The painted walls and surfaces, after some years do not give feeling of freshness. One gets bored with it. One gets bored with it. Again because of fading, shading and spots and miscellaneous defects, the ugliness of paint will become obvious. Also, the old paint may be of inferior quality like whitewash and distemper, and you want to have better quality of paint with better sheen and life. One therefore will go for repainting the whole house. The one question that always arises in one’s mind is, “Is it necessary to remove the old paint before repainting?”
Is it necessary to remove the old paint before repainting
The answer to this question depends on so many factors. In some circumstances, you should scrap the whole paint and then only repaint and in some circumstance, you can repaint on the existing paint, too. Here we give you some circumstance in which you need to remove old paint.
01. Old Paint vs. New Paint:
If you are going to repaint your house and your new paint is different than the old paint, you should first scrap the whole old paint and then apply only new paint.If existing paints are whitewash and distemper, you should scrap the whole paint first. Because they contain loose particles and weight of new paint will pull the old paint.Here we have described few scenario.
- If old paint is whitewash and you want to repaint with whitewash, then we can repaint over it after sanding the surfaces once by using sand paper.
- If old paint is distemper and you want to repaint it with oil based paint, then you should scrap the old paint.
- If old paint is oil based paint and you want to repaint it with water based paint, then you should scrap the old oil based paint.
02. How Old is Your Old Paint?
- The life of paint is around 4 to 5 years depending upon type of paint. If your old paint is too old than it is necessary to scrap the whole paint. The new paint never sticks properly with old paint when the life is more than 4 to 5 years. The bonding between two paint becomes weak and there are many chances of appearance of defects on painted wall. Sometimes the old paint has a hard and rigid coating and difficult to scrap.
- If repainting is not done within 8 to 10 years, the surface becomes uneven which gives unpleasant look. To make levelled surface, scraping of old paint is necessary.
03. Stain and Spots:
- If there are only few stains and spots on old paint and the type of colour of your new paint is same as old paint, you can repaint over it.i.e. There is no need to scrap the whole paint.
04. Dampness & Efflorescence:
- If any dampness & efflorescence have appeared on the wall, it is necessary to scrap the whole paint. Treat both the defects with appropriate treatments and then apply the new paint over it.
05. Other Defects:
If any painting defects (such as Algae/Fungus Growth, Bittiness, Bleaching or Saponification, Blistering, chalking, Cracking, Flaking, Peeling, Wrinkling, etc.)are observed on the paint film, it is necessary to scrap the whole paint and then apply new paint.
Always check condition of your existing paint and then take the right decision. Your right decision will save your money.