Blistered bathroom paint

[lac930]

I live in an apartment and I have been given permission to repaint. The bathroom is a mess, but since I don't own it, I don't want to spend much money. They will be paying for the basic paint and I have the time to spend on doing this right, just not the knowledge. The ceiling and walls nearest the shower have blistered and then have been painted over. By the owner. Needless to say, the blisters didn't go away, and the crackle is through the current paint. I have to force myself to not flick the little pieces off. I'd like to do something to fix it? At least make it look better. The building is close to 50 years old. Any suggestions?

[pushkins]

I think I might be the bearer of bad news for you.

Once the paint starts to "blister" there is very little you can do to repair the problem other than removing the paint and starting again.
The reason this blistering happens is because of poor prep. work when it was painted in the past, most often bathrooms have a tremendous amount of steam and naturally water vapor, this vapor is absorbed by the paint and then as the paint dries out it shrinks and alas there are the cracks. No matter how many coats of paint you put over this problem in a reasonably short period of time the problem will show it's face again.
The number one thing all bathrooms must have as a primer is a paint that also acts as a vapor barrier thus stopping the drywall/plaster from absorbing the moisture and setting in motion the cracking problem.
I have had some success with skim coating the entire ceiling with drywall compound and then applying Zinsser (an oil based primer available at most hardware stores) then two top coats of the paint and color you like.

Unfortunatley little else is going to solve your problem.

As it's an apartment and you don't want to spend a great deal of your money and or time, if it were me I'd scrap back the ceiling as best you can give it a coat of Zinsser and then the finishing coats, it won't look like a perfect flat ceiling but it will probably look a sight better.

[Drywall DIY Guy]

You are going to have to place a little elbow grease into this in order for the wall to look half way decent. Sounds like you will have to scrape loose paint with scrapers. Then use a rotory palm sander (like the one shown at http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...B.MZZZZZZZ.jpg ). For any cracks/blemishes left, you may want to place drywall mud over and then sand level - this will create a lot of dust so wear a dust mask and keep the door closed. Apply a primer over the top and paint.

Unfortunately you are renting. The way I would fix this if I owned the place would be to tear out the drywall and replace with new drywall. Perhaps the landlord could knock money off your rent in order for this job to be done right.