Repairing a contractor's shoddy job! Grrr


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Old 02-15-13, 04:48 AM
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Repairing a contractor's shoddy job! Grrr

I once had this complete idiot in to do various jobs in my house. Everything he touched has fallen apart.

The latest in the line of problems is that the basin fell off the wall because the moron siliconed it to the wall without using any bolts. Luckily I have a pedestal and it didn't break.

A whole lot of paint came off the wall with it. We should have realised something was wrong at the time but we didn't and I repainted the entire bathroom with the first coat of a new paint. I came to repair just that section afterwards; I intended to scrape off loose paint and coat it with primer then continue with the paint job.

Unfortunately all the paint on that wall is loose and is coming off in sheets. I have now cleared 2 square meters because no matter what I cannot paint over loose sections like that.

Anyone have some input as to why this has happened? Also can I repaint just the cleared section or should I scrape the entire wall or the entire bathroom?

Obviously because I have just used an entire tin of paint to paint this bathroom I don't really want to redo it all but if I have to I will so that it is done properly.
 
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Old 02-15-13, 05:19 AM
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Welcome to the forums!

Can you give us a little history on the bath rm? Were the walls replaced or was it just a repaint?

If the walls are new, it's possible the primer/paint was applied over sanding dust. If old walls, it's possible that latex paint was applied over oil base enamel. Latex paint doesn't adhere well over oil enamel. For latex paint to adhere well over enamel it should be sanded first and then coated with a solvent base primer.

Obviously any/all loose paint should be removed. You'll probably need to soften the edges of the scraping with joint compound or spackling.
 
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Old 02-15-13, 07:34 AM
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Ugh, not fun.

Mark steered you right, remove all the loose stuff you can and then you'll probably need to skim coat the wall smooth with joint compound before you can prime and paint again.
 
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Old 02-15-13, 12:06 PM
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Ok so after further inspection (2 square meters later) I realised that a layer of plaster was coming off! It is the rhinolite that the guy used to smooth finish my walls. He also did not use plaster primer as evidenced by the fact that I can peel the paint off the rhinolite.

Here is the history; old bathroom had the tiles removed and replastered, finished with rhinilote and painted with emulsion paint (latex paint). I did actually ask for eggshell which is enamel but I was naive back then. Nowadays I would kick him out before we even got to this part and figure it out myself.

I think a combination of shoddy workmanship, lack of plaster treatment and subsequent steam/water have broken the bond between the rhinolite and the plaster. All it would have taken is a quick coat of primer!

We discovered that the really easy to remove sections are above the bath and basin - I stuck my scraper under the layer and kept going and it came off in sheets. Unfortunately after doing about 1/3 of the bathroom we are stuck trying to the rhinolite on the sections that were not/less affected.

We can't rhinolite over the area because of the existing paint and we can't remove all the rhinolite because it when it sticks, it really sticks.

The plaster underneath is in good condition and even if it is a bit powdery we would just use bonding liquid. The only issue is that we have gouged some lines a bit deeply while trying to remove the stubborn bits. We will try to sand and see what happens.

We don't really want to try skimming this all over again actually unless we really have to. This was meant to be a small, easy, cheap and short project! WTF

So basically I need either to find a way to remove the remaining rhinolite or a way to skim the open areas next to already-painted rhinolite.


 

Last edited by GPSJane; 02-15-13 at 12:12 PM. Reason: layout
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Old 02-15-13, 12:09 PM
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Ugh, not fun.

Mark steered you right, remove all the loose stuff you can and then you'll probably need to skim coat the wall smooth with joint compound before you can prime and paint again.
Oh didn't see this, what is joint compound?
 
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Old 02-15-13, 01:25 PM
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Joint compound is the material you use to cover the nail/screw heads and used in the taping process of finishing drywall. It can also be thinned down and used as texture. Some folks call it drywall mud.

I don't deal much with plaster but when I do have to make plaster repairs, I use a setting compound like Durabond - it's similar to joint compound but it dries chemically [fast] instead of air dry [evaporation] of ready mix j/c. Regular j/c can be put back into the bucket and used later. Setting compounds have a set work time and any leftover mud has to be discarded.

We have a member [tightcoat] that is a pro plaster guy. I don't know if he ever checks the painting forum but he would likely reply if you posted a thread in the patching/plaster section of the forums ........ if you want to stick with plaster products, otherwise a setting compound works fine for those of us who don't do plaster
 
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Old 02-15-13, 02:11 PM
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Ok cool. That is CreteStone here. The only thing I have found that might be different is an acrylic-based wall skimming product.

I am not sure we are skilled enough to get this right not to mention the shear exhaustion I feel just at the thought. On the other hand most workers haven't a clue either and most likely we could do better than many. I just need to find a good contractor to do it.

I have figured out we can paint Grippon onto the painted surfaces then reskim the entire thing with a gypsum product. It's just that this was meant to be a simplre repaint. I feel so cross with this idiot at the mess in my bathroom and the enormous amount of money and time that this will cost.

PS will post in plastering board. thanks
 

Last edited by GPSJane; 02-15-13 at 02:28 PM.
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Old 02-15-13, 02:24 PM
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Controlling the quality of the job - that's one of the many reasons most of us diy...... nice to save $ too
 
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Old 02-16-13, 06:01 AM
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Yes but it's such a pity that the only good work round here is done by us
 
 

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