How to fix ceiling paint flaking?

Hi everyone, I’ve been in my house now for about 4 years and more and more of these spots of flaky paint are showing up on the ceiling, everywhere around the house! This is my bedroom and no water is coming in. I have also gotten a roof repair guy out to check the tiles but he said it all looks fine and is probably a bad paint job!

So I thought I’d tackle the job of trying to fix it by scraping the paint off and filling the gaps and I’ve noticed the flaky paint spots all seem to be around existing puddy covering a screw.

Is this going to be a bigger job than I thought? 🙈

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Comments

EricL

Hello @soffff

Thanks for sharing your question about your ceiling paint flaking. I'm surprised that the ceiling paint has deteriorated in just four years. This particular type of damage often occurs when the ceiling is exposed to moisture or there was poor preparation causing the paint to delaminate earlier than expected. On a closer investigation of your pictures, it appears that there has been water ingress right where the fixing screws are.

Your tiled roof may be intact but somehow water has entered into the space and has damaged a part of your ceiling. I propose doing a deeper investigation as to the possibility of a leak in your ceiling. It could be coming from your gutters, plumbing or a section of roofing your roof repair guy missed. I suggest engaging the services of a trades person to climb into your ceiling cavity and doing a direct inspection of the damage from above. There might be some clues as to where the leak is coming from.

I don't recommend repainting the ceiling until the leak has been addressed. Once the repairs have been made you can then start painting your ceiling.

let me call on our experienced members @Dave-1 and @Nailbag for their recommendations.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

Dave-1

Good Morning @soffff

😕 Yeah thats a pain, Id also say moisture, probarly long term moisture.

I have had the same issue in my laundry, no air vents and I did repair it much like you were intendingto do. It was a load of work. I dont run a dryer in the laundry and havnt had any issue with the paint delaminating in the years since.

I also have the issue in my bathroom, from both humidy from the shower and also from water leaking above. I have looked into it and even tho I cnat find any holes, have repaired likely holes I still end up with water ocasionally. I would suggest to turn power off to your house totally (lights, power and hotwater/aircon) then hop up into the ceiling space with a torch and go around looking for drops in the dust. I have had two spots that you can tell are drip spots, one I thought id repaired years ago come back to haunt me.

So you could repair but I would try and find the spots that are dripping first. Mine mostly was coming from the stay wires for the aerial, they were silacted to an inch of the lives but movement in the wind would break the seal I suppose and then when the storms roll in and the water would run down the wire, through the hole and down the bolt to drip onto the plaster in the bathroom...

Dave

Nailbag

Hi @soffff

To have this occurring in so many rooms is very unusual. I would definitely take the advice of @EricL and jump in the roof and check the actual tops of all those ceiling for evidence of water damage. Though the damage doesn't appear to be caused by moisture, it's well worth ticking that off the possibles list.

When it comes to the repair, use a sharp blade to make a light cut out past the loose areas and remove them. Using a wide putty knife, apply a topping compound well past the area. Then use a fine sanding block once dry. You will need to prime the coating first before repairing the ceiling.

Nailbag

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