Can I Paint Over Plaster With Water Damage?

Lead Paint

• If your home was built before 1980, there is a chance it was painted with lead paint. Before taking any additional steps, purchase a professional-grade lead test kit from a hardware store, paint store or home center. Lead paint residue is poisonous to people and pets, and particularly is hazardous to small children. An economical kit that allows you to send paint samples collected from your home to a professional testing lab provides the most accurate results.

Damaged Plaster and Paint

• Using a disposable plastic putty knife, carefully remove any loose plaster and any encrusted plaster that has formed a dry, crusty skin above the wall's surface. Do not use a carbide paint scraper or other tool that would be harder than the healthy plaster because you don't want to remove any more of the wall than you actually need to remove.

Prime and Fill

• Apply white pigmented shellac primer to the damaged areas. The shellac soaks into the plaster's pores and firms up tender surfaces while concealing residual water stains. After priming the damaged areas, apply a thin layer of ready-mix joint compound to fill any shallow voids in the wall's surface. Once the joint compound has dried, apply additional thin layers as needed. Smooth the final layers of the compound with a broad putty knife until the wall's surface appears level. Use a sanding block to smooth any irregularities, then apply another coat of the primer to the newly repaired area of the wall.

Acrylic Latex Paint

• Apply a 100-percent acrylic latex paint to the wall. It is not be necessary to prime undamaged portions of the wall unless the most recent coat of paint was an alkyd-based coating. Your paint store can mix texturizing additives to the top coat while blending in the color. Applying a textured paint adds an attractive dimension to your wall while concealing whatever irregularities might remain in the plaster surface.