Wall odour help

[GasmanS]

Hi everyone, I work for the gas emergency service and am called out regularly to a smell of gas that turns out to be " Wall odour phenomenon " The Paint manufacturers acknowlege this phenomenon and say that it only happens in 1 in 100,000 houses. This is garbage, if that were true I would not be going to two cases a week in the same town.

My problem is that I am due to start a major decorating project in my new home, and desperately want to be wall odour free.

In my last flat, after decorating the babys new room, I had to re paint the walls with Alkaline resistant sealant. A very expensive product and then repaint the room to get rid of the smell.

After paining a coat of matt on the living room wall, I can already smell the wall odour on a warm day, so i know it's there.

My question is how do I prepare the walls to make sure that it can't happen ? I was wondering if a vinyl paint would seal the walls and prevent the smells ?

 

[Nige F]

What make of paint ?

 

[GasmanS]

My question was about wall preperation, I haven't bought any paint yet, but with wall odour, it happens with all makes of paint.

 

[Newboy]

Given that the smell is caused by compounds in the paint decaying, nothing I can think of in the prep will stop the issue as it's going to be on the surface of the newly painted wall/ceiling. Given that it is organic compounds decaying (I think it's something to do with preservative being changed/removed by the paint manufacturers) I guess making sure that the surfaces are mould free might help.

There are two brands that seem to be having the problem - Valspar & Crown's 'Breatheasy'.

 

[Robbie uk]

Not all paints do this. There has been recently, complaints about Valspar emulsion paint smelling of cat urine. Valspar state that this was because a certain chemical was taken out of the paint. But has now been reintroduced.
It has nothing to do with whether the paint has vinyl in it or not. Most have unless its a contract matt.
Using an Alkali resisting primer is not the answer. Changing the way the wall is prepped wont get rid of the smell if the new paint is at fault.
I would use a decent stain block like Zinsser, or use a cheap white oil based undercoat to seal the wall after it has been prepared.

 

[GasmanS]

Thanks for your replies guys, can anyone reccomend a good paint to use as a primer / undercoat ? I have used the cheap homebase matt white emulsion the last couple of times I've painted and I get the smell with these. It's interesting that you mention Crown Breatheasy as that's the paint I used to do the baby's new room back in my flat where I had a smell so bad that you wouldn't want to go in the room at all.
I was under the impression that the smell was caused by microbes that get trapped under the paint, and that the new modern paints with less chemicals in them didn't seal the smells in the way old paints used to, hence why I wanted to seal the walls first ?

 

[Brigadier]

Could you describe the smell?

 

[GasmanS]

It's very difficult to describe. It's just a chemically smell. I work as a gas emergency engineer and get called out to the smell a lot during warm weather. I've probably got a different experience to the decorator, as they are probably not called back when this smell suddenly appears, as people don't associate it with the new paint. It appears anything from a few days to even a year after the painting was done.
What I want to know is how to avoid it in the first place.

 

[Brigadier]

No worries

The reason I ask, pretty much I do any work in my (older) house, be it patching, prepping, painting, whatever, there is a bit of a "farty" smell coming from the plaster.
I reckon it's some biological process within the plaster itself, given the hydrogen sulphide-like odour.

 

[GasmanS]

So how do we avoid it ?????

 

[sparkymarka]

Wallpaper !

 

[Nige F]

No worries

The reason I ask, pretty much I do any work in my (older) house, be it patching, prepping, painting, whatever, there is a bit of a "farty" smell coming from the plaster.
I reckon it's some biological process within the plaster itself, given the hydrogen sulphide-like odour.

I'm wondering if that is from old "Walpamur" paint - that had a distinct smell when you opened a tin, then "beat it up" with water. One man's fart is another mans flower Zinsser products may be the answer

 

[Brigadier]

I'm wondering if that is from old "Walpamur" paint

I'd never know, as the previous owners are long gone.