on the ceiling of an ensuite in our house, the paint is all starting to crack and peel and flake off. I have been given the task of scraping it all off with a metal scraper and it is really tedious and is taking ages to do it. This happened before, so we were told to paint a primer first adn then paint over it with normal paint. It didn't work. Like I said, the wall is a plasterboard, is there anyway to easily strip off the paint? and how can we stop this happening again?
Once latex paint dries it is very difficult to remove. The only solvent that will work is methlyethyl ketone which you can get at a home center or paint store. If the fabric is cotton you can try removing the paint with MEK if it is synthetic or a blend you will need to test the solvent on a not so visible spot to make sure that it won't damage the fabric.
It could be a water problem above, When paint starts to peel on plaster it will start checking or cracking, this is because the paint is loosing it's adhesion to the plaster, when the plaster gets wet it gose back to when it was applied, the paint will peel when the plaster drys out, The plaster ceiling could be getting wet from a bathroom above or a roof leak. This type of damage can be repaired, as for peeling the paint Home Depot has T handle razor wallpaper strippers in the Paint Dept. that work great at removing paint failures from ceiling and walls. On my site I have pictures of peeling paint, also plaster repairs.
If you don't want to scrape it off just take the dry wall (plaster board) off & put up new stuff. walls are not meant to be stripped of paint. You can sand some as well but that is the only way. The only easy way.
