Can you help me please? My house is approx 100 years old, Victorian terrace, lathe and plaster ceiling and walls. The plaster is sand / lime based and is very difficult to paint. I am trying to repaint the bathroom ceiling which has cracked and bubbled over the winter. The paint peels in large pieces although the plaster is smooth and was sized well before initially being painted. I think that moisture from steam is probably the cause but the bathroom is well ventiated and generally appears dry. Is there a special sort of paint that will allow the house to 'breathe' as the plastic nature of bathroom paint just seems to form a film over the plaster rather than sticking to it. Thanks xx Gaye

Sounds like distemper, fits with the age of the house and the bubbling of paint, but don`t quite understand your description though, when you say the plaster is sand/lime based is it the original with a coat of paint on it or have you had it redone? If its new plaster what did you seal it with? and to what percentage?

If its not distemper, its unlikely to be moisture from steam if the room is well ventilated plus i think bathroom paints are permeable, its more likely to be moisture trapped between the layers on the ceiling. Let me know some more info and i`ll try to figure something out for you.

By the way to test for distemper try to stick a piece of masking tape to it, it shouldnt stick.

Hi Darren,
Thanks for the reply. What happens is thge new paint I am applying appears to dry as a film over the plaster. Then over time a crack appears and when you touch it , the whole sheet of paint comes off leaving the plaster underneath completely clean. There was quite a lot of ditemper in the house but I removed it all by soaking it and then scaping it off. I have painted the ceiling with PVA size and at least 3 coats of paint so far b ut the cracks then show and lumps peel off. I am having to repaint ever year at the moment just to keep it reasonably covered. What do you think? xx Gaye

PVA! Not a good idea, i`m not sure where the idea of using it as a sealer prior to painting came from and its a common problem for people like you when you think your doing the right thing.
Always seal new or bare plaster with paint size of matt emulsion, can be the cheap stuff if you like. Water the paint down by 30% and apply as normal.

I think and stress think, that its the pva thats coming away and obviously taking the paint with it. It could be, but less likely to, be that your applying the paint when theres too much moisture in the ceiling, also Vinyl silk/matt should not be applied over new plaster as it does not let the moisture out, so presuming you havn`t used this

Here`s what i`d do and please understand this is only advice without seeing it.

You need to apply a couple of coats of a good primer sealer after giving the ceiling a really hard rubbing down this is the paint to use

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

You can then apply whatever paint you like

It may well be useful to call Zinser or Dulux and explain the problem just to check i`m right, before you start work.

The problem is absolute classic distemper signs but if your sure you`ve got it all off it must be the pva.

Allow pelenty of time to dry between coats, would be interested to hear how you get on, good luck