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Paint Home Repair

Should new paint peel off easily when dinged?

2 years ago

We had a bathroom remodel by a work crew that we had many issues with throughout the life of the project. The most recent one is that I don't think they applied their paint right. See the image below. The wall was dinged in one place by somebody carrying a cabinet, and the damaged paint peels off rather than chips. Note that I pulled on the loose bit a little to continue the peel, out of curiosity.

Note also that I can take my fingernail to other apparently undamaged parts of the new paint job, and pretty easily break the "skin" and start a new peel like this. Even worse, the ancient paint underneath does not peel similarly. Meaning the 10 year old paint job is more durable than this new one.

This kind of peeling is not right, correct? What could cause it? Lack of priming and/or other surface prep? What is the solution? I fear it will require sanding the new coat away everywhere which sounds quite time consuming, followed then by proper cleaning and priming before repainting. Thoughts and advice? Thanks.

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Comments (5)

PRO
King Home Remodeling
2 years ago
From where I stand as general remodeling contractor in Los Angeles, the reasons for peeling paint can vary widely. Painting over dirty walls, excess moisture, improper prep, and using latex paint on top of oil paint can all affect the paint's adhesion and cause it to eventually begin flaking off.

For you case, it looks like paint was applied over a oil paints, besides the walls being dirty with no proper preparation. Unfortunately, doing another coating on top of it will just no help. You'll just need to have the paint scraped off and do a fresh one. Simply, you'll need to remove the peeling areas and start over with fresh coats of primer and paint.

Make sure all the layers (even the previously existing one) are scraped off. Also make sure that you choose the right paint that will fit you home's atmosphere in terms of moisturization.
Rachel Lee
2 years ago
No. The walls were not properly prepped for the new paint.
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rwiegand
2 years ago
I see it happening a lot with more modern paints like BM Aura and SW Emerald, even on properly primed and prepped walls. The paint seems to stick down better after a couple years. It happens less often with cheap paint, at least from purely casual and anecdotal observation. I'm guessing it has to do with what they've had to do to make lower VOC formulations.
cat_ky
2 years ago
Looks like latex over oil. A painter should have known better. Probably improper prep too. Obviously, no primer. It needs to come off, and then cleaned really good, and primed with a sealing bonding type primer, and then two coats (proper wait time, between coats) of a good quality paint.
ci_lantro
2 years ago
Since the back of the peeled portion looks like it is white, apparently the primer isn't doing its job. Perhaps the wrong primer?

How long ago was the primed & painted?

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