What is happening with my paint?

Toots

Hope someone can help me here, I'm having a weird situation with the walls in my bedroom. We painted them in November 2015 and about 9 months ago we noticed that there's white powdery patches appearing on the walls. I'd say it's now affecting about 75% of the room. We never had this happen before and we've lived here 10 years.

Can anyone tell is it a problem with the paint of the walls themselves? I've attached 3 pictures here, 2 are of the external wall, and one is an internal wall that joins to the apartment next door.

Edit: forgot to say that if I run my finger over it, it wipes the white away, but it eventually comes back. You can see in the first picture where I ran my finger vertically down it, leaving a line.

BrokenArrows

Probably moisture reacting with the paint.
Is the room damp or very cold?

What sort of paint did you use?

Toots

No, the room is quite warm, and wouldn't be damp at all.

It's Crown paint, I think it's mid sheen or soft sheen.

Citizenpain

Google 'paint frosting '

muffler

Toots wrote: »

No, the room is quite warm, and wouldn't be damp at all.

May be warm but do you have adequate ventilation in it?

Also is it close to a bathroom or en-suite and did you have the walls pumped in recent years?

I'd be fairly sure that it is a build up of mould resulting from too much moisture / lack of ventilation.

Toots

Well it is close to a bathroom, but so is everything in the apartment - it's a one bed so pretty small. No ensuite, just the main bathroom that opens into the hall. We haven't had the walls pumped, but the place was only built in 2003 or 2004 so probably wouldn't be necessary yet (I hope) There are 2 vents in the windows, and then I'd usually open the window for about half an hour every day (unless it's bucketing rain) just to air the room out.

It's never happened any of the previous times we've painted the room, and it's not happening in any other rooms in the apartment - just the bedroom.

It looks a lot like that 'paint frosting' that Citizenpain mentioned, but when googling that, the examples I can see are all on exterior paint.

muffler

Trickle vents in windows are not normally adequate for proper ventilation in my experience. However they do help and combined with opening the window it reduces the humidity...talking of which.... if you know of anyone that has a hygrometer then maybe test your humidity levels or you can buy (even rent) one like this for less than a tenner.

How's the extractor fan in the bathroom going? Have you ever had to replace it since moving in? Turn it on and maybe hold a light A4 size sheet up to it or a couple of ply's of toilet roll folded over (depends on thickness) and see if it catches or holds on to the paper. Thats just a rough way of testing the extraction rate and efficiency of the extractor fan.

Trying to eliminate all possibilities here and just looking at the clock the footy has started so must dash

dodzy

Toots, out of interest, was this the first paint job since you moved in? And was the previous colour a variation on the typical run-of-the-mill magnolia ?

(I've never like Crown Paints either)

Toots

Third paint job since moving in but it's the first time we've had such a vibrant colour in the bedroom, the previous ones were lighter.

We've got a cherry red in the kitchen and a purple in the hall and neither have shown any problems. Kitchen is Dulux and hall is Fleetwood I think. We've Homebase own brand in the living room (open plan with kitchen) and no issues there.

Bathroom fan is still going well, although it could be because I get up and clean it regularly. Just tried the loo roll trick and it holds onto it quite well. My hubby's dad might have one of those hygrometers but if not I'll but one and see what it says.

dodzy

Toots wrote: »

Third paint job since moving in but it's the first time we've had such a vibrant colour in the bedroom, the previous ones were lighter.

We've got a cherry red in the kitchen and a purple in the hall and neither have shown any problems. Kitchen is Dulux and hall is Fleetwood I think. We've Homebase own brand in the living room (open plan with kitchen) and no issues there.

Bathroom fan is still going well, although it could be because I get up and clean it regularly. Just tried the loo roll trick and it holds onto it quite well. My hubby's dad might have one of those hygrometers but if not I'll but one and see what it says.

Forget the BR extractor; that's not the issue. Repaint with non-crown paint. If you're happy with the current colour, just go to a paint supplier and get them to match the colour in a dulux or fleetwood base.

Bet your problem does not resurface

Toots

I'd actually prefer something a bit lighter. The tester we got was a lot lighter than that, and it was only when we'd put the paint on the walls it started getting darker as it dried. If it was to put a lighter shade on there, would I need to put a primer or anything on it?

Not sure if this is relevant, but the finish on it was meant to be the soft sheen (I wanted it wipeable in case my little dude decided to colour it in) but it's slowly turned matte. Would my drywall be absorbing it or something?

dodzy

Toots wrote: »

I'd actually prefer something a bit lighter. The tester we got was a lot lighter than that, and it was only when we'd put the paint on the walls it started getting darker as it dried. If it was to put a lighter shade on there, would I need to put a primer or anything on it?

Not sure if this is relevant, but the finish on it was meant to be the soft sheen (I wanted it wipeable in case my little dude decided to colour it in) but it's slowly turned matte. Would my drywall be absorbing it or something?

Toots, crown is crap. Used it once (customer supplied) in what was a soft sheen and I had to repaint it; streaks just would not go. Horrible wall covering. if I was you, I'd pop into a paint supplier (not Woodies or homebase, an actual proper paint shop)and grab your choice of colour in Colourtrend brand. Don't prime anything, just paint over. It'll be fine and the colourtrend is washable. (You might need 2 coats if you are lightening it up a good bit)

Where in Dublin are you based?

Toots

I'm in Dundrum/Sandyford so my local paint supplier is Stillorgan Decor as far as I know.

Funnily enough, I was on woodies website earlier trying to find a link to the colour that it was supposed to turn out to be, and they don't seem to have Crown on their website anymore. I wonder have they stopped stocking it. We initially had to bring 2 tubs of it back because it was kinda separated in the tub and no amount of mixing would sort it out. I'd have tried a different paint altogether at that point only we'd got one and a half walls done at that stage.