a lot to be considered. definitely you need to consider the heritage aspect and in some homes that's really important but in most, the number of plaster walls vs the number of drywall walls won't really affect the value of the house. In terms of putting the hours in and the visible improvements it is often more gainful to finish your walls and allow that time that you'd spend on plaster repairs on other parts of the house that show and where you spend your time is always a major consideration unless you are rich and can just throw cash at contractors and wiggle your little finger but those for the most part aren't the realistic circumstances we face. most of us have budgets and time restraints so it's a delicate balance.

If you can add insulation to outside walls by opening them It helps make it much more comfortable and less expensive to heat so often there is this option to gain from opening the walls. this can affect house price and there may be circumstances where plaster removal reduces the house value. I'm not seeing that in this neck of the woods but perhaps house prices here are so crazy that I'm seeing a lot more older homes rebuilt than restored. I have taken the approach of trying to not disturb the visible details but in many places I had painted in wood trim or missing parts. and other damage by previous owners to deal with. I'd rather get through the plaster/drywall work and spend a bit more time doing things like re-creating missing trim , fixing windows etc etc which improve cosmetics.

If you have plaster walls then you want repairs , it's more expensive and harder to find someone capable of the work. There are some and some on this board who are able to put up lath and do lath and plaster but it is a special skill most won't do other than specialists in that shrinking trade.

plaster is pretty good at sound blocking, so if you have plaster interior walls you might not insulate, but if you drywall and insulate then you at about the same so far as room to room sound is concerned. In my house you can't talk from kitchen to living room , there are pros and cons to that. It echo's more than drywall Im not sure if more echo is good or bad?

plaster is perhaps more waterproof but I don't see any issues around my house where interior walls are wet and if they were then I'd have bigger issues and even in the case of a flooded basement I'm not sure plaster walls would make restoration easier.

Now while I often do try to discuss the options. there is no cut and dry answer and it's wise to consider all the options before delving into these jobs. maybe it's about me.. let me put it this way..

In my younger days, I'd be down in the shop working on my car. dad would pop down to see what I was up to. He'd find some easier or better way and voice his opinions. I'd be so involved in doing it the way I had figured. We'd get into heated discussions, even yelling but it was never personal. we'd never insult one another we'd just have a healthy argument about "our way" or the "best way"
Often I remember mom running down wondering what we were in such a rage about and she'd come in to find us both smiling and in no way insulted or hurt. Often this is just how we'd weigh things up. I couldn't count the number of times I'd give in and do it his way and he'd help me through and even if my way was better we'd get the job done together. He'd often make me do it some other way just to show me a new skill , that's the way he is.. as of right now he's fighting for his life in hospital and I'm coping but I'm also quite sad and worried and feeling sorry for the dear old dad I love very much.
I'm up against some difficult decisions right now with how far we can go to save him and at what point we let him go and it's not very simple.

It's a bit engrained in me to brainstorm and find unique ways to do stuff. that has given me a lot of skills and techniques that I use every day in my job where I repair all kinds of things , mostly machinery, houses, cars etc. I have to think outside the box. A lot of what I fix I have to make or repair the parts because either new parts are unavailable due to obsolescence or because parts from china take 4 to 6 weeks and they need the machine back up and working ASAP..

If I come up with what I think is a better way or want to voice my opinions I will and you should too and please don't look upon a bit of heated discussion as a personal attack. I am a pretty kind person and I'm not into hurting anyone, You may find some of my ideas useful or not ( or even crazy but whatever you do please don't take it personally because I certainly don't' intend to insult anyone here weather I agree with them or not. Often the purpose of the forum is to weigh up options and exchange ideas and if you find my posts insulting please do let me know.

Phil