How to Fix a Bad Paint Job on Drywall or Plaster

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The first step to fixing a bad paint job is to power sand. Below is an affiliate link to the power sander I used...

Next fill dents with drywall mud, sand mud once dry, prime the walls if needed, caulk the corners to make clean transitions from walls to ceiling, paint the ceiling if needed, lightly pole sand, and finally paint the desired color. If you found this video helpful please like and subscribe.

[kholaaagain]

This video is exactly what I needed to see. I’m moving into an apartment, where the landlord says I can paint over the last tenants work of art. They left uneven surfaces, bleeding and just horrible paint jobs in 4 of the rooms. I cannot wait to do this and make the walls better to look at.

[madmommy]

Perfect! Exactly the information we were looking for. Bought a house where the previous owners did a slap-dash job painting and weren't sure how to go about fixing it before re-painting.

[Ogrilla]

Great video, I just bought a much older house to get out of renting, and they gave it a terrible paint job just to get it of the market. Never owned before and this is a great video to start off fixing things.

[christopherbownes]

Using caulk to cope uneven ceiling lines is genius. Thank you for the tip

[saneauto]

Finally, this is exactly what I was looking for. Confirmation on what I need to do and how to do it. BTW I searched "how to fix bad drywall after paint" Add that to your tags and let me know if it helps. This was 4th down It should be first at the top of the page. I am above average at drywall so I paid a 25 year pro? When he tried to tell me he was ready to paint I showed him the trick with the light and he went back to working the drywall. That is until I left the jobsite. As soon as I left he through paint on it without even brushing the sanding dust off. Everything looks terrible. Just like the walls you filmed here. Then he texted me wanting to get paid for wasting all my paint and creating a huge mess for me to fix. I will order the sander and go back to doing all my own drywall work. I will make a video similar to this on my Sane Enterprises channel and give you a shout out for your video. Liked and Su8-ed on my way out. I hope you get 100K views.

[Shasgirl]

I'm glad to know this. My bathroom walls are trash (I live in a NYC apt, you can imagine). I only have a little hand sander so I guess this job is out of my league. I will try to do as much as I can with some elbow grease. Thanks for this.

[z.a.dewitt]

Thanks for this video. The person who painted my now study clearly just slapped paint on and it's tragic. The room has built in glass shelving all along one wall and it's beautiful. They also painted over the wood trim sloppily. Wouldn't have known to switch to 60 grit if I hadn't watched this so thank you!

[colinevans]

Before you fill the wall after sanding I roll out a miss coat in white first so paint will seal and show the parts that need to be filled first, that's what we do in the uk

[awperonline]

Kinda interesting he put so much work into it. I just hand sand the uneven parts, spackle the holes, then use Behr paint with primer and it doesn't even look like the wall is painted its so smooth and even.

[awperonline]

I thought it was interesting that you added caulk to the top of the wall. I've done that before but only with the bottom baseboard since it had a small gap from the wall and when I painted it, it looked like it was part of the wall. Do you paint the caulk with the new wall color or leave it white to match the ceiling? Thanks

[kaylaspeakman]

Use use a radius 360!! Try it instead of a power sander maybe

[elipin]

Great video. Like the tips.
Although I would like to learn more about the chalking the edges before you paint. Might be a good video to put out ???

[lunasalazar]

My apartment living room looks like this and it's the UGLIEST BLUE GREEN O I HATE IT I NEED TO DO THIS! Thank you for this!

[j.rjunior]

Just a little tip, please wear a mask when sanding paint down.
It very dangerous to breathe in, and can definitely harm yourself in the future.
I'm just trying too look out. And thanks for the vid.

[ItsMefromSnuffys]

Gotta get a big fluffy dust mop for walls

[lqdwzrd]

Thank you, I had to hunt this one down, GREAT information! Starting from an already painted room with the same type of wall damage as mine. Nice instructional, thorough and simple ! Makin it easy for the brain!

[VLGRamirez]

Hello my husband decided to try and help me out by painting the bathroom before I had washed and cleaned the walls. They were very dusty and nasty from years of our kids taking steaming hot showers. He used behr premium plus primer but the paint shows all these teeny tiny cracks where I believe dust and lint is showing it up through the new paint and you can also see the old color underneath. Does this work on texturized walls as well? I don’t know how to fix it now.

[Godsgraceish]

Do I need to prime the wall if I’m going from one colour that is similar to the one I am putting back on the wall?

[David-mhjn]

Hi guys, ,,, we are complete novices and only did one small wall to see how it would look. We spackled and sanded, then we primered with the Pro999 Clear and then put the Behr Marquee 1 coat on. The paint and all looks great and no probs with that. We didn't sand spackle or do it properly so the spots show like mountainous territory on a map. Can we power sand and redo the bad spots alone. Please help

[mattchew]

Awesome video, thank you.

Question: The previous owner did a bad paint job over plaster walls - paint is flaking off in patches everywhere, except bathroom. Our condo does have fluctuating humidity and temperatures, so I'm guessing the paint or primer in the rest of the condo was not moisture resistant.

I would like to remove all the paint and get back to plaster just to be safe... can I do that with a drywall sander? Or, best to only knock down the paint flakes and proceed with patching, better primer and repaint?

Any other suggestions for dealing with what might be humidity related paint failure?