Hi,
I'm trying to paint over our knotty pine paneling in the basement. The guy at the Mautz paint store told me if the paneling is shiny, I need to clean it with TSP (substitute) first, which I did. Didn't seem to do anything. I bought some Blox-It primer. I did a test to see if I needed to sand first (dh told me not to sand). The primer seemed the same in the sanded vs. non-sanded areas. So I primed the whole room without sanding. I let it sit for a few days.

Needless to say, a light scratch with a fingernail takes the primer right off. It doesn't take much to peel it off.

What do I do??? Help!!!! I feel so dumb about this.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

-MDB

Depending on what the finish was TSP substitute may not be strong enough to de-gloss sufficiently.

Sanding always works on glossy finishes but is a lot of work.

If the primer comes off easily any additional finish will not have a good base.

You may be able to scrub the existing primer off and start over.