White substance on painted wall

Folks,

I have a white substance showing on my painted walls (drywall painted in dark color with Benjamin Moore paint). The walls were painted several years ago and the problem seems to have gotten worse over that time. The walls are really starting to look patchy and I finally want to do something. I have tried cleaning with water, but white stuff still there are wall dries. I had a cleaning company come look at it and they didn't have any idea. The white stuff doesn't wipe off when you run your hand over it. Really, it looks like the walls are dusty but it isn't dust. I tried to attach photo but hard to capture with my iPad camera.

please help. I am happy to post more information if you can tell me what you need.

 

I'm just guessing, since what you are describing doesn't show up in the pictures very well, but it could be that the wall needed an additional coat of paint and that this could be a primer issue, or a sheen issue, or even an issue with how the paint was applied.

All the time I see DIY shows where people take a roller and go all over the place with it, doing a spot right in front of their face, then they dip the paint and do that again a few feet away. That's going to result in irregular coverage which might appear blotchy. The proper way to roll is usually with the help of a paint pole, going from top to bottom, and backrolling as needed.

If the wall is not smooth to the touch, then it may have needed a light sanding prior to painting. It could also be that the surface was dusty with drywall dust when it was painted. IMO a light sanding with a sanding pole, and an additional coat of paint would probably cover. Some paints aren't very washable (is the paint flat, satin or semigloss?) and most paints don't touch up very well when you try to repaint just a spot or two. After sanding, and cutting in the edges with a brush, rerolling the entire wall may very well solve the problem.

BTW, welcome to the forum!

 

My first thought was 'surfactant leaching' which can be an issue with dark colors and high humidity.... but your color isn't all that dark. Do you know which BM paint was used? I agree with X, another coat of paint should help.

 

I'd agree with trying another coat of paint. MarkSr brings up a good point as well. All paint manufacturers make a garbage lines of paint and BM is no different. About two years ago a customer had me use BM's bottom of the line paint throughout their whole house before they moved in. I'd never even heard of it before. He proudly exclaimed he'd only paid $18 a gallon for it.

It was worth every cent. Couldn't believe it when they said they thought it looked beautiful.

 

Folks,

Thanks for the replies. The paint is "Moorecraft Super Spec Latex Eggshell Enamel.". The basement does have high humidity and the color is darker than it appears in the photo. What can be done about "surfactant leaching?" I am worried that another coat will not adhere because of the white substance. The paint was professionally applied by a local company so I hope it was applied correctly.

Again, thanks for helping me figure this out. I really do appreciate it.

 

Still not great but you can see the white haze that covers most of the surface.

 

I really can't make anything out in the pictures. So maybe you could look at this link which talks about efflorescence and tell us if anything there sounds like what you're dealing with. I can't say that I have ever seen efflorescence on a painted drywall surface, and I wouldn't think it would affect an entire wall.

The wall looks bumpy. Is that part of the problem, or is that just the normal texture of the wall?

Also, are these interior walls or exterior walls. Are all the walls doing it or just some of them?

 

Paranoid approach here - light scuff sanding to clean the wall a bit and promote adhesion, apply an oil based sealing primer and then another coat of paint.

There's a great paint store on Highway 93 pretty much across from where the old Saturn dealership used to be.

 

The walls have normal texture. It is happening on exterior walls and interior walls.

i bought the paint at that shop. I tried to call them but no answer. Plan to try again tomorrow.

 

I'm not real familiar with BM's product line but I think Moorecraft Super Spec is one of their cheaper lines of paint. I doubt efflorescence is an issue.

Can you tell us about the paint job? Was it new construction or a repaint? If a repaint, what color was under the current paint? How many coats of paint?

 

BM Super Spec is the name of the paint I was referring to earlier. It's the worst paint they make. I've only used it once, but in the future if a customer forces me to use it there is no way I'm going to guarantee it will look good.

It goes on like water and after two coats you can still see previous colours bleeding through. Badly.

 

Yeah, I use BM paints almost exclusively but I would not touch anything near their bottom of the line stuff.

 

If you're looking to save some money, but stay in the BM product line try "Ben" by BM. It came out a few years ago. Mid grade product, I tried it this year for the first time and have used it many times since. Was a little iffy when customers picked darker colours as I wasn't 100% sure it would cover in two coats, but to my surprise it covered very nicely.

Not sure if it's available in the US though. When I'm south of the 49'th, I'm playing poker not painting.

 

15-20 yrs ago I painted a bank and the specs called for 1 coat of BM paint that was probably that line. It took 2 coats to get halfway decent coverage. I wound having SWP match the color in ProMar 200 which covered beautifully with 1 coat.

Seems like I got a flyer from BM a month or 2 ago and it was advertising the Ben line of paint.