This paint bubbling problem started within the past year. My wife had a stroke a little over a year ago and has had to use a shower chair and hand held shower head. My guess is that this has caused more water to hit the lower walls of the shower and maybe penetrate the grout and or caulking.
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Replies
You need to describe the situation in a bit more detail. Is the bubbling paint on the wall adjacent to the shower, on the wall that backs up to the shower, or somewhere else?
(I'm assuming from your description that the shower itself is tiled.)
(Note that you may have attempted to attach a picture, but the flaky software here make it hard to post pictures.)
I can see the pictures in my post. They are little x's. Should you see what I see?
No pictures, no X's, no nothing. On vanilla Mozilla under Windows Vista.
I'll try again. WIndows Vista?....you are a brave man!!!
Heck no, I'm chicken. I had to use Windows 10 a little bit on my former job and I hated it.
I thought VISTA was dead and buried. I had to give up XP when Microsoft dropped support. I've got Windows 7 now and not thrilled about Windows 10. Any luck seeing my pictures?
Jim
Are these walls plastered ?
is that baseboard black in spots?
From here in Ohio it looks like what I've repaired many times over the years. Water problem definitely and now you need to find the source .
Faucet control(s), the caulk around the rim of the tub, down the apron of the tub also.
Shower head and any fissures in the grout.
the baseboard/shoe right at the corner of tub/floor......
on all penetrations of that type of wall I creat a damn behind the escutcheon at the top and sides, leaving the bottom open to allow drainage escape. I'll also put a neat bead above and at the sides of these finished installations?
the crack in the picture looks bulged out a bit. Looks like what efflorescence does behind a thick paint film.
No plaster....just sheetrock. Yes, black spots on baseboard. Today I sealed the spout to the tile. I will do the caulk where the tile meets the tub and then some of the grout that has seen better days. As I mentioned in my other reply the water pressure is fairly strong and my wife points it toward the tile quite frequently. I'll also pull the baseboard and see what kind of damage is behind it.
Iim
if I see it correctly, there's a small opening in the end of the baseboard at the tub and floor. Like fine says, water travels from a source and can go up.
best of luck and good thoughts for your wife's recovery!
Calvin
Thank You. I'll pass your message along to my wife. There is a linen closet that shares walls with the shower/tub (behind the shower controls and spout) and the wall with the paint bubble. I may go in through the linen closet and check things out with an inspection camera......less visible wall patching and hopefully pinpoint the exact leak spot. I'll also pull the baseboards that have the black spots.
That's a little weird. Kinda looks like there was a crack in the drywall and moisture got into it.
The interesting thing is that the wallboard is perfectly flat this side of the bubbled area, suggesting to me that the wallboard did not get soaked, but rather it is cracked back there, and relatively small amounts of moisture have resulted in efflorescence along the crack. (The mold on the floor trim is pretty normal for that situation and not likely to be a factor.)
Hard to tell without actually seeing it, but you might get away with scraping the bad spot, skimming it with setting-type joint compound (or a setting-type spackle), priming with a "stain block" primer (very important!), and repainting.
The bubble pattern is really curious. The top is in line with a parallel grout line if I measure and extend around the corner. I had painted the walls many years ago. The black (mold/mildew?) areas on the baseboard are recent. I started noticing these problems (paint bubbling and black spots) several months ago and again the only thing that has changed within the past year is my wife's use of a shower chair and hand held shower hose. The wall around the bubble feels solid. Even the bubble feels solid when I press on it.....doesn't seem cracked...just raised. I can scrape it down and fix as you suggest. I can re-grout and re-caulk too but I'll never really know the exact cause unless I do a lot of demo.
Re the black spots, I'm guessing that a little more water is being splashed out onto the wall/floor than was previously the case, and you're being a little less diligent in mopping it up.
For the crack it's hard to say whether the moisture is entering through the pre-existing crack (from water splashed on the wall), or there is a small amount of moisture soaking through the grout and into that area. I suppose the pattern most strongly suggests the latter, but there is no major leak -- the amount of moisture involved is small.
I do the mop up but it's probably running down the edge to the baseboard before I get it. The bubble area is not an area that gets splashed so your grout soak through makes the most sense. I'll just re-grout and seal the grout....redo the caulk and then fix the paint bubble and then see what happens. I've got a RotoZip and an Oscillating Multi Tool. Recommendation on which to use for grout removal....or just rake it out by hand?
Jim
most of the multimaster type grout saws are pretty thick for that tight a tile joint, I do have a diamond disc from a can't remember supplier. Full round so you can move it around for even wear.
Might work.
might not.
Calvin
I have the grout disk that came with the tool and also an Imperial brand diamond blade. Some of the grout joints are wider than others so as you said may or may not work. I'm not going to do the whole shower....just the lower walls that the hand held is hitting.
Refreshing the varnish on the baseboard would probably slow the development of the mold spots. And dabbing (before varnishing) with a bit of bleach would help to lighten the spots.
Good ideas....I recently pulled all the wall to wall carpeting in the house and replaced with hardwood. I removed and reinstalled all the baseboards. I'm tired of doing base board work.....bleach and stain sound like a good plan.
P.S. My neighbor recently had hardwood installed in his house. His flooring guy did not reinstall the baseboard and ruined most of them when he removed them. I cut, coped, and reinstalled them for him.
Hey Jimmiem,
Definitely water caused as you know. Is it possible there is a wet shower curtain that hangs nearby? I see that as a cause quite often. Otherwise, I would guess water is getting in at the tub to tile joint. Wall board will soak it in and it is not unusual to see the wet spot much higher than the point of entry. Also, you rarely see that kind of bubbling at the corner where the metal bead probably "protects" the board a bit. In my experience we have had to cut well back beyond the apparent wet part and patch in order to get paint to stick. Cut out an area and look at the back. If it has seen any water, keep going. Hopefully when you find a stopping point there is still a house standing around you.
The shower curtain is pulled to the opposite end of the tub when not in use. I hand my wife the hand held shower head which she tolds in her right hand. She suffered stroke damage in her right hand and it's still kind of weak and she frequently sprays the water directly on the wall so what you are saying makes sense. I'm going to replace the caulk and some of the grout and hope that helps.