what is up with the paint/walls please

[hotcookie101]

Hi,
I'm not sure if I am posting this in the right section, so I am sorry if I am wrong!

The paint on my living room wall is all bubbly and coming off the walls. In some spots underneath the plaster is rough and looks a bit motheaten, some it is really smooth, and some there is a white bloom to it. It also smells a bit like cat wee! I have put some pictures on to show what it looks like

The wall backs onto the bathroom, which is fully tiled and was redone about 6 years ago. The shower used to sit against this wall, and had leaked quite badly, the wall was replastered, and tiled, and now there is a wash hand basin unit and a wall cupboard on that wall.

I am guessing that somehow we have damp penetrating the wall from the bathroom? The bathroom itself seems fine, and the plaster isn't crumbling in the living room. I can't access behind the units in the bathroom but the back of them feels dry.

Is there anything I can paint on over this that would allow the paint to stick and not bubble off? It looks REALLY bad now I have scraped all the loose paint off...

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• hotcookie101
• 27 Jun 2014
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• hotcookie101
• 27 Jun 2014
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• hotcookie101
• 27 Jun 2014
• 1

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• hotcookie101
• 27 Jun 2014
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• hotcookie101
• 27 Jun 2014
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[hotcookie101]

Can anyone help please? Is it damp? Would a damp-paint/undercoat stop it bubbling? There isn't anything to leak on the other side of the wall, but it is a bathroom with fully tiled walls so could it be condensation coming through the wall?

 

[Bosswhite]

I am guessing that the wall pictured above was not given an original mist coat or was painted over using PVA.
If you are worried about damp, get yourself a cheap DIY moisture meter and check the patches.

 

[blightymam]

White colouring, bubbling and bad smell - yes I would say that this is damp. How old is your house btw? Some older houses and the plaster can smell a bit urine-like when they get wet for a long time. Thing is, now you've got to try and find the cause..! Check for any leaks with the basin, if your pipes have been laid into the wall, you may have a leak that you can't see. I wouldn't have thought after 6 years that it was due to the original problem, esp if it had been allowed to dry before replastering and tiling.

I wouldn't try and patch it up really, as damp tends to always win. If you paint some spots with something like this:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/thompsons-one-coat-damp-seal-750ml/38631

then you'll be ok for a little while, but I would really recommend sorting the problem out first.

 

[JohnD]

you will have to take out the bathroom units and look for a leak. Very often it is the seal where a bath or shower tray meets the wall.

The bathroom floor may also be damaged by water. If it is chipboard (which is rubbish) it will swell up and lose all its strength until you can break it with your fingers and it is not safe to stand on.

Persistent damp also leads to mould and rot.

 

[hotcookie101]

Thank you.
The shower is on the same wall as these patches, but the other side if you know what I mean. The seal on the bath seems ok, but I will try and see if I can take the panel on the bath and look underneath it.
When the bathroom was done previously the walls were freshly plastered and I *think* he just tiled directly on, but the walls were a bit uneven so he ended up building up the tiles with adhesive (we have since realised he may not have been the best tradesman ever ) As far as I can remember he overlaid the floor with water resistant tilebacker board before tiling it. The pipes aren't inlaid into the walls as far as I can remember-but the shower pipes come through into the understairs cupboard which backs onto the shower (it is a downstairs bathroom)
It wasn't left very long from stripping out and plastering to putting the tiles on.
The sink unit backs onto where the patches are, but it is a basin sat on a cupboard, so I don't know how we can take it off to look behind.
Can I use something like this to check for damp?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/iXium®-DETE...-CARAVAN/dp/B004LXXUC2/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_1_0

oh and house is 1930s..

