Paint peeling on all our bathroom ceilings

[Anonymous]

This is in a relatively new home built less than 10 years ago. When we noticed it right away in the master bath - the builder repainted it but it continues to happen. We even had a new more powerful fan put in and it's peeling worse than ever. Also the metal register keeps rusting and has to be replaced. Is there a permanent solution? It's a pain to have the ceiling painted so much - and obviously the underlying problem was never addressed by the builder. Anyone else have this issue? Our old house never had this issue.

[Anonymous]

We had this happen in our primary bathroom. I went to the Benjamin Moore paint store and they told me about a special primer for bathrooms. It's been a few years, and it has not peeling. I also run a dehumidifier in there after showers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had this happen in our primary bathroom. I went to the Benjamin Moore paint store and they told me about a special primer for bathrooms. It's been a few years, and it has not peeling. I also run a dehumidifier in there after showers.

NP but we have a similar issue. A few questions:

Did you paint the vents with the primer as well? We have the same problem as OP, plus the rust issue, and we also will get mildew on the ceiling as well (though this we are able to clean off but it's a huge problem since it's the ceiling).

What dehumidifier do you use? Do you run it after every shower and is it annoying? We have tried just showering with the door open plus run the fan and it clearly does not solve the issue.

We have this issue but when we've brought in contractors to address it, they just want to repaint and I want to actually solve the problem. Apparently it's common in newer builds and I'm assuming it's because the bathrooms are like hermetically sealed and lack some of the natural ventilation older houses get from settling and being more drafty/less well insulated. But every time I start to see the paint peel and mildew I get so frustrated. Never had to deal with this before.

[Anonymous]

Our house had just gotten a new coat of paint when we moved in 9 years ago. Last year, we renovated the bathroom, and suddenly we have blistering paint and yellow water droplets. The yellow is supposedly from the paint and we were told it's normal, but it's still happening a year later. The blistering is because I assume the contractors didn't do any sort of surface prep and just slapped the new paint on the old paint and the new paint didn't bond well. But the fact that we didn't have any problems for 8 years and they only just began after the reno says that it's something the contractors did or did not do, and it's not inherent in the bathroom. If anything, we got a stronger fan.

All this to say I wonder if you need to sand down the ceiling paint, OP, and make sure they use a primer or something first. We might be doing that, too, in the near future unless someone has a better idea.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like your builder did not properly prime under the paint before painting the first time. Even it they repainted, moisture is getting underneath the paint and causing the paint to release from the wall. I suggest scraping off the peeling paint, applying a skim coat of plaster to smooth the wall/ceiling, painting on primer (an old painter told me to use an oil-based primer that would better prevent moisture into the wall), and then repaint after allowing primer to dry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had this happen in our primary bathroom. I went to the Benjamin Moore paint store and they told me about a special primer for bathrooms. It's been a few years, and it has not peeling. I also run a dehumidifier in there after showers.

Same for us. We were living in a small house with only one upstairs bath. The paint peeled on us badly twice and then we painted with benjamin moore I believe it was Aura Bath and Spa, and it's lasted nine years.

[Anonymous]

Make sure your vent fans actually work. It's incredibly common for them to be blocked somewhere or have a jammed louver or a disconnected duct. Ideally find where they exit the house and see if you can feel air flowing. That might not be feasible if they're up on the second floor though. Excess humidity can be causing other problems so you do want the fans to be working.

Beyond that, what seems to be happening is moisture is getting behind your paint. Interior latex paint is actually pretty open to vapor. Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams make vapor barrier primers. They're the kind of thing you have to go to a real paint store and talk to someone who knows paints to find.

[Anonymous]

Our paint has peeled twice and looks terrible but haven't felt like fixing it yet.

