Strange stains on my wall!

[Emsie]

Hello there,

I was wondering if anyone has any advice for me -
Just bought a house, it's about 10 years old, and I've been re-decorating.
I noticed a couple of small round dark spots close to each other on one of the walls and thinking it was marker pen or something, just cleaned and prepared the wall for a fresh coat of paint. The spots started to run and I thought "oh good it's coming off" and they washed off. Unfortunately the marks started to come back and run due to the wet wall, so I dried that part of the wall (stains were wiped off again) and again the spots came back and this time looked the same as before!
I then tried testing the area by putting some paint over the spots, but they gradually came right through the paint, and still look the same as before!!

Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? I am totally baffled - all I can think of is that it could be some kind leak in the wall or some kind of mould (although 2 perfect circles of mould would perhaps be unusual!)

Any advice would be much appreciated, and I can try to get photos of it onto here if needed.

Em

 

[fitz1]

internal or external wall

 

[acurachris]

Hi

Has your wall just been re-plastered? I don't claim to know all the ins and outs but this can be a problem.

You can stop this re-occuring by using gloss to paint the stained area. Then emulsion over the gloss once it has dried. The oil based gloss will act as a barrier between the wall and the emulsion paint (emulsion being water based), preventing the stain from appearing.

Hope this helps

Good Luck!

 

[sifly]

Although only treating the effects, and not the cause, you can also use "Stain Stop" (bought from DIY stores).
It comes in either a spray or a pot. Easy to apply and will stop the stain showing through emulsion.

 

[tilebender]

It's possible it can be mold. Try using kilz an oil base primer, then paint. this should help.

 

[Emsie]

Hi.

Thanks very much for your responses. I will get down to the DIY shop and check out what products they have.

Em

 

[garythekitchenfitter]

how big r the spots sounds like a small amount of water collecting on the clout nails ?? . is it on a external wall or an internal wall ?

 

[Emsie]

It's an internal wall.

In the end I dug out the plaster where the stains were and they weren't v deep at all so I filled the holes and sanded and painted over. No problems so far so fingers crossed.

All I can think it was was perhaps ink on the plasterboard bleeding through!?!

 

[AdamW]

Oooooh, this all sounds a bit familiar... that's not the Emsie I know is it?

Hope the lino goes well