Latex paint peels off in flakes

In an apartment building, the stairwell was renovated. The baseboard had already been painted several times with latex paint and was mechanically in good condition.

According to the painter's offer, the baseboard was first to be thoroughly washed with a degreaser and then the new paint applied in two coats.

At first, everything looked good, until during the first move (2 months after the renovation) apart from the usual small scratches, the paint peeled off in large flakes in some places, without the older layers of paint suffering the slightest damage. The old paint layer that became visible is not matte but shines just as it did before the renovation.

I then tested by sticking a piece of adhesive tape over the hole and the surrounding paint, pressed firmly, and pulled off. Afterwards, the latex paint stuck to the adhesive tape from the edge of the hole.

Question: Does this poor adhesion and the fact that the next older paint layer shows no damage indicate a processing error by the painter?

Hello, from what it sounds like there was once an oil-based paint baseboard in the stairwell, not latex paint. This was common in stairwells in the past. Oil paint is, of course, very smooth and only then does sanding make sense. If the substrate were latex paint, sanding would not be necessary.

If the painter simply applied the new latex paint on the oil-based paint baseboard without preparing the substrate, i.e. sanding/roughening/applying primer, etc., then it is possible that the new paint will not adhere and you can practically "peel" it off.

Take pictures if possible.

Here are three pictures of the unwrapping - I hope that conclusions can be drawn from them.

The first picture shows the defect before the tape test, the second afterwards, and the third shows the tape on a black background.

Unfortunately, images cannot be enlarged.

Unfortunately, images cannot be enlarged.

That is probably a problem with the forum software - the originals are significantly larger.

Hello,

That is probably a problem with the forum software - the originals are significantly larger.

Not really Try it in a different format.

Rhenish greetings