I recently bought a home, built in the 60s, and the paint in one of the room peeled of in a couple of spots. I started removing it with a scraping knife and a lot of it came of very easily without putting much pressure on the knife. I know nothing about drywalls but it looks like not only the pink (latex?) paint lifted but also a white underlayer and a blue one. Am I down to the surface of the drywall?

While 80% of the paint and underlayers of the room came off pretty easily there is still 20% that seems very well attached. I tried with a orbital sander but the latex paint clog the sandpaper very quickly, with the knife I have to really scratch the wall to get the paint off, how can I remove the remaining paint?

After I'm done with the removal what are the steps to repaint the room?


paint

 

I have only seen paint come off like that on plastered walls. Normally it sticks very well to sheetrock.

I've used a wire brush with some success. For tougher areas I use a wire brush in an angle grinder though you have to be careful because it is very aggressive. But, that was on plaster which is much harder than sheetrock. If you try a powered wire brush on sheetrock it will quickly grind a big ugly divot in the wall.

 

I agree from the pic it looks more like plaster than drywall ...... but difficult to determine just from a pic.
You only need to remove the paint that's loose. The rest would be skim coated with joint compound to smooth it all out. Your walls might have a sand texture, again hard to tell from the pic.

btw - welcome to the forums!

 

The age of the house would certainly indicate the wall could be plaster. I thlnk since you are not gouging through the wall that is another indication. You are fortunate. I think anything like sanding. wire brushing or the like will do damage you don't need to. So scrape off what comes off easily. Now it looks like someone tried to improve the looks by spraying joint compound texture on the wall. I could be wrong about this.
Ti fux ut scrape off what comes off. Then give it a coat or two of joint compound. sand, touch up imperfections and prime and paint. If I am right about a sprayed on texture I suppose you have two options 1: spray the wall again to give it an orange peel or knockdown texture. or 2 Skimm the whole wall with joint compound and sand. check for imperfections touch up and sand and prime and paint.

 

Thanks you for all the tips. Most of the paint came off, under the last layer of blue paint the wall looks chalky and with little cracks, is this the plaster? One corner of the room has a very narrow piece of wall between the window frame and the door frame. How can I remove paint there and/or repaint?

narrow

cracks

 

OOh, How hard is the stuff behind the paint? Can you scratch it with your thumbnail? Can you scratch it with the corner of your scraping knife? And lift a piece of that finish off and see how easlily it comes off. I don't think you want to scrape it all off, this is only diagnostic. That piece you take off can you crush it between your fingers? Can you crush it easily between two spoons?
This wall is going to take more than paint. I have a couple ideas based on what your find with these tests. Oh, I thought of another test. Wet an area a few inches square use a spray bottle or something. Does the watet soak in and does the material soften and come off more easily than when it is dry?

Now about your tight spot: the only paint that needs to come of is what is loose. If that paint is sound no't try to take it off. If it needs to come off use whateer it takes to get in there. Sometimes you hae to improvise or file or grind a putty knife down to a witfh that will go in there.

 

It's chalky and it can be scratched easily with the knife. It doesn't really come off in chunks it just pulverize. If I spray it the water soaks in but the material doesn't become soft after.

 

I have one more question but I can give you some starting advice beforehand. All the advice you receive in these forums is worth what you pay for them. But maybe, just maybe our advice will save you some real expense. The question is can you get enough of the material off to see what is behind it? Yea a second question: How thick is the cracked stuff? take off a chunk the size of a dime or quarter and describe what is behind the cracked stuff
I think you have gypsum plaster with a finish. I don't know what the finish is. If it is well bonded I think you have two options to make it look good.
The first option is to skim it with joint compound. Thin the compound down some so you can really work it into the cracks. It might help to wet the material if that does not soften it. This might take two coats. Try a few square feet of this and let it dry and see how it looks.

The second option might be more work. There is a material called FibaFuse. It is made for taping drywall joints. It also comes in rolls 36" wide. Get some of this. you might have to order it. Google FibaFuse and you can probably find a place to order it. it is stocked in some markets. I hear some places Sherwin Williams stocks it. Now this is a fiberglass scrim mat not woven, the fibers are random.
Now thin down some joint compound and figure out if you need to wet the wall down ahead of time or if you can work this dry and spread on a coat 3 feet wide top to bottom and embed this FibaFuse into that mud and smooth it out. If you get a really perfect job you might like the looks as is but you will probably want to give it a second coat and sand, prime and paint.

But maybe you will be happy with only coating without the mat. Work up to the edges of where the paint is still bonded and smooth it off and sand, inspect, prime, inspect, correct bad problems, prime the sorrections and paint.

The painters among us might have a different, maybe less work, idea. Stay tuned.