Reply to Paint peeling on all our bathroom ceilings

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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