Interior paint will hold up well to cold temperatures. Your problem was evidently that bare plaster walls were painted directly. They should have been primed first.

You can try to feather the edges with sandpaper or a sanding block. To minimize damage, use a very fine grade of sandpaper. You'll have to replace it frequently. Once you have the walls smoothed down, prime the walls with a primer rated to go on plaster, then paint again.

Did you use alkyd or latex paint the first time? It sounds like you used latex.

Thanks Spewey. I have not painted the room. The paint that peeled is the paint that was on the walls when I moved in. I don't know what kind of paint--but it didn't like the cold upstate New York winter. Friends of mine bought a house around Lake Placid that had been unlived in for several years--all the interior paint flaked off.

When I do start painting I was planning on using an alkyd primer and 2 coats of latex. I have read that alkyd is best for plaster--especially bare plaster.

I'm not sure it's cold that peeled that paint. Our c1840 house in 'way upstate NY has been left completely unheated for several years at a time, without paint peeling off the original plaster.

It sounds to me like it might be the dreaded calcimine paint/latex paint problem. Perhaps, in order to pretty up your house for resale the PO slapped a coat of latex on top of calcimine. That would probably peel sooner or later, no matter what the temps. The only solution I know is to completely remove the underlying calcimine, then re-prime and paint. There are some paints/primers that claim to be able to overcome this problem, but I've never had much luck. It retards it, but doesn't permanently prevent it.

Since I hate doing stuff over, I'd rather get the damned calcimine off first, then tidy the plaster up and go from there. Fortunately removing calcimine is not truly difficult, it's only a medium pain in the neck. Two ways that I've used, are steam and strong ammonia. Strong ammonia is faster though very smelly, and for some people with breathing problems quite dangerous. Steam (wall paper steamer) is a little slower, but not so disagreeable to do. There are some ways to test if you've got calcimine, but I've forgotten what the technique is, since all my walls and ceilings (blast and hell!) have been painted with calcimine.

If you decide to go ahead and just recoat, for sanding I would use a sponge or foam pad as a sanding block, it's less likely to gouge the plaster than a firmer black.

(Though I wouldn't recommend doing it over a partially removed layer of calcimine, you might also consider a skim coat of joint compound, plaster or Swedish putty to smooth out the top surface. The reason I'm not recommending it, is that it is quite a bit of work and would be wasted when the calcimine bond breaks in other places on the walls. It also requires fairly good knife skills to do well. Once the calcimine is off, then it would be worth doing, or having done, if you want beautifully smooth walls.)

If you closed up the room when it had a full shot of accumulated summer moisture in the plaster (and old three-coat plaster holds a surprising amount of moisture), that could easily have allowed the calcimine/latex combo to shear right off in the long ripples you describe. The problem is the moisture permeablity differential between the two coatings.

The good news is that the parts where the paint it gone, well, you don't have to remove anything there! The bad news is that you may have other rooms where this problem exists.

Ain't old house ownership a blast?

Molly~

Sounds like Calcimine to me too. I've got it on a few of the ceilings in this house. I haven't dealt with it yet I'm working on other projects at the moment. It peels and blisters when damp.
I looked it up once upon time on the computer and came across several helpful sites. You might try doing the same.

You could seal walls first then paint

Sorry, but I have to disagree with the previous poster about this. Sealing the walls won't help if it is calcimine paint. The bond or strength of every paint (or sealer)layer is only as strong as the weakest bond underneath it.

In this case, because of the unique chemical make-up of calcimine paint and it's fundamental difference from typical modern paints as far moisture permeability, the weakest layer will be underneath the calcimine layer, which is why it sheers off so easily. Sealing the walls works fine if what you are doing is blocking something from showing through from a lower layer, but sealing won't help adhere calcimine to the surface, and indeed it might make it worse if it exascerbates the moisture exchange problems.

As I mentioned, there a few products which claim to be able to cover calcimine paint; I have used some of them, but they have never worked perfectly .... and then getting the calcimine off is harder than it is without having tried to cover up the problem. If there is anything good to be said about the calcimine problem is that is a more "reversible" type of paint; of course this is also why it fails so easily! It is far easier to just get it off in the first place and carry on.

Does the paint look old? If it's older than 1978, it contains lead. Use caution when you take it off. No kids around; wear a mask if you're generating dust and/or chips, and make sure you vacuum and damp mop/clean up every day.

Not all paint contains lead. Lead was used in higher end gloss paint (lead acetate) to improve the gloss and give a very hard finish. The only walls typically painted with gloss are kitchens, bathrooms, and closets. Most lead paint is on the trim.

Boy, it seems like I'm disagreeing a lot on this thread (sorry!) ... but I have to challenge the statement that only gloss trim paint has lead in it. This certainly may be true when dealing with relatively modern paints, but for older paints (i.e. pre-early 20th c.) all types of paints can have lead in it. Lead was a common component of most paint for both trim and walls and ceilings, in both flat and gloss formulations. So, if you're dealing with old paint, in an old house, take lead precautions when removing it, or sanding it, or disturbing it in any way. If all you're doing is re-coating it, without sanding, then there is no dust to worry about. It's the dust from abrasion whether due to wear, chipping or sanding, that is the source of human and companion animal poisoning.

I believe that without a HEPA filter on your vacuum, vacuuming could actually make a lead dust problem worse by spreading the lead particles. As I recall cleaning up lead dust is done by careful washing. I often pre-clean with wide cellophane (package sealing tape) to pick up a lot of the particles before washing.

And all of the debris has to be handled carefully and disposed correctly.

I expect there is lots of good info on dealing with lead paint issues on the web. If this is a problem for you, I'd do a google search to get up to speed.

Good luck!
Molly~

You are grossly exagerating the use of lead in paint.
Lead pigment stopped well over 100 years ago (it was a lousy pigment anyway).
Lead was not used in flat paint except as a pigment. Lead acetate is the problem. The acetate portion allows the body to readily absorb the chemical if it is ingested and the free lead is released.
You can also find a lot if internet garbage that metalic lead os dangerous. It is actually very stable, and is routinely left in gunshot victoms in multiple gram quantities.
Most of the lead panic is brought to you by the same folks that lit off a firestorm over asbestos - the EPA. The EPA now admits that the advice to remove asbestos from schol buildings was poorly conceived and often resulted in greater contamination.
The largest contributor to lead in cities was leaded gasoline. Lead tetraethyl was used as a knock preventor in leaded gas, and released a nightmare of organic lead compounds into the air when burned. The level has dropped very signifiacntly since the end of leaded gas.

I believe that both Housekeeping and brickeye are correct on the lead issue. It was removed entirely from paint in Europe in the early 1900s. It persisted on some level in paint products in the US until 1978, at which point it started to be selectively removed (remaining, primarily in marine paint). Point is, lead is everywhere and it's unavoidable, but also it does cause problems in fetuses and very young children. Chipping, dust, etc. is the culprit--anything that can be ingested or inhaled (as unlikely as that may be).

While the EPA has reacted in typical EPA fashion on some level, the agency also recognizes that completely removing the lead is not possible (which was its tack when it first encountered asbestos). Containing it by covering it is possible and will take care of the majority of the hazard.

Yes, HEPA vacuuming is the only real way to vacuum it away, but the HEPA vac you see at Sears is not a true HEPA. Few of us have those and frequent cleaning, inc. working damp, will minimize the hazard. Again, I believe the primary problem is for children, so if ggrumke is reasonably clean, then the danger for lead is minimized. But it's worth considering!