What was 'supposed' to be a quick paint project of my master bedroom (I guess I should know by now, no such thing when you live in an old house)....... It is now a full-scale, 'remove peeling paint-plaster the cracks-lock the calcimine....then paint' project.

The thing is, this is an interior wall. I had thought that calcimine became an issue only if there was moisture in the wall? Am I incorrect in that opinion? The wall is close to the bathroom, but seperated by a closet.

Thanks for any insight you can provide!...and for listening to me complain!... ;-)

Here's some pics of the bedroom. Check out the paint peeling off like wallpaper....wow! Just amazing!

Also, that is the original color from 1925. It looks like they applied the paint onto the base plaster and never applied a final plaster finish coat. Could that be why the paint is peeling now?

I think the color is somewhere between coral pink and salmon pink......definitely not my favorite color at all!! But, I understand it was very popular in the '20s and it's very interesting to see this.

A new layer of paint puts additional strain on the poor bond and is starts to peel.

The more layers of calcimine that had been applied the worse the problem.

4-inch razor scrappers and a lot of elbow grease can usually get it all off.

But a LOT of spare blades.

The plaster dulls them very quickly, leading to increased surface damage to the plaster.

A new sharp blade can slice the calcimine off the plaster cleanly.

A scrub with TSP, then a rinse are next.

Apply primer, then paint.

Was actually pretty simple. I spread plastic and newspaper across the floor and sprayed warm water on the ceiling with a garden sprayer. After doing that a few times, and spending perhaps an hour with multiple sprays to keep the ceiling damp, the stuff came off in huge sheets almost effortlessly with a 4" wallpaper scraper. The only places that were hard were where the calcimine already peeled and layers of the calcicote (sp?) paint had built up.