Sorry for all the pictures, BUT…

I have just stripped all the old paint from the bricks at the base of my house, and want to repaint. The problem is that the old stuff had been lifting off the bricks and the sandstone(?), due to the fact (presumably) that the wrong sort of paint had been used or it had not been prepped properly first.

Can you advise me on what I need to do in order to get this mess reading for repainting? Do I need to re-point? How do I fill those gaps in the sandstone? Do I need to? What do I need to do to the surface in order for the paint to adhere and look good?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I’d say the problem might be that it’s been painted below the damp course level. Personally I wouldn’t repaint below it.

Get all the paint off along with any loose stone. Then paint the bathstone with lots of lime water to consolidate. Build up layers of ‘bathstone putty’ as a repair to the bathstone (if done well this should be almost unnoticeable) where its cracked. Then repoint the brickwork in a hydraulic lime and sand mortar. Do not repaint
Also the injection ‘damp course’ is going to cause problems but there is very little you can do about that now.

I would re point and try some stabilising solution. Then paint over it.
If it peels again then avdave may have a point.

What Tonto says 😀