Even tho the paint has been up for a few years, the room hasn't seen use, moisture. It could very well be this:

John Stauffer, technical director over at The Rohm and Hass Paint Quality Institute
www.paintquality.com
Here is the PQI's reply:

"Water-whitening" can sometimes happen with latex-based coatings. Enough moisture makes its way into the coating film to swell the polymer particles, which normally are not 100% fused even though the pant has dried, resulting in micro-gaps which scatter light, thus causing the whiteness. It of course is not noticeable with white paints, but it can be with clear latex films, and with medium and dark colors. Tinted paints are generally made with more surfactants (soaps) than are white paints, which increases the tendency, because the surfactants increase water absorbancy by the dried paint. When the streaks dry out, the light scattering drops off, and may disappear altogether. As the shower is used over time, and condensation extracts the surfactants from the paint, whitening tendency will decrease."

I couldn't believe my eyes as I read your post because your problem is the EXACT problem I have in my hallway bathroom. It is painted white and whenever a shower is taken, a sticky light brown substance comes through the paint and if enough moisture is present, will drip slightly down the walls. It actually reminds me of honey. No one for sure can tell me what it is but one thing mentioned was nicotine. We've only been in our house 4 yrs and we do not smoke.

So my plan is to prime the walls with B-I-N by Zinsser which is a shelac type primer that will seal the walls. Then repaint.

Hopefully, someone can shed some light that will help both of us. I have an exhaust fan and even though it is run for a long period during and after showers, the problem still happens.

Did the previous owners smoke? Nicotine (tar residue) does bleed out through paints and will do so more readily in a moist environment.

Hairspray left on walls will also cause the problem geoff is experiencing. For professional results, wash those walls thoroughly before painting.

Michael

Geoff,
The above responses are spot-on obviously!!
The PQI site is a fantastic resource for "all things paint".

Your initial prep in that bath...
* Per the above questions...Was there ever a smoker in the home?
* Were the walls scrubbed & WELL rinsed of the glue?
* Important here: What exact primer was used? Some are good stain-blockers, others aren't. If you used an ordinary drywall primer, that does nothing to prevent bleed-through from glues, old nicotine stains, etc.
* What color is your paint?
* Is there a GOOD bath-fan in there? Is it used?

Faron

I belive this is surfactant bleed. Start by just washing the walls with clear water and take it from there. Your problems may be over.

Hilda

All latex paints (and stains) contain detergent-like substances called surfactants. They can be tan or brown in color, and can appear glossy, soapy, or sticky. These are necessary to the paint formula and are used in the process of making paint. Under certain curing conditions, such as low temperatures or condensing moisture, a leaching process occurs which results in a build-up of surfactants on the surface of the paint film.

Surfactants are not part of the paint film, and their coming out of the paint film does no harm. In most cases, these substances come out of the paint film slowly and are often washed away undetected.

Once the paint has fully dried, wash the affected area with warm water. The problem may occur once or twice more before the surfactants are completely removed.

Sincerely,

Eric

BEHR Web Communications

Thanks for all the responses. I thought I'd get email alerts when a response came in but I didn't so I am just today reading all this.

No smokers ever in the house. Yes, during the month we showered in there, we ran the fan but it still got so steamy the walls were nearly wet. The fan is not so powerful, I guess.

Most of the bleed through occurs behind towels on the rack, but not excusively. The short wall by the exhaust fan has patches of this sticky seeping, too.

I scrubbed those walls so much before painting the wife started fussing as she felt I spent too much time doing so. I do think all the paste was removed before I primed using Valspar high hiding primer. I guess it is what some of you postulated about this surfacant issue.

I talked to the Lowes paint counter guy today before coming back here and he advised using "GARDZ DAMAGED DRYWALL SEALER" which is formulated to lock down paste on walls. Wish I had known of it before but maybe that isn't the difficulty.

I will wash the offensive stickiness off the walls and until we ever use that bath again that may be enough. Just me and the wife here so it was rare that we used that room. I'm praying the master bath is OK as I just finished stripping wallpaper, priming with the Valspar high hiding forumula and two coats of Valspar signature paint. The Lowes guy said Valspar goes on thicker than Behr and he thinks I won't have this problem. Of course he sells Valspar and not Behr!

Thanks for the ideas. I do appreciate it!

I had the same problem in a bathroom we used rarely, until recently. Thin streams of dark honey color *something* running down the wall. But just in one area of the room. It also used to be wallpapered. We paid someone to remove the wallpaper and paint, so I can't comment on how well they removed the glue. Judging from other problems with their work, maybe not super well. No smokers in the house for past 5 years, not sure about before then, but never smelled smoke in the house when we were looking at it before buying. The residue washes off easily. It hasn't reappeared since washing it off.

Well, I see this is a very old discussion. Still, I will say we have the same problem in our master bath which I painted years ago. We are not smokers and there was no wallpaper on walls before painting. Walls were washed/cleaned prior to painting. Sounds like we didn't wait long enough for paint to cure or it's just how the paint reacts to moisture.

I replaced my exhaust fan and that helped a great deal. The walls no longer bleed because they don't get all wet now during showers.

This was such a helpful post! I hope we can keep it around.

I have been searching for the answer to the same problem for 4 years with the only comments being "there must have been a smoker in the house".

I recently gutted and rebuilt this bathroom from the framing, so all new drywall, all new paint, an overkill vent fan that was properly run. The paint was applied and dried 3 months before the tile was finished and any shower was taken. The problem recurred with the entirely new bathroom!

These steps debunk many of the common myths for this problem. It is definitely a surfactant, it is soapy when I was the walls, with a slightly brown tint. I will try washing the walls a few times over to see if this can get rid of it. For reference, I used Behr premium paint on both ceiling and walls.

Thank you!

Glad I found this post because we were wondering what's going on. We have the same problem. Washed the walls before painting and used Behr premium paint and primer in one for the bathroom walls. The weeping started a couple of months after painting. We wiped it off twice already but it's still coming back. Hopefully it'll stop eventually.

We just painted today and by this afternoon the wall in the corner looks like something was spilled. Its a bedroom with not steam nearby.

it is an outdise wall behind it