I live in a Victorian terraced house and have recently started to renovate the decorative plaster work. The paint layers came off easily with the use of a steamer, but I found a layer of distemper beneath them. I have managed to remove some, with great difficulty, and would like to know if there are any prodcuts available that would speed up the process. Does anyone have any ideas?
[quote="chris_on_tour2002"]a pva water solution should seal it.[/quote]
Thanks, but I really want to renovate the plaster work, sealing over the distemper is really not an option, it really needs to be removed, especially as I've already started the job. I was really hoping there was some product available to speed up the process, rather than the laborious method of soaking and scraping.
Distemper is made from a mixture of whiting and glue.
If you're having trouble removing it then yes you should seal it but I wouldn't recommend PVA. Firstly PVA is glue and just leaves a skim on the surface and will not penetrate and secondly it's water based so will go live again the moment you put new wet paint on it.
Use either a stabilising solution or an oil based sealer/primer. BIN or the shellac based Bulls-Eye (both by Zinsser) are particularly recommended - but they ain't cheap.
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