sounds to me like you have calcimine painted walls. Look at
www.oldhousejournal.com/magazine/2001/march_april/calcimine/

Also, I tried a Google search and got over 800 hits for calcimine.

Good luck,

Eric Hammarberg
Associate Director of Preservation
Associate
LZA Technology
641 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011-2014
Telephone: 212.741.1300 extension: 1016
Mobile: 917.439.3537
Fax: 212.989.2040
email:  [log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: deb bledsoe [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 10:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Painting Stucco Exterior of Chimney


----- Original Message -----
From: "Hammarberg, Eric" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 1:41 PM
Subject: Re: Painting Stucco Exterior of Chimney


> Be careful what you paint masonry with.

Eric and all,

now the $64K question -- can I paint real plaster walls with latex paint, or
will it re-activate the lime?  every old plaster wall I've seen so far is
blistered and peeling, (3 houses),  and that is supposed to be the reason,
according to a  wise one whom I consulted last time around...
so I repainted them with oil based enamel and the result was the same -- six
months and the paint was peeling again....  even though there is no current
source of moisture and all the old finish was sanded prior to repainting....

how do you even skim coat old plaster without getting it wet, and thus
reactivating it? can anyone recommend a reference source for this
information?  we used joint compound in a couple of spots to repair holes,
etc, and got bad results, so then tried plaster of paris, bad job there
too.... is it a function of how long you let it sit open to dry?  the wise
one stated that the plaster had to cure for 6 months before painting, but
that seemed like an awfully long time to have big blotches all over the
walls when the tenant wanted to have a dinner party in there in a couple of
weeks  ;)

deb