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Mud/Paint offgassing? HELP!

28K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  mrnigel  
#1 ·
heres the story:

I recently remodeled my 1981 condo, removed popcorn ceiling, sand off old texture from walls, mud everything and painted. All walls and ceilings.
Short after, an odd odor started to develop, its hard to describe it but something like sulfur.

I couldn't figure it out for months, until recently when i removed some paint and mud from one of the walls and put it on an hermetic glass container.
when i open this container and smell whats inside, that is the smell. so Im pretty sure its the mud used to smooth the walls and ceilings before it was painted. Now im stuck with this thing and i had to move out due to the smell/gas. The spot where i removed the paint doesnt smell bad, so that tells me that the drywall could be fine.

My water smells funny too, like it has a lot of minerals in it. My hot water is white, due to all this minerals, so i was thinking that this "bad water" was used to mix the mud and then applied in the walls. (this is just my theory)

the million dollars question is if anybody here had a similar situation.???

I think im going to have to re-sand the whole apartment, re mud, re paint.

there was no asbestos at the popcorn ceiling (test came back negative)
the mud used was from home depot (came in a box)
paint used was behr paint and primer all in one. mostly flat.

any ideas?? im currently living in a couch and i have to go back to my place asap since i have a kid.

thanks a lot
 
#4 ·
Hi,

The location is Corona CA

I'm not sure the brand of the mud but it came in a box and they mixed it with water.

Is not chinese drywall, since the place has the original drywall from 1981 and it doesn't smell like rotten eggs is more like sulfur, its hard to describe. Yesterday I had mold testing done and they took a sample of the mud and the paint plus a 3 by 3 piece of wall with mud and paint in it. So I have to wait for the results. But is a mystery I've been asking a lot and nobody heard of something similar.
And nothing in the internet so far.

Thanks
 
#6 ·
Yes everybody smells something, most people says that smells like fresh paint.
Some people can't say what it smells like.
Fact is that if I sleep in my room I wake up and my nose is bleeding, my eyes red.
 
#7 ·
Sounds like maybe the mud had soured. Sometimes after a bucket of mud has been opened then resealed after a time the mud will go bad. And smell. Maybe something punched a hole in the box while at the store. Wasn't a big hole so nobody noticed. But let enough air in to spoil the mud. Just a guess. As long as I'm guessing since your water is so bad maybe it caused a reaction of some sort with the chemicals in the mud.
 
#8 ·
Just a guess. As long as I'm guessing since your water is so bad maybe it caused a reaction of some sort with the chemicals in the mud.
that is exactly what i think it is, but before i sand everything down, and repaint i want to be certain since guessing has been pretty expensive to me so far....
unluckily nobody seem to have had the same issue....

i guess when the mold/paint results come back ill have a better idea.
 
#9 ·
You could start by buying a good brand latex primer from a paint store and go in and prime all the walls. Wait a few days and see if the smell is still there. If smell is still there you could then re prime with an oil base primer, like Cover Stain. Wait a few days and see if the smell is gone. Then paint over the walls with a latex paint. I am a landlord and I have yet to find a smell that the cover stain primer will not cover. Just make sure to cover the primer with a quality paint. Only buy your paints from a local paint store. I would not even use behr paints in a rental. Great marketing, terrible paint.
 
#11 ·
We recently (November 2012) had our ceiling popcorn removed by a certified asbsetos reomver and then retextured by a local company. After they textured the mud, I waited a day and then repainted with primer and then paint (don't rememeber specifics on paint). A few days later, we started experiencing the same smell as you describe. Somewaht chemical sulphur smell. Now that the weather is warmer, the textured rooms will start smelling in the afternoon when the house warms up (non-textured/painted rooms don't smell) . Interestingly, when the heater is on, the house does not smell- must be the circulating air. Paint store and texturing company insist that thye have never heard of this. Local building inspector thinks it may be Volitale Organic Compounds offgassing from the paint and suggested repainiting with non-VOC paint.

luc-123- Please post results when you get them! thanks- btw- our house is in the bay area, ca.
 
#12 ·
It's possible VOC's are the culprit. You don't say what texture you had put back on but even if it was popcorn 1 day may not have been long enough for the texture to dry. Some textures are put on pretty thick. They get crusty but are not completely dry. Then when you put the primer on whice I assume is latex or water based it adds to the non-drying part. Then if you used a paint that was high in VOC's I can see how this might cause a problem. This is all theory on my part, so let's see what the others have to say.