Hi, after I had all the ceilings in my flat re skimmed I painted all the rooms in turn, mostly using Dulux and Lakeland zero Voc paints except for the bedroom, where I used Wilks durable paint on 3 walls and the ceiling. The paint was brand new, as were the brush and roller. Within 4 days the walls and ceiling emitted a foul rancid stench as everyone in this post has experienced. I returned the unused tin of paint for testing, but Wilks refused to test any of the paint applied to the walls and ceiling. After 4 weeks of not being able to use the bedroom and getting nowhere with Wilko, except an email telling me I must have introduced bacteria to the tin or had bacteria on my walls and ceiling, I discussed the problem with my University colleagues, all researchers in microbiologist or biochemistry. As nowhere else in my flat smells at all, including the remaining wall in the bedroom which was painted with the last of the Dulux, we believe the cause is bacteria or fungi surviving latent in the paint tin until it was opened and oxygen was introduced allowing the bacteria to grow and metabolize something in the new or old paint which stank. The human nose can detect just one or two parts per million of certain smells, which may be below the level the quality testing would detect.
I applied a fungicide wash made by Astonish which was suitable for applying to walls, and kills all known fungi, moulds and 99.9% of all known bacteria. It took 3 applications on the ceiling and the 3 walls where I had painted with wilko paint, I had used durable paint which is washable, I would expect to need just one or 2 applications for normal emulsion.
It has worked, the smell of the fungicide took 3 days to completely disappear, but with it the foul rancid sour milk stench has also completely gone, hopefully for good. I was reluctant to paint or seal over the top of the bacteria in case this just trapped it in its latent phase and did not kill it.
Anyone trying the same remedy you will need a face mask and goggles to wear when applying the fungicide spray as it is hypochlorite based which is an irritant, then keep out and keep the room well ventilated until the chlorine smell has gone.
