Painting - Painting over calcimite

Hello All,

My in-laws are having trouble painting their ceilings which are made out of calcimite. They recently painted with latex paint only to have it come down in one giant sheet overnight. Any suggestions?

I came across one website that advertised a glue for the following:

>>>GSI5K Glue Size 5 kg
>>>Used in making calcimite/distemper (size paint) Also >>>used as a base/sealer before painting, gilding or paper >>>hanging.

I sent them an e-mail asking for more specifics. Their website is:http://www.runcircle.co.uk/relics/sect-55.thtml

Does any one know about this glue? Since this product is coming from the UK, I am kind of hesitant about buying it. Its not like I can return it at the local Home Depot! It is also kind of expensive and I'm sure the shipping and handling won't be cheap either. The 5 kg container costs US$47 (UK29.85)

Your help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Alex,

I believe the substance you are reffering to is Calcimine, I am not extremely familuar with it but I did look around in my painting links and found this:

Calcimine (also "kalsomine") is a white or tinted wash applied to interior plaster surfaces. It was supplied as a dry powder mix of calcium carbonate (chalk) and glue (usually casein), and the tradesman mixed water with it to prepare it for application. (It was a popular approach 50 years ago.) All of it should be scrubbed off the wall, and the scrubbed area rinsed thoroughly. Once dry, a high adhesion oil based interior primer can be applied; and a latex paint put on as a finish coat.

Credit - http://www.paintquality.com/index.asp

Which does sound reasonable to me, I am also not familuar with the product you mentioned, another common name for calcimine is "distemper" If this were me, I would try the above advise and see if it will wash off useing TSP or Dirtex found at paint and hardware stores.

Hope this helps,

Some say that you can paint over with an oil based primer followed by a latex paint. I don't recommend this from experience. After applying latex paint to a calcimite ceiling out of ignorance, I scraped off most of the paint off with a razor blade and then washed the surface with water. I then applied two coats of oil based primer. No problems with the primer. I then applied a latex ceiling paint and soon noticed small hair like fibers starting to appear in some areas.

My advice: after applying an oil based primer, apply an: oil based flat white paint instead of a latex ceiling paint. Don't mess around with latex once calcimite paint has been discovered.

Well, I hope the OP has moved on, as this was 7 years ago...lol!
:D

...but I'm pretty sure my local Ben Moore dealer has an actual calcimine paint