Painting over latex and calcimine

truebaca · 05-22-2009, 04:34 PM

I have heard a handful of suggestions about how i should go about this project but everyone has a different opinion, Im stumped. My kitchen ceiling was painted with calcimine and then painted with what I believe to be latex. The paint is cracking and flaking all over the ceiling. The house is in the boston area and was built in the late 40s. If I scrape the paint off i get to what is obviously the calcimine. The calcimine softens and becomes thick and milky when I rub it with a wet sponge. Under the calcimine is what I assume to be plaster. The plater seems to have a brownish yellow tint to it. When wet that brownish color does rub off a little but that "plaster" seems to be a lot harder than the calcimine. One person told me that even if I get all the calcimine off the ceiling I still have to calci-kote the ceiling, then prime, then paint. Im being told that there is calcium in the plaster itself. What is my best course of action here? Do I need to strip the latex first, then the calcimine? When i just wet the ceiling the water doesnt get to the calcimine through the laytex. This job is killing me!

slickshift · 05-22-2009, 05:38 PM

Painting over calcimine is a nightmare anyway, and you've got double trouble since someone previously did it the wrong way

Normally, re-coating a calcimine ceiling would be to use a calcimine re-coater (essentially a flat oil-based paint) and make a small offering to the Paint Gods and hope for the best

Short of over-rocking (putting a new sheetrock ceiling right over the existing), your best best is to remove any/all ill adhering coating ("scrape and sand"), and CalcCoat what's left, and hope what's left of any (if any) latex is penetrated enough by the oil CalcCoat to help it stay stuck

If ALL the latex comes off, frankly you're in a much better spot, so go with it...
(It would be a good thing if it's at all possible...so it would be a good goal here)

Even if all the Calcimine comes off, yes (!!!), you should still CalcCoat anyway

chrisn · 05-23-2009, 05:54 AM

If ALL the latex comes off, frankly you're in a much better spot, so go with it...
(It would be a good thing if it's at all possible...so it would be a good goal here)

If you get to this point, I have had LUCK

with Draw Tite. I am not saying it is the proper procedure but it has worked for me.

http://www.scotchpaint.com/drawtite.html

http://www.zinsser.co.nz/wtb-GARDZ.asp?SID=11&WID=27

http://www.oldhousejournal.com/magaz...ril/calcimine/