We have areas in our kitchen where the paint on the plaster walls is protruding out in some places up to a 1/4 inch. What do we do to fix this problem?

We also want to even out some of the plaster walls that aren't flat, what do we use?

When I am painting old plaster walls that have multiple layers of paint is there any thing I should take into consideration in regard to painting?

Hi, TamaraIA!

The first thing that I would suggest doing is looking for and correcting the cause as to why the paint is protruding out from the walls. It could be because of a leak somewhere that is allowing moisture to get to the wall, or maybe some other reason.

What do you mean by the walls not being flat, please? Are they textured in some way, or is something causing them to be damaged?

The first thing to take into consideration when painting is determining what kind of paint is already on the walls and the condition of it. What kind of paint is already on a surface is important to know so that you will know the correct paint to use. The condition of the existing paint is important to know so that you will know what you need to do in order to prepare the surface properly for new paint.

There are a number of us on this site who know a lot about painting, fixing things up and remodeling of various kinds. You will get live help here!

I am just curious, but are you living in Iowa? I ask this because I am in Illinois. I own a very old home that I have to repair things all of the time in order to maintain it. Part of the way that I make my living is that I am also a handyman.

Thanks!

Yes there was some old water damage from a bathtub up stairs but about 6 feet away from that wall on the ceiling. The plaster there needs to be fixed (theres a patch about 1 ft x 1.5 ft where it has bubbled and pealed off the cieling) but the previous owners are going to do that. I guess you must be right in that moisture must have followed across and down that wall. (The leak was fixed years ago)

Yes we do live in Iowa. Dan's parents own an 1880 Victorian, so I guess we're following in their foot steps. We love the look and charm of the old houses. Yes they are a lot of work. Actually Dan says they have been working on stuff on his old home for about 20 years now. Hopefully it won't take us that long.

I'll have to get back to you in regard to what type of paint.

Clough, plaster scares me. Dan seems to think he can work with it. He's done a lot of dry walling. I like dry wall personally.

Thanks for the response, TamaraIA! You know, a lot of home improvement type places do have books that you can purchase on just about anything. I have quite a few in my library. I also pick up books that I know that I can use at Salvation Army thrift stores and Goodwill.

I like drywall also, but if the home is that old, then I like to do things to the walls that will be as historically accurate as possible. I have had to redo some of the really old plaster walls in my home. What I did to try to make them more historically accurate, was to combine play sand with drywall compound. Doing that gave me the texture that was acceptable. If you would like to redo the wall with something that might be more authentic and the walls might have the little hairs in them, you could go and get hairs from an animal groomer to combine those into the mixture of plaster.

The sort of plaster mixture that I am describing to you is much stronger than drywall.

Just some thoughts for you... I am looking forward to more discussion with you!