One of the first steps when painting any surface is to prepare it for painting, and walls are no exception to this.
In order to provide the best, most even surface for the paint to adhere to, the wall needs to undergo chemical paint stripping to remove the previous layers of paint that have built up over the years, as well as sanding and priming the wall to allow for long-lasting, even coats.
For industrial buildings, this process may need professional intervention, but some people may ask themselves if they could get away with skipping this step. Do they need to prepare the wall and get rid of the old layers in order to give the building a new coat of paint?
Whilst technically the answer is no, it is a lot more of a gamble than you might expect, as whilst you can sometimes get away with painting over the old paint if there has only been one or two coats in the past
Generally, the most common issue is that it is a much more difficult layer to work with, as the thicker paint can sometimes cause walls to look uneven and lead to rather unprofessional-looking finishes.
However, what is far worse than this is that the pain itself can start to flake, chip and fall off the walls, potentially taking pieces of plaster with it. This can cause damage that would require the wall to be stripped completely anyway to fix.
At its worst, the paint may start to blister and bubble as it struggles to adhere properly, leading to another messy and inconsistent finish that undermines the reason the wall was painted in the first place. It could even potentially crack entirely, ruining the finish.
It does take several layers and cycles of painting and repainting for this to happen, but it is enough of a risk unless you know how many times the wall was painted to make stripping the wall a priority.