Patching and Plastering - Calcimine Ceilings and Lead Paint

I believe the ceilings in the home we just purchased are calcimine. They do not feel like any paint surface and when you take a light damp cloth over them, the cloth is white. They have the look of plaster but we have sheet rock in the ceilings and walls.

I am wondering if I need to remove this before I paint the ceilings thinking that maybe the weight of the paint will cause this to pull away and then I have wasted time and paint because I have to remove everything and start over. Some of the ceilings have a few cracks and it does look like plaster cracks but we do not have plaster ceilings so I feel sure the ceilings with cracks will need to be totally stripped, prepped, primed and painted.

Also I have discovered that the paint below the current layer is lead on the rest of the interior. We have several places that are peeling so I am getting ready to attack this as well. I know to wet the area before scraping so dust is not released but I am wondering if I have current areas that the top coat is gone and the coat showing is lead, is this a health issue or will the exposed areas be ok as long as no one eats the paint or licks it. We don't have any children so that is not a concern but we do have pets. I have areas that are bubbling and the paint just pulls off with your fingers exposing the lead paint underneath.

I have 3900 square feet to deal with and being one person I need to hit the important areas first so I am thinking windows since moving them up and down would cause lead dust to be released. Then attack the baseboards and trim areas. After that deal with the ceilings then paint the walls and ceilings.

I'm not sure if I've ever had to paint over calcimine. Unless it's real dusty an oil base primer should seal it up ok.

Lead can be a health hazzard both in dust form or if ingested. The laws pertaining to lead abatement are pretty lax here but not so in all locales. Besides taking care to prevent dust inhalation, you also need to contain and dispose of the chips properly. Generally if lead paint is sound [not peeling] and is sealed with a good coat or two of paint it is ok. I think the rules are strickter for rentals than they are for your own personal residence although it could come up if the house is put up for sale.

What I am running into with the paint is the top coat is not lead but they did not prime or prep the surface below so all of it is peeling exposing the lead paint underneath. I am doing wet scrapes to take off the top coat of paint that is not lead because I am sure some of the dust is lead using a scraper and sanding. The windows need to be scrapped down to the wood as there are several places on each window the paint has cracked exposing the wood underneath. I am wearing a mask, gloves, wetting down the tools, sandpaper and surfaces, plastic is down on the floor and I do a wet clean up of the area after I am finished.

I used the lead test kits from the hardware store and I have tested twice and each time the liquid goes on clear then it turns red after about 10 seconds.

I am wondering how would I repair a calcimine ceiling? Would I treat this like plaster or sheet rock? There are a few cracks in some places so I want to repair those, prime and paint. I prefer to not remove the entire ceiling in every room but I also don't want to have all this work come down on my head in a few weeks. :)

You should be able to repair the ceiling using either premixed joint compound or a setting compound like durabond. Since the ceiling is chalky, I'd prime first and then make the repairs. The repairs will also need priming but it's ok to just prime those areas.

This is not what you wanted to hear but kalsomine is a curse. It is water soluble glue with lime or zinc oxide pigments. It should always be removed before painting. It lets loose after about two coats. Nothing bonds to it and its bond to the wall is tenuous at best.

Fortunately it is easy to remove. Bing water soluble it washes off. Some vinegar in the water will help and some aggressive, coarse rags will help scrub it off. It is not common for a house with drywall to be old enough to have had kalsomine. It might be that the walls were skimmed with joint compound and that it is washing off when you wet it. This is only a little different from kalsomine. Maybe an oil primer will do some good. Seems to me if something washes off it ought to be taken off. If not then it should stay just fine with other coatings.

Yeah working in a closet with this stuff on the walls and the more I clean with water, the more this stuff comes off. My water was white. It's really hard to clean so I have a lot of painting to do so I can cover this stuff. I think this is on the ceiling in the master bath and with the humidity of a shower...well you can imagine what the ceiling looks like. It is falling off in pieces so I will be scraping all of that off, cleaning what is left on the sheet rock, let that dry, prime and paint.

From what I can tell I have this stuff on all ceilings and all the walls of every closet in the house. The only ceiling I don't have this stuff is the upstairs bathroom where they felt it necessary to put contact paper on the sheet rock then paint the contact paper. Yep I have a lot of work to do. :)