Author Topic: What is going on with my bathroom walls?  (Read 6562 times)

mskyle

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What is going on with my bathroom walls?
« on: May 09, 2016, 12:01:10 PM »
The paint in my bathroom is peeling. We rent, but our landlords are pretty casual/unhelpful about repairing anything that's not an immediate health and safety issue, so if it's possible to fix this reasonably easily and cheaply, I would just as soon do it myself.

The bathroom was redone about 8 years ago, and the paint above the (fiberglass?) bath enclosure is particularly bad - big chunks of it have come off. The underlying substrate is hard and has ridges. The flakes that are coming off are thick - it's not just paint, there's some kind of compound (possibly just drywall joint compound, ugh) that's been used to fill in those ridges. See photos below (sorry, both are on their sides - the ridges run perpendicular to the floor).

Anyone have any thoughts about what was *supposed* to be done here vs. what has actually been done here? The paint is also very matte for a bathroom, and tends to get mildewy (no fan in the bathroom, which doesn't help).

Mr. Green

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Re: What is going on with my bathroom walls?
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2016, 02:20:07 PM »
It kind of looks like plaster and the plaster is coming loose from the backing material. You mentioned there's no fan in the bathroom so over time a plaster wall could easily absorb some moisture and ultimately separate from backing material.

The landlord is going to want to fix this ASAP because now that the backing is exposed, the damage will only accelerate because it's easier for the moisture to penetrate. This can become a health and safety issue very quickly as the materials being exposed were not meant to handle moisture so it becomes easy for mold to grow or for the integrity of those materials to be compromised, leading to them falling apart.

CATman

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Re: What is going on with my bathroom walls?
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2016, 11:47:26 PM »
You've got a moisture issue caused by having no fan in the bathroom. Is there a window you can open while showering? As this is a rental I would contact your landlord immediately with those photos. If you get no response I would look up the renter's rights for your state and proceed accordingly. Unfortunately they can repair it and cover it up, but until the underlying moisture issue is resolved it will be a recurring issue.

mskyle

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Re: What is going on with my bathroom walls?
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2016, 08:29:14 AM »
Sorry, I should have said: it's been like this for over a year (since I moved in), the landlords are aware of it, and it really does seem to be a cosmetic issue - the board (possibly backer board for tile?) behind the paint is solid, and it has not gotten any worse. I understand that the immediate cause is poor ventilation, but I've lived in older homes without bathroom fans for half my life, and I've never seen anything remotely this bad. We do have a window and we use it during non-heating season (during heating season it is generally very dry in the house and the bathroom airs out fast).

Imagine if I owned the house: what advice would you give me for how to fix this? (I promise I won't do anything major without consulting with the landlords.)

I have several reasons for not just demanding that the landlords fix it - perhaps the most important one is that I suspect they would bring in whoever did this half-assed job in the first place to slap another layer of joint compound and primer over it. Also, there are lots of problems with the apartment but I like it anyway and the bathroom paint is a lower-priority issue for me than some other pending repairs.

Spork

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Re: What is going on with my bathroom walls?
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2016, 08:36:37 AM »
Take this with a grain of salt.  I'm no expert.

...but to me it looks like the underlying substrate has had some sort of shiny mastic(?) put on with a notched trowel... then some sort of drywall compound(?) has gone over it to smooth it.  Your assessment of backer board may be right.  They may have chipped off the tile and gone over it with compound.  Whatever these things are made of: they're not designed to stick to each other.

Sadly, I suspect the fix is to rip it off and put something new up (or alternatively to put down another layer on top of it and screw it down with mechanical fasteners.).  Judging from your posts, I suspect the landlord won't want to do that.

guitar_stitch

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Re: What is going on with my bathroom walls?
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2016, 01:15:41 PM »
Take this with a grain of salt.  I'm no expert.

...but to me it looks like the underlying substrate has had some sort of shiny mastic(?) put on with a notched trowel... then some sort of drywall compound(?) has gone over it to smooth it.  Your assessment of backer board may be right.  They may have chipped off the tile and gone over it with compound.  Whatever these things are made of: they're not designed to stick to each other.

Sadly, I suspect the fix is to rip it off and put something new up (or alternatively to put down another layer on top of it and screw it down with mechanical fasteners.).  Judging from your posts, I suspect the landlord won't want to do that.

This looks to be as reasonable a guess as anyone can make from the internet.  I have to imagine there is some sort of binding agent that could be put on the substrate to bind the drywall mud.  Primer maybe?

Spork

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Re: What is going on with my bathroom walls?
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2016, 01:22:32 PM »
Take this with a grain of salt.  I'm no expert.

...but to me it looks like the underlying substrate has had some sort of shiny mastic(?) put on with a notched trowel... then some sort of drywall compound(?) has gone over it to smooth it.  Your assessment of backer board may be right.  They may have chipped off the tile and gone over it with compound.  Whatever these things are made of: they're not designed to stick to each other.

Sadly, I suspect the fix is to rip it off and put something new up (or alternatively to put down another layer on top of it and screw it down with mechanical fasteners.).  Judging from your posts, I suspect the landlord won't want to do that.

This looks to be as reasonable a guess as anyone can make from the internet.  I have to imagine there is some sort of binding agent that could be put on the substrate to bind the drywall mud.  Primer maybe?

My "replace or cover it" was based on a (possibly bad) assumption that this same compound on mastic stuff was everywhere.  But if it's only coming off in a few places and not getting worse over time, a spot fix with an appropriate binding agent might fix it.  Now: I'd be clueless as to suggest a binding agent.

mskyle

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Re: What is going on with my bathroom walls?
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2016, 02:25:57 PM »
Take this with a grain of salt.  I'm no expert.

...but to me it looks like the underlying substrate has had some sort of shiny mastic(?) put on with a notched trowel... then some sort of drywall compound(?) has gone over it to smooth it.  Your assessment of backer board may be right.  They may have chipped off the tile and gone over it with compound.  Whatever these things are made of: they're not designed to stick to each other.

Sadly, I suspect the fix is to rip it off and put something new up (or alternatively to put down another layer on top of it and screw it down with mechanical fasteners.).  Judging from your posts, I suspect the landlord won't want to do that.

This looks to be as reasonable a guess as anyone can make from the internet.  I have to imagine there is some sort of binding agent that could be put on the substrate to bind the drywall mud.  Primer maybe?

My "replace or cover it" was based on a (possibly bad) assumption that this same compound on mastic stuff was everywhere.  But if it's only coming off in a few places and not getting worse over time, a spot fix with an appropriate binding agent might fix it.  Now: I'd be clueless as to suggest a binding agent.

It's only coming all the way off in a few places above the tub enclosure, but there is some cracking in other spots... Maybe it would be possible to just touch up the bad bits and repaint. Now you guys have me coming back around on asking the landlords to fix it - even a half-assed job would look OK for a while, and we might be able to reduce the impact of the humidity if we're good about keeping the window and/or door open (I have no idea what previous tenants got up to). Even if it only lasts a year or two, well, as much as we like this place we won't be living here forever.

sisto

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Re: What is going on with my bathroom walls?
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2016, 03:01:58 PM »
I have to agree with others that it looks like there was originally tile there and that it was chipped off, but the mastic stayed behind. Then someone just put hot mud over it. That mud dried and shrank causing the cracking and allowing the moisture to penetrate. If it were me and I just wanted a quick fix to look decent and last, I would scrape off all of the loose plaster and then use a cement based product like Fix All. That type of product would bond better to the dried mastic.