 

[misterhelpful]

If there is nothing to leak on the other side of the wall anymore then it may just be the moisture in the wall from the previous leak drying out that has caused the problem.
Now you need to either remove the damp plaster and patch up the wall or ensure the existing plaster has dried out completely before starting redecoration. If you opt for the latter, when it is dry, remove all the loose paint and efflorescence (salts in the plaster which causes the bubbling/blooming as the moisture in the plaster dries out) without wetting the wall. Any moisture added to the dry plaster will cause more blooming in no time at all. Apply a coat of alkali resistant primer to the bare plaster before filling and sanding the defects. You can then start the redecoration. This isn't guaranteed to work as efflorescence can sometimes be a nightmare to completely cure (even re-plastering doesn't always work) so you may always get the odd spot popping up.

BTW, is it just me or can anyone else see Billy the Fish from Viz in the third image?

 

[JohnD]

the back of the vanity unit is most likely hardboard. You can saw a hole in the back to look behind to find the source of damp. Once you have made a hole, you can probably break or pull out the rest.

When sorted out you can paint the wall behind the unit, and it will not look bad inside.

however it might be that the shower mixer or its pipes are leaking. If they are tiled in this will be difficult to see. The height and position of the damp will give clues.

 

[jamie86]

It could be damp, but seems to be covering too wide an area to be caused by leaky or faulty plumbing - crazy coverage. If the paint was painted on before the plaster was dry, and wasn't a breathable one, then the plaster would have had no breathing room to dry out and would have stayed damp. that moisture then stays under the paint and moved forward and back as the house heats and cools, causing the paint to discolour and bubble when it comes to the surface, and the plaster to soften and darken, horrible.

Quick aesthetic fix would be a stain remover (like http://www.wonkeedonkeetools.co.uk/must-reads/stain-remover/). Ideally, once a leak is ruled out, you'll need to strip the wall, replaster, and either wait weeks for it to dry or apply a BREATHABLE paint over the top. The key is to always account for moisture in layered coatings of anything - especially if you are going to use a moisture locking paint or other coating, make sure you're not locking any moisture IN too

Hope this helps!

 

[JohnD]

stand back and take a wide view of the whole wall (upright please) with something in it to show scale, such as a hand or a book touching the wall.

Pencil or chalk on the wall where the bath or shower or mixer are on the other side so we can relate them to the damp.

Your previous pics came out on their side.

 

[hotcookie101]

Thank you all,
am attaching a wider view of the patch, for scale the calendar is 30cm wide. The wall behind the basin unit was fully tiled before the cabinet was fitted, so am not sure if we would see anything behind it. It sits roughly in the middle of lower patch. The shower isn't against this part of the wall-it is to the left beyond the door, approx 1m away. My pencil marks aren't showing up very well.

I had a look at the bath panel and I don't know if I can get it off without destroying it-the screws are all rusted (bathroom gets pretty steamy despite extractor fan and opening window...)

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• hotcookie101
• 2 Jul 2014
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• hotcookie101
• 2 Jul 2014
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I also don't know if this makes any difference, but we have a small patch of peeling paint, on the other side of the living room behind the radiator, the plaster here doesn't seem rough though...

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• hotcookie101
• 2 Jul 2014
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and to give you an idea of what the bathroom looks like from the other side

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• hotcookie101
• 2 Jul 2014
• 1

The wall in the living room probably has at least 45cm before it is properly backing onto the bathroom

 

[JohnD]

so what is on the other side of the wall behind the wet patch?

do you drape wet washing around the home?

 

[hotcookie101]

The washhand basin unit is approx to where the patch is.
in winter we dry some clothes on radiators downstairs, but it is mostly upstairs in spare room with windows open 24/7 (and door closed to rest of house!

 

[JohnD]

I wonder if the pipes to the washbasin are buried in the wall.

Do you know if they come up from the floor or drop down from the ceiling?

Measure where the pipes might be and see if they correspond to the damp.

 

[hotcookie101]

If I remember correctly the pipes come up from under the floor and sit outside the tiles behind the unit, they aren't buried in the wall. The pipes for the shower come through the wall (understairs cupboard is through the door you can see in living room) and then are fixed through from there to the bathroom (so they aren't in the wall either)