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How best to remove terrible paint job from interior rendered brick walls

Hi folks. I recently bought an apartment in a 1970s brick block, w/ rendered brick interior walls in fairly shabby condition. It’s a fixer-upper. Every single wall is so badly textured that I thought it must have been the render itself:

Every single wall in the place looks like this…

But upon closer inspection, I think the real culprit is the 50 years of bad paint jobs:

But from what I can tell, the problem is entirely the paint, not the wall? Wall seems perfectly smooth under all that.

I have just had a read through a number of Paint Removal threads here, and they have been helpful. But if possible, I would like to get some advice specifically on my rendered brick walls — I am very unfamiliar with anything like this and am not sure what I should be expecting.

Am I right that removing the existing paint and starting again from the original smooth wall is the sensible way to go? Or will the original render be a bit too susceptible to damage as I am scraping the existing paint off? It is a generously-proportioned 3 bedroomer, so it will take me some time — but that’s OK, I have time. My main concern is just avoiding dumb decisions along the way.

Thanks!

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redracer01

Hello @OneMansFool

Perhaps you can test a portion of the wall. As you've posted a picture I agree with your analysis that it is a bad paint job. Lets use a light duty scraper https://www.bunnings.com.au/uni-pro-100mm-real-good-paint-scraper_p1674113 Starting at the corner of that photo with a hole in it gently run the scraper under the paint and see if it will peel or lift using the scraper. If the paint comes off easily and large sections go with the scraper I suspect there was no primer used hence the paint comes off, but the problem was aggravated as more paint was laid on without removing the first faulty layer. However if it becomes very difficult to remove the rest of the paint I suggest to stop and possibly use a grinder with this disc https://www.bunnings.com.au/3m-4-inch-paint-and-rust-stripper-abrasive-disc_p6314180 fair warning I would probably be gentle with this as we don't want to eat in to the rendered wall adding more jobs to an otherwise difficult job already. If you do make a mistake it can be repaired with Render joint and patch from Dunlop. But our primary goal is to explore how bad the paint job is, how long did it take you to remove the bad paint on that single wall and is it worth the time and effort or do we just re-patch and paint? If you cleared the wall in reasonable time then it should be worth doing the rest of the rooms. Slow and steady for this test.

1. First we test if we can strip the bad paint with our light scraper on the test wall. Too hard? Then use other means to strip paint. ( electric tool and 3m paint remover pad etc. )

2. Time yourself, how long did it take to strip 1 wall? Too long then you might need to re-asses your goal for this paint job. Finished it in reasonable time, then proceed.

3 Assess the condition of the wall and ask your local Bunnings paint specialist on how to prep an old brick wall that's been rendered. Purchase necessary primer and paint and have at it!

I hope this has given you ideas on how you wish to proceed, please post if you have any other questions. If you can please post your progress with photos and comments on the job, it would be much appreciated and will help other members who are in the same boat as you! Good luck and stay safe. Looking forward to the progress!

Cheers,

Red

OneMansFool

Thanks @redracer01 this is the exact nitty gritty that I am after.

I’ll be sure to check back in from time to time with updates!

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @OneMansFool. It's fantastic that you've joined us and many thanks for your questions.

It's great to see you've already received some detailed advice from @redracer01.

While we are on the subject of testing, if you have difficulty removing the paint and you start doing damage to the plaster/render, have a go at sanding the stroke marks out of the existing paintwork instead. A random orbital sander with 240 grit paper would remove them quite quickly. You could then prime and paint over it with a roller. I suspect the paint has adhered reasonably well to the wall and the chip you have pictured has only come away due to the fixing in the wall.

I'll be interested in following along and hearing how you go.

Mitchell

OneMansFool

Thanks all for the advice.

Re: seeing how successfully I can scrape off existing paint

Is there any place for paint stripper such as this one? Or would I be better off attempting without it at first.

MitchellMc

Try scraping it off first @OneMansFool. I wouldn't advise even considering using paint stripper on an entire house, it's more for one square meter at most. It's also messy and not a great idea to use indoors.

Mitchell

OneMansFool

Whoa, thanks. Glad I asked. 👍

OneMansFool

Gave the paintscraper a try in a few places, but that will never work. So I’ve bought my Random Orbital Sander w/ 240 grit paper, thanks.

I’ve started removing the many pre-existing hooks and nails in preparation, and this has left behind various degrees of damage for me to fix up. Would this polyfilla here be the correct product for that? And should I apply it as part of a separate process AFTER I have already sanded down the thick paint?

And lastly, would the same 240 grit paper on the sander do the trick when sanding down the polyfilla? 😁

redracer01

Hello @OneMansFool

Yes use the filler first to repair all the holes before putting on any paint. Yes the 240 grit will be more than sufficient to sand the filled holes. Using the sander should shorten the prep time for sure.

Red

MitchellMc

@OneMansFool,

It's great to see you've already received a helpful response from @redracer01. I just thought I'd add that you should scrape those loose chips off that have delaminated around the holes before filling. It seems counter-intuitive as it will make the damage look worse, but they are now proud of the surface and applying filler over them won't be particularly effective. Remove the chips and then fill their void back up with filler flush with the surface of the wall.

Please let us know if you need further assistance or have questions.

Mitchell

OneMansFool

Plot Twist

Turns out under all of those bad paint jobs, the original layer is actually wallpaper.

After some trial and error (including using some wallpaper stripper), it seems easiest to remove the wallpaper in large pieces if I DON’T spray anything on and I DON’T remove the paint first. The paint seems to hold together the wallpaper pretty well, stops it from ripping into smaller fragments.

I’m leaving some minor (but widespread) damage to the wall as I go. They are reasonably shallow but I think I’ll need to fill them before painting. So I intend on using the Masonry Polyfilla for that.

I’m using metal paintscrapers to get the paper off. Is there perhaps a better tool I could be using? Or is a little damage to the wall just to be expected?

MitchellMc

Hi @OneMansFool,

It's great to hear back from you and to see that your project is progressing nicely. That Polyfilla you mentioned previously would be fine for filling holes, but what you need for smoothing that plaster off is a skim coat of topping compound over the entire wall. You'd apply it with a nice broad Spear & Jackson 330mm Plasterer Float. The idea is to apply a very thin coat of compound in a sweeping motion that fills all the voids. You'll have the best results if you skim coat the whole wall instead of trying to fill individual damage marks.

I'd suggest using a Rust-Oleum Wallpaper Paper Scraper as its unique design maintains the correct scraping angle, which avoids excessive damage to the wall. Alternatively, you might like to try a wider 200mm scraper. With any scraper, you need to hold it at a shallow 15-degree angle to avoid digging into the surface. When I'm using those Uni-Pro scrapers, I often sharpen them slightly as they come blunt.

Regardless of what method you use to remove the wallpaper, I'd expect some amount of damage that needs to be filled.

Please let me know if you have further questions.

Mitchell

OneMansFool

Brilliant, thanks!

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