One of the most common and costly DIY mistakes you can make is to try to paint over damp walls or ceilings. Inevitably, the paint bubbles and peels and you're right back where you started. The good news is that damp can often be treated, DIY-style,...

If the adhesion of old paint has been weakened, covering it with today's acrylic paint might pull it off and make surfaces look worse. Acrylic paints "dry" quickly, but they "cure" over many days. As they cure, by a process called "co-polymerization," the paint film...