Wall Odour Phenomenon - any solution?

[D Rows]

I reskimmed and painted my daughter's bedroom 6 months ago and have been left with an unpleasant sour smell which won't go away. After a lot of research and trial and error I believe it to be 'Wall Odour Phenomenon' as I used a brand new tub of Dulux Matt Emulsion. The paint didn't smell off in the tub but seems to have reacted once on the walls to create this new sour smell.

I want to ask if anyone has successfully removed the Wall Odour/Ghost Odour issue and what steps they took? There are loads of posts online with people suffering from the problem over the years, but barely any stories of people rectifying it. Any help will be appreciated as the final step will be to rip out all the walls and start again which will be a huge cost.

Steps I've taken so far -

* Washed down all walls with bleach solution (1 to 10 mix), then rinsed off
* Painted with one coat of Zinsser BIN odour blocker
* Checked walls with moisture meter (all normal levels and no sign of water damage / mould growth over the 6 months the smell has been present)
* Had carpets professionally cleaned
* Removed all switches and sockets (to check for loose cables or signs of burning)
* Bled radiator (no sludge present)

Most people said Zinsser BIN would do the trick but no change in the smell after one coat. Dulux offered me a voucher for their Trade Alkali Resistant Primer - has anyone used this before? Can't find much information about it online.

Thanks

 

[Aldobaney]

Hello, been battling the same issue for over 10 years in one room in our house and could not fathom it out. We tjought we had tried everything until we were only left with the paint!!! Googling the wall odour phenomenon convinced us it was the paint. We dont decorate often as we are only 2 and traffic in our house is very low. In fact our lounge did not need decorating yet but the smell forced our hand!!
A couple of weeks back we tried a vinegar/water spray wash down but no change.
Two weeks later (letting it out thoroughly) we then tried a bleach/water spray mix wash down but tbis time the smell was much stronger. Another 2 weeks passed to let it dry, tbe warm weather these past couple of weeks seemed to make the smell stronger.
So yesterday we emptied the room completely and zinsser bin coated the whole room once but both walls and ceilings. Zinsser is runny/messy (recommend a big plastic sheet under a heavy quality dudtsheet) and awkward to roller on and is expensive too.
This morning we are so delighted to say that the smell has totally gone. We will wait another week and if necessary second coat it as the shiny finish shows where it has been over-rollered.
If there is no odour it will be getting painted one colour to both the walls and ceilings.
A footnote, we did just zinsser around sockets etc but when i decorate properly i will remove them all and apply zinsser so everywhere has been covered. I was even contemplating re-boarding the room but zinsser seems to have saved us.
Can i ask did you zinsser both walls and ceilings? Did you use the red zinsser? Can you sniff anything in the walls? Its impossible to get close enough to sniff the ceiling. Maybe needs another coat?

Good luck and let us know how you get on with it.

 

[Aldobaney]

Quick update, several days later and still absolutely no smell at all we've had sunshine, wind, tried both with windows open and shut and defo no smell at all now!!!! Its finally gone. We only applied one cost of zinsser bin to our walls and ceiling. Be warned you may need two (I just hope one coat stands the trst of time),it’s not cheap stuff.
So today we decided to look out gear to decorate the lounge properly and there it was!! Two part used tins of crown breatheasy paint. The very stuff that many other people have been blaming for their wallnodour (BBC TV did a documentary as they had teceived so many complaints). Ironically, ours didn't smell of cat pee it was more like clay or damp plaster. Good luck everyone, just don't try and paint over it without sealer as the alkaline effect WILL seep through the new paint carrying the odour with it.

 

[D Rows]

Thanks for the reply and update. I'm pleased to hear you've had success with applying a coat of Zinsser BIN. Sadly we are no further along. I couldn't find any stories online about Alkali resistant primer working so I got Dulux to swap my voucher for a new 5L tub of Zinsser BIN. Before painting I bleached all the walls and ceiling again with a stronger 2 to 8 ratio and left for much longer (hoping this might kill any surface bacteria before sealing with the BIN). I've done 2 more coats of BIN this week and the smell is still there!!! So much time and money wasted. We've not been able to use the room as there's no way to tell if the bacteria causing the smell will be harmful to our daughter. I will be chasing Dulux again but I fear the walls and ceiling will need to come out to be sure it's safe. It's crazy as the room had no smells before and the paint went on to walls that were freshly skimmed.

If I do have any breakthroughs, I'll be sure to update this thread, as there are barely any stories online about how to fix this problem.

 

[Aldobaney]

As mentioned earlier mine is still odour clear!!!! We are moving onto painting it now.
Can I make a suggestion? Why not sand your walls back to the plaster and see if the smell clears? Got to be easier than ripping it all back, re-boarding, skimming and painting??
If you do sand it back, zinsser the bare plaster to prevent any possibility of any re-action with you final painting.
Good luck, fingers crossed for you. We feel your pain, it has taken us 10 years to get to this point and we cant believe its finally resolved.