SOLUTION !!!!

I really hope that this helps but I have read this thread from start to finish and decided to try spraying my walls with antibacterial kitchen spray and so far they are now odour free. Luckily the paint I was using was wipeable so it did not cause any damage wiping the antibacterial spray over the walls. I promise to post again if the odour returns but fingers crossed this seems to have fixed the problem :)

avatamsaka wrote:
I will get to the point: I did further research after reading this forum and another forum, and further research and I decided to try something and IT WORKED. It's been a month and the smell is still GONE.

So, I wanted to share it with you all here.

I decided to spray the entire apartment - every single wall and in every closet - with hydrogen peroxide, to kill the bacteria. Then, after letting it dry over night, I wiped down every single wall again with hydrogen peroxide (literally dipped the mop into 100% H2O2).

I decided to try this Monday afternoon after my walls smelled just weird after painting them They didn't exactly smell sour or of rot like many described here, but had an indescribable waft that didn't let up, and it wasn't paint smell. Some have said their walls smelled gaseous, but I have never had gas heating or a gas cooker so I don't know what gas (or its additive) smells like either.

I only did the first step of spraying the walls, didn't do the second round of wiping the walls down with H2O2.

Sadly, it didn't really help in my case. Now, Wednesday morning, the whole room smells really strongly of something else, a little chemically or like chlorine. Since most info says that H2O2 destroys odours and doesn't really smell of anything I'm stumped. I have only found some sources that say it might smell like ozone, because of the oxidisation process releasing oxygen - having never smelled ozone, I have no idea if that is what I'm smelling now.

Certainly seems to be reacting with the wall/paint, but not in the brilliant odour destroying way I had hoped :/ Opening the windows helps, but as soon as I close them it starts smelling like someone used a really strong cleaning product again. I have no clue about chemistry, so no idea what could be going on there. I didn't really anticipate this after basically every source said H2O2 was odourless and destroyed odours.

Old paint will smell, oil based paints smell, until they completely phase out oil based paints and every paint goes eco friendly paint will always smell.
But there is a lot more eco friendly paints available and I would say in the next 5 years all oil based paints will be phased out.

I‘m also having an issue with my baby‘s room we had painted over 5 months ago. We did not use bad paint, but it still smells when the windows and door are closed. From reading previous posts, I‘m assuming it‘s the paint reacting with bacteria on the walls. Apparently, the bacteria releases hydrogen sulfide which is a toxic gas. I am extremely concerned about this especially since I have 2 very small children, and it‘s been going on for over 5 months. I‘m having my baby sleep in my room still as I am very concerned about the potential health risks. Does anyone have any information on this or resources you could share?

wonderwall wrote:

avatamsaka wrote:
I will get to the point: I did further research after reading this forum and another forum, and further research and I decided to try something and IT WORKED. It's been a month and the smell is still GONE.

So, I wanted to share it with you all here.

I decided to spray the entire apartment - every single wall and in every closet - with hydrogen peroxide, to kill the bacteria. Then, after letting it dry over night, I wiped down every single wall again with hydrogen peroxide (literally dipped the mop into 100% H2O2).

I decided to try this Monday afternoon after my walls smelled just weird after painting them They didn't exactly smell sour or of rot like many described here, but had an indescribable waft that didn't let up, and it wasn't paint smell. Some have said their walls smelled gaseous, but I have never had gas heating or a gas cooker so I don't know what gas (or its additive) smells like either.

I only did the first step of spraying the walls, didn't do the second round of wiping the walls down with H2O2.

Sadly, it didn't really help in my case. Now, Wednesday morning, the whole room smells really strongly of something else, a little chemically or like chlorine. Since most info says that H2O2 destroys odours and doesn't really smell of anything I'm stumped. I have only found some sources that say it might smell like ozone, because of the oxidisation process releasing oxygen - having never smelled ozone, I have no idea if that is what I'm smelling now.

Certainly seems to be reacting with the wall/paint, but not in the brilliant odour destroying way I had hoped :/ Opening the windows helps, but as soon as I close them it starts smelling like someone used a really strong cleaning product again. I have no clue about chemistry, so no idea what could be going on there. I didn't really anticipate this after basically every source said H2O2 was odourless and destroyed odours.

Hi wonderwall, I feel like my issue may be similar to yours. What have you done with your room and what is the status now?

Hi, I shared a post yesterday but would like to provide more detail, as I‘m really trying to find some answers.
I had my baby‘s room painted over 5 months ago, and when the windows and door are closed, the room has a smell. It‘s hard to describe the smell, but it‘s not sour or rotten, and I also don‘t know if it‘s a gaseous smell. I would describe it as musty, maybe like clay. I also have a very strong/sensitive sense of smell. My husband, for example, can smell something but doesn’t think we shouldn’t be using the room because of it. It really bothers me though especially because it‘s the baby‘s room, and I haven’t been having him sleep in there. The paint I used was not an eco or green paint, but it is supposed to be „healthier“ for babies and it does not contain any plasticizers or solvents. From what other people said on this forum, I jumped to the conclusion that it‘s because there are no solvents in the paint and perhaps some bacteria on the wall was disturbed when painted and is releasing hydrogen sulphide. I‘m not sure if this is the case, as I tend to worry a lot and think the worst. I do not think the paint I used was bad (a professional painter did the job), but I do think it has something to do with the fact there are no solvents in the paint. Also, our house is only 2 years old and this was the first time it’s been painted since the original paint job, so I‘m not sure there‘s even that much bacteria accumulated on the walls. It‘s not like it‘s an old house that‘s had many different paint jobs or wallpaper.

If anyone has any information that could possible help me, I would appreciate that.

Howdy folks, I'm from the US and found this forum after a lot of research. I was painting my house room by room when the first room started to smell like rotten eggs/sewer gas after about a week. I was using MASTER HIDE Flat Wall Paint from Sherwin Williams. I've used this since 2007 and never had a problem (it's not low VOC). Based on a lot of reading it appears I had a can infected with bacteria and it's limited to one room thank God. The SW sales representative is stopping by this week, but I expect a load of BS instead of a solution.

I never had any cat pee smell only the hydrogen sulfide gas smell. It's fine when the room is in the dark and the AC is running, but if you open the windows and you get sunlight in the room it will quickly activate the smell, but the air flow will mask it until the end of the day and then boom. The first day we noticed it was a level 10 stink (from 1 to 10). After about 1 week it's around level 7. I'm going to try to continue the bacteria gas off and make a decision what to to next week since we will have nice weather. I could deal with it for a few weeks or a couple months at level 2 or 3, but no longer than that.

All the remedies I've seen haven