When paint fails, the way it fails matters. Peeling and flaking are often treated as the same problem, but they usually point to very different causes. If you miss that distinction, repainting just resets the cycle. Peeling is usually about adhesion. The paint never properly bonded to what was underneath, often because of dust, grease, gloss, or incompatible layers. When it fails, it tends to come away in sheets. Flaking is different. That’s the paint film breaking down bit by bit. It’s often li