Our house was built in 1949 to essentially commercial building standards. Walls are two layers of masonry, small air-gap between outside and inside, thin layer of insulation ont he inside and then drywall and plaster walls. Windows are steel frame with no thermal gap. Yep, it’s an energy disaster but it’s a very cool house. All rooms and fixtures were vintage 1949 when we bought it from the estate of the original owners. Needless to say it needed upgrades.
When I got to remodeling my daughter’s bathroom, all I was going for was an upgrade of the fixtures – new mirrors, new vanity and sinks, new toilet, and since it had no fan to vent the heat and steam, I installed one into the attic and then run out to one of the eaves. All pretty straight forward. The old stuff was all in very good shape, just dated. No rust or corrosion. This was all about two years ago.
Soon after the new stuff went in and my daughter moved all her makeup and “product” back in, we noticed rust and corrosion. Hinges on the vanities are now almost unworkable. Even the solid brass casement window cranks look like they are corroding. None of the plumbing is leaking. No other room in the house has these issues. I’m completely baffled. I would have thought this would have been a problem before the rook was vented, but not afterwards. So it doesn’t make sense to me that adding the vent is the problem. Could it be chemicals in the makeup she keeps? This has happened so fast it’s go to be something very unusual.
Replies
Are you sure that nothing is causing fumes from the furnace to leak in, and you don't have a plumbing vent leak?
furnace is two floors away and plumbing stack was not touched in the remodel.
How long are you running the vent fan after a shower? I'd suggest a timer so it runs longer. All your remodeling probably tightened the room up so it couldn't breathe on its own anymore. We let the vent fan in our bathroom run for an hour after we shower.
believe it or not, she's a quick showerer. And her habits haven't changed from before or after the remodel.
The metals looking like that are odd. What cleaning supplies are you using on them if any?
The mirror problem I’ve seen often. A search I did produced this as a cause, Windex seeping behind and and maybe interacting with the black coating.
your windex reference is interesting. I keep asking her if she's using different makeup that might have weird chemicals. In particular I wonder about things like acetone from fingernail polishes or removers. But she used those before the remodel too so idunno...
Put a hot water timer on the shower after you fix the damage...my best guess is she is standing in there like my son until he even has the walls dripping. I stopped screaming about it and installed a cutoff. No more shouting he has to get done or else.
she showers faster than me and I"m pretty quick!
One other thing. If your vent pipe isn't insulated warm air will condensate and run back down into the bathroom.
do you mean the vent stack from the plumbing or the new vent for the humidity in the bathroom. The latter is not insulated and the flexible 4" hose run to the outside is sitting on top of insulation in the attic.
The fan vent. In a cold climate, an uninsulated vent can be like a faucet running from the ceiling. We use 4" insulated flexible AC ducts for vents.
This sounds like the thing I should fix first to see if the problem abates. Funny though becasue I thought I was doing a good thing to vent the bathroom, but it seems I'm actually putting more humidity INTO the bathroom.
This is a long shot but I've read about the issues with Chinese drywall causing crazy corrosion on everything from plumbing to electrical (as well as health issues).
Where did you get your drywall?
Thanks Steve! I’ve remodeled a lot of bathrooms and have never seen anything like he showed of the casement crank, the shower head stem, hinges....any metal. You could be “the man”!
Thanks Steve!
Never saw any metals take on that kind of tarnish or corrosion before or after any of the countless bath remodels I’ve done. I think you might have the answer!
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NOTE:
I'm trying to post a reply to the original questioner and cannot in a regular post.
So, if you see this I got lucky.
What cleaning products are used-list all.
Any aerosols of any kind.....deodorant, hairspray, cleaners?
What brand of hinges on the cab?
Vintage Pella or Andersen casement?
How about the door hinges, knobs etc?
Well water?
Water softener?
Ghosts in the house?
Built on landfill?
Chemical plants nearby?
Never touched the drywall. It's vintage 1949 and behind plaster and tile.
“[Deleted]”
well.
with that weirdness you showed I really thought he had it.
so,
what cleaners are you using? hairspray? any aerosol anythings?
Well water?
Water softener?
Air fresheners?
What brand hinges on the cabinet,
vintage Pella or Andersen casement? I have crank handles like that in extreme conditions, even outside for years that don't look like that one.
wow?
Good thought Steve. That's exactly what Chinese drywall corrosion looks like too.
I've seen damage like this from muriatic acid when the crew washed some mortar joints on a floor. Clorox used too strong will also do this.
In order not to guess, measure the humidity in your bathroom and proceed from this data. You will immediately understand this because of moisture or chemicals.
Even with quick showers it takes 10 minutes or more for a vent fan to clear the humidity from the room. I use the DewStop adjustable fan humidity control switches that mount like a standard light switch in the bathrooms with showers.
But that said I would have expected evidence of mold on the walls and especially on the window if the problem was high humidity.
This is four years later but I had to write to say that this is happening to me and I believe I have figured out what is causing it. In my case, the braided coating on the water lines to the bathroom sink disintegrated. The metal under the sink along with the cabinet door hinges rusted heavily. My home is only 6 years old so even the plumber was baffled. I finally stumbled upon a website where someone else had a similar problem. Several individuals wrote in to say it sounded like a chemical reaction between a caustic chemical and the metal. They suggested chlorine, bleach, muriatic acid, even vinegar. The rust was only in some bathroom cabinets so I removed all the cleaning supplies to find a common item. For me, I think it is the large tubs of Clorox wipes that we all purchased during Covid. I had several tubs under the sinks. The lids were not airtight so my guess was that they were the culprits. I have replaced the hardware and removed the cleaning agents from under the sinks and have not seen a reoccurrence so far.
Never would have thought it would have an impact. Under the sink in the kitchen, the hinges are also rusting, I always thought it was humidity in the kitchen, but only next to where the detergents are.
Due to high humidity Bathrooms are naturally humid environments, and if the moisture in the air isn't properly ventilated, it can lead to rusting. To combat this, make sure your bathroom has adequate ventilation, either through a fan or an open window.