[Anonymous]

Ugh. I have this problem. I noticed the paint was peeling, figured the fan wasn't big enough (this is an old house, that fan has been there for years.) Replaced the fan. Hired painters specifically to come in and strip the old paint, prime it, and repaint with the most water repellent paint they had.
Within days the new paint was bubbling, called the painters, they had nothing for me.
Best I can figure is one of my kids takes really hot showers. Now I tell the kids to leave the door open a crack, crack the window, and leave the fan running and the door open when they finish showering. That seems to have stopped the peeling and bubbling from getting worse. I have the largest possible fan in there and it's a tiny, tiny bathroom, so I have no idea why it's such a problem. We checked the fan, and the vent, and the fan is working. We have an identical bathroom in the finished basement that has zero problems. So I have nothing for you. Just sympathy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had this happen in our primary bathroom. I went to the Benjamin Moore paint store and they told me about a special primer for bathrooms. It's been a few years, and it has not peeling. I also run a dehumidifier in there after showers.

NP but we have a similar issue. A few questions:

Did you paint the vents with the primer as well? We have the same problem as OP, plus the rust issue, and we also will get mildew on the ceiling as well (though this we are able to clean off but it's a huge problem since it's the ceiling).

What dehumidifier do you use? Do you run it after every shower and is it annoying? We have tried just showering with the door open plus run the fan and it clearly does not solve the issue.

We have this issue but when we've brought in contractors to address it, they just want to repaint and I want to actually solve the problem. Apparently it's common in newer builds and I'm assuming it's because the bathrooms are like hermetically sealed and lack some of the natural ventilation older houses get from settling and being more drafty/less well insulated. But every time I start to see the paint peel and mildew I get so frustrated. Never had to deal with this before.

I don’t think we have any vents near the shower. Our bathroom is pretty big, maybe 15x20 and the fan was doing nothing. I can’t remember the primer, but the paint guy said prime with this and the paint will never peel. It’s specially for wet bathrooms.
I have a big stand alone dehumidifier. Yes it’s annoying. It’s amazing how much water that thing pulls out of the air. I really run it so that we don’t get mildew because the vey fan does absolutely nothing.

[Anonymous]

Call them tomorrow and explain the situation. The guy at the paint desk will tell you what to buy.

https://www.potomacpaint.com/arlington-va

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I have this problem. I noticed the paint was peeling, figured the fan wasn't big enough (this is an old house, that fan has been there for years.) Replaced the fan. Hired painters specifically to come in and strip the old paint, prime it, and repaint with the most water repellent paint they had.
Within days the new paint was bubbling, called the painters, they had nothing for me.
Best I can figure is one of my kids takes really hot showers. Now I tell the kids to leave the door open a crack, crack the window, and leave the fan running and the door open when they finish showering. That seems to have stopped the peeling and bubbling from getting worse. I have the largest possible fan in there and it's a tiny, tiny bathroom, so I have no idea why it's such a problem. We checked the fan, and the vent, and the fan is working. We have an identical bathroom in the finished basement that has zero problems. So I have nothing for you. Just sympathy.

Water repellency is the wrong property of paint to be looking for. A substance can block liquid water yet still allow water vapor to pass. Latex paint, even exterior grades, is waterproof but highly permeable to water vapor. Drywall is also highly permeable to water vapor. What is probably happening is that water vapor is passing through the ceiling paint and into the drywall. It's probably much cooler on the other side of the drywall, and the water vapor condenses into liquid. The ceiling paint is actually a good barrier to liquid water, so it's trapped there, and the weight of the water peels the paint away from the drywall. By any chance is this ceiling on the top floor of the house (ie there's no heated space above it)? That would make condensation worse.

The solution is you have to paint the drywall with a vapor barrier primer. The reason this product exists is that regular paint is not a vapor barrier, regular primer is not a vapor barrier, and drywall is not a vapor barrier. You should then be able to paint with any paint.

[Anonymous]

Old school painters used to use a coat of BIN (Zinsser) and a couple coats of oil based paint for these types of situations. There are different levels of vapor barriers, so not sure if this would be adequate for your situation. You would obviously have to prep/sand the old surface really well before applying anything.