WHEN PROGRESS HITS A WALL: SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT FAILED EXPERIMENTS
Calcimine is the worst. I ran into it when we bought our place—thought I could just scrape and paint, but nope, it was like the wall was shedding its skin. I tried a bonding primer too, but it still bubbled in spots. Ended up having to wash everything down with vinegar water and then use an oil-based primer. That finally did the trick, but it was a ton of work.
I totally get what you mean about hidden disasters. Every time I start a new project, I half-expect to find some weird old paint or wallpaper lurking underneath. Makes me appreciate modern materials a lot more, honestly. If anyone’s dealing with calcimine, patience and prep seem to be the only real solutions... shortcuts just don’t cut it.