Help! Water based paint over old paint

by **rainbowqry** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 11:38 am

We've just painted the skirting board and banisters before put the carpet down. The old paint is oil based. Naively, we didn't know that we need to use primer to paint over the oil based coat, and just painted 3 coats of water based coat over the old paint directly. The result is that the paint can easily come off with the slightest touch.

So my question is, do we need to peel off the paint we've just applied and start all again by using primer and followed with water based paint? We did all the painting before the carpet is down so that the paint won't be all over the carpet. So what is the best way to do it to minimize the possibility of carpet being ruined?

Thanks a lot

Angela

by **chris_on_tour2002** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:21 am

the problem is not that you've used a water based paint on an oil based paint - it's that you didn't sand down the skirting or clean it prior to painting.

once oil and water based paints are dry they don't repel eachother if prepped correctly.

remove all new paint, give the skirting a good sand, apply a decent oil-based undercoat. allow to dry then apply whichever top coat you like.