This paint stinks!!!! General decorating topics, questions and answers. find help, tips and advice on completing your decorating projects

[Meme]

Hi all.
Thought I would update you.
So I had another telephone call with Crown and was given the reasons behind this strange smell. Apparently there can be bacteria on a wall, (which she said would not go away even if the wall was washed/preped/scrubbed before hand) which reacts with the paint. Note she said *the* paint and not *their* paint specifically. It can occur with any brand paint..... not convinced of that mind you. She also said that some customers who have had the same problem have found the smell on only one or two walls not all of them and also some had used the same paint in two rooms but only one room smelt.
Again, she offered me a free tin of alkaline resistant primer and assured me it would work. At this point I thought it was either that or ripping off the wallpaper. The Mr and I decided to try the primer as a last resort. I was warned the smell would be strong and it was! But.... what a pleasant change to smell a solvent paint instead of a dead rat's ******* in my daughters room! We did a coat of the primer on Saturday and then a coat of the original coloured paint on top on Sunday, (we were given this paint free too but it was mixed at the Crown decorating centre I picked it up from and was their trade paint not their Breatheasy crap.)
Well today is Monday and at the moment the only smell in the room is a typical paint/gloss smell. Going to give it over night tonight and if the smell hasn't returned i'm hoping we are in the clear. Problem is the walls do really need a second coat of paint but i'm too scared to put another one on !!!
Will keep you posted!

[Colinrichard]

That's the problem, I have heard that you can have the same problem with other paints. Why not buy a tester sample for a few quid and see what happens?

[Meme]

Another update for anyone following this.
So on Monday evening we decided the walls did need a second coat of emlusion so we went ahead and did it.
At this point the room smelt strongly of paint which we hoped would dissapate soon; it was certainly a better smell than the original.
However, days later the paint smell was still as strong as ever and now had a faint odour of the original gassy smell combined with it. The room had been well ventilated but hadn't seemed to be helping. By now I was at my wits end so contacted Crown again. I spoke with a helpful lady who suggested I continued to ventilate the room for another few days. I did this and gave it 10 days from the primer coat and 8 days from the 2nd emulsion coat.
Sadly, the problem is still there but worse. I can smell a mixture of the initial foul smell masked slightly by a solvent smell...neither pleasant. The smell also seems to be worse in the morning when the central heating is on or if the sun is shining through.
As I type I have just spoken to Crown again. This time with a lady who was the opposite of helpful or sympathetic to the problem. She was a little rude and as a result I was in tears after putting the phone down. She told me she would contact a Crown rep to come and visit and take the paint away for testing. She all but called me a liar and i'm so upset at the whole situation I am close to just tearing the paper off the walls.
This has turned out to be a complete nightmare one I have never had in all my years of painting walls.
It's definately the first and last time I ever use Crown paint.

[louisy]

Hi all,

As far as i Knowles the paint react with ozon. Where do you live Meme ? At this time, is the weather warm up ? When you close the windows the smell should go down, is it the case or not ?

[Sapphy]

Well ... I had real problems with this last summer but over the winter the smell thankfully seemed to go away ... sadly the past few days with the higher temperatures and the windows open a gassy whiff has returned but nowhere near as bad as lat year. The problem is we could do with doing some more decorating but I don;t want to risk the same problem again. Has anyone experienced wall odour after using ECO paints???

[billn]

Sapphy
Have you tried contacting Johnstones about this, I have just had this problem this year. I lined the walls and used Jonmatt and started to get the gassy smell when the weather was warm in March, contacted Johnstones and they recommended Ultra Primer Sealer which I put on in April however the smell has now come back with the warmer weather, I have phoned Johnstones again and they now say that I will have to use Alkali resisting primer which is oil based (I wish they had said this the last time I am loosing the will to live as this will be 9 coats of paint in 8 weeks).
Please let us know how you get on.

[lee_m]

Hi all,

I wanted to add my story to this thread as I've just discovered that our newly painted loung walls also smell badly.

We painted our lounge back in January with Macphersons Trade Magnolia paint and since January have had no issues. However within the last 3-4 weeks we had noticed a gas type smell in our living room.

On some days it was really really strong, so much so that we thought we had a gas leak. We called out the emergency gas company and they checked and confirmed NO gas leak.

Since that point I have been pulling up the carpet and floorboards trying to identify the source of the smell.

Last night for some reason I decided to smell the walls and identified that it was the walls producing the smell! I then seached the internet and lo and behold find this thread, reporting the same exact problem I'm experiencing.

However I saw that this thread was related to Crown paint, so was initially disappointed - until i realised that Macpherson paint is a subsiduary of Crown paint!!

What I've noticed is that the issue only seems to occur when we have our patio doors or windows in the living room open. Having thought back to when the smell has been at its strongest, on those days we had opened our patio doors.

Central heating has not caused the smell to occur, so it can't be temperature based and I'm sure we have had sunlight on the walls before now, so I doubt it is that.

