For a few years now the paint on the walls in our garage has been peeling. We scrape and scrape and it just keeps peeling down to the sheetrock. Our guess is the company that painted before we bought the house used watered down paint. I read that scraping and sanding is required. I assume you use a sander, but what type of sand paper? Will scraping and sanding keep the remaining paint from peeling once it's been painted or do we have to remove ALL the paint down to the sheetrock before we can paint? Thanks.

Drywall is easy to paint. I suspect there is some other factor involved here. Would have to see it to tell.

Watered down paint would just soak in and would not peel. Is this on all the walls or just the exterior ones?

It's on all the walls and the ceiling -- where ever there is paint. I have heard that peeling is caused by watered-down paint. Apparently contractors do it all the time. I don't know any other explanation for it.

We've been scraping it periodically for quite a while now and it keeps on peeling. I have pictures.

There is one other explanation that I remembered after posting the other day. It could be the first coat of paint is oil enamel and the other coats are latex. Latex will not stay on oil enamel unless you prime first with a suitable oil primer. I usually use Cover Stain. I have seen latex come off in sheets when applied directly to oil enamel.

You said the paint is peeling down to the drywall, there could be a couple of things going on, the drywall maybe damp as in a water leak from a roof or maybe your gutters are back flowing into the shoffits and then into the garage. or there could be dust or powder on the sheetrock, but most of the time when paint is peeling off sheetrock it's more the likely wet or damp or had water damage and now has dried out.

www.frankawitz.net

Well, I ran everyone's comments by the boss and he thinks that the peeling paint is due to cheap, watered-down paint and humidity. We live outside of Houston in Texas. The sheet rock underneath the peeling paint is in good condition and shows no water damage. We don't have gutters on the house except over the front door. So I guess now we have to clear out the garage (I'm working on that now) and start scraping and sanding. Thanks ya'll for your help! -- Pam.