How to repair and prepare tired walls?

[Duffman]

I've just bought a 40 year old brick home with walls that needs some TLC.

They're dirty, chipped, cracked, dented, and a couple have water damage.

For the water damaged sections I scraped off the soft plaster/ white set and sealed the cement render with Bondall, before applying white set and smoothing with Gyprock Easy Flow.

Hopefully that was the right approach?

I was just going to prime and paint these areas the same as everywhere else.

For all the chips, cracks, and dents, I keep going in circles of patching, sanding, see more imperfections, patching, sanding etc.

Now the walls look like a leopard print. I'm concerned that when I prime and paint (with an airless sprayer which I've not used before) all those patches will show through, given the texture difference.

Apart from back-rolling after spraying each coat, is there anything else I could do to avoid this?

Fortunately this is just the first couple of rooms.

For the rest of the house, I'm thinking a better approach would be to:

- scrub with Sugar Soap

- lightly sand with some 80 grit to take off high spots and key the old paint

- skim coat the entire wall with some All Purpose Compound, applied with a Textured Roller, and smoothed with a 355mm taping knife

- prime with Dulux 1 Step Prep

Is that a good plan?

[JacobZ]

Hi @Duffman,

Thank you for your question and welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

You look to be on the right track and just need some reassurance that what you are doing is correct, which it absolutely is.

The approach you have taken to the water damaged areas is perfect and exactly what I would've advised.

With the chips, cracks and dents, the process of patching and sanding is still the way to go. Once you have applied the primer, you should find that a lot of the more minor imperfections are smoothed and filled and once the paint is applied to the whole wall, the texture will be far more uniform.

Once again, the steps you've written for the rest of the house are the right way to go, however you might find that there is a vast amount of sanding required to skim coat an entire wall. If you wanted to speed up the process, I'd suggest grabbing a Rocket 230mm Giant Sanding Tool, or even better a Full Boar 750W 225mm Drywall Sander Kit as they will reduce the physical toll on your body by a great deal.

Allow me to tag some of our knowledgeable members to see if they have any further advice, @Nailbag, @Jewelleryrescue, @Dave-1.

You might also like to have a look at How to paint like a professional from @Peggers for some guidance.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob

[Dave-1]

Afternoon @Duffman 

As @JacobZ says you are doing the right things In fact you sound like me when I was pulling my hair out when I was plastering in the garage.

I had issues with joins and like you kept find other things the more I looked at

More sanding, larger smooth areas with plaster was the answer. I was thinking smaller plaster  patches so less to actuall sand but this is counterintrusive. Main aim is to get that smooth surface without feeling bumps or seeing them. Once I started to trully use that wide trowel you have the easier it all became.

I have never used a spray on paint for a room before but would figure a few coats all up would be needed. Even when I painted with a roller, I still used 3 coats.

I think plastering the first time teaches us that the people on the tv reno shows have done it before and we have a bit to learn to catch up  

Dave

[Nailbag]

Hi @Duffman I agree with @JacobZ and stick to localised filling and sanding all the dents and scraping off the lumps.

If you haven't used a spray gun before, it's definitely not a magic tool to cover the imperfections. It's more a tool that speeds the process up and then you have to know what you're doing, and that takes practice. If you go down the road of skim coating entire walls, then I would also recommend the Rocket Giant sanding tool @JacobZ recommended over the powered one. I've use or should I say attempted to use non pro-versions and you can very quickly do a lot more damage than you started with. Plus you also need a decent workshop vacuum to attach it to, which you will need if not already in any case. 

I would be doubling up on the Dulux 1-prep and using a something like a 15nap quality roller. And the more matt the final paint the more forgiving of those imperfections.

Good luck, sounds like you have quite the job ahead and keep us in the loop on the progress.

Nailbag