Could it be caused by something blowing in when the doors/windows are open?

I'm going to call the customer helpline for Macpherson paint this morning, but I'm not expecting much of a response (if they even believe me!).

[lee_m]

OK so after speaking to Macpherson's they offered a similar resolution to what I've read on this thread.

A tin of an alkali sealer and replacement paint. I suppose this is reasonable, however our lounge is a pretty big room, so repainting it all again is not ideal!

If it gets rid of the smell though its worth it.

[francar]

I got 2 rooms painted a year ago using McPhersons Trade Matt Emulsion and soon after they both smelled of gas. Gradually the smell in the north-facing bedroom subsided, but the south-facing bedroom, which is my children's is very bad and gets worse if it is warm and sunny outside. If I open the window to ventilate the room it gets even worse again.

Thinking it was paint that had gone off, I bought the same paint to decorate a flat which I rent out - and again, the same gassy smell.

My house has old Victorian walls and my flat is brand new and has plasterboard walls, so I don't go along with the 'bacteria in the walls' theory, but rather the theory that Crown changed one of their chemical suppliers and the 'new chemical' has a toxic reaction when mixed with warm air.

Sadly, thinking that the paint was off, I threw any remnants out, so can't send it off to get it tested or a replacement - not that I expect they bother testing it.

This week I will start re-painting with alkali-resistant primer and hope to get rid of the problem.

[Andy_m]

We also had the same problem. Repainted our lounge ceiling with some old paint that had been in the garage for a while. Anyway a few weeks later the room started to smell of a sweet sickly gassy smell whenever it was sunny. After a while we figured out it was the ceiling that was smelling. We found this forum, bought alkali resistant primer and repainted the ceiling with that, which is pretty strong smelling in it's own right. Then we repainted with emulsion. It's about 2 months later now and the paint hasn't started smelling again, so if anyone was wondering - it seems to work!

[Parisienne]

I had my bathroom decorated professionally 3 years old. The decorator left me a large tub of McPherson's Eclipse in brilliant white which he had used as a base coat. The job he did was very good and there was little smell of paint or anything else when he finished.
3 weeks ago I paint my kitchen with this tub of emulsion after fishing it out from the back of my storage cupboard.
I am nearly fifty and have done alot of my own painting over the years and have never known paint to go off. I proceed to paint with a roller and cover a large area quickly but start smelling gas. I've moved the cooker but there isn't a leak anywhere.
The ammonia gaseous smell became so intense and overwhelming over the following days that I sought help on the internet and came across this message board. Where having a strange summer so this smell subsided considerably and I thought it was going and would eventually disappear. Oh no!!! after a bout of brilliant sunshine The smell return intensely even stronger than when I painted initially. I would wake up with a chemical taste in the back of my throat even though the kitchen door was closed.
Today I have painted all the walls with the Leyland Alkali Resisting Primer in white. The smell is gone and replaced with a really strong smell of solvent. This stuff isn't water based like your everyday emulsion and you'll need spirits to clean your equipment. It is very liquidy and runny as well.
I really will provide an update in a week or 2 (colder weather predicted) to let you know if this has worked.
No I really will because I know how distressing this can be. I fear I might of permanently damaged my home and maybe myself.
My major concern (and I know the paint manufacturers are being silent and uninterested and refuse ownership currently) is the impact this gas is having on my health. As I said I have the taste in the back of my throat. Also funny when I cooked in the kitchen with my gas cooker the smell diminished considerably. I will be contacting a solicitor to get in touch with McPherson's and seek to stay in touch with people who have a remedies from recorded contact with the paint companies. Who knows what the future might reveal healthwise

[billn]

I have also just put a coat of Leyland Alkali Resisting Primer and just to be on the safe side I am going to give it a second coat of primer (it is a bit on the thin side). I hope this will solve the problem and I will update.

[Parisienne]

It's Wednesday and the strong oil spirit like smell is somewhat diminished. I can really smell the oil base now quite strongly it's like like stale grease.

[Finman22]

I'd just like to add that we've also been using Crown Breatheasy in our hall, and the walls are now giving off the same sweet/urine smell that others are reporting. Used Crown all over the house prevously and also in the hall a few years ago without any problems, but this has really put us off.

Given we've got an asmatic in the house don't really want to go down the solvent route. Going to strip the wallpaper off and start from scratch.

I for one won't be using crown again.

[johnjoliver]

What a relief to find this site! We had decorators paint a vestibule using paint left over from the previous owner- no surprise macphersons crown trade matt emulsion. The smell was awful-my wife wanted to bring in the gas board. We have put a dehumidier in there along with air fresheners to no effect. It still stinks. 15 minutes in there brings on a bad headache.

We contacted Crown who refused liability on the grounds of the age of the paint and advised oil based alkali resistant sealer followed by crown clean extreme emulsion.

Watch this space-I'll come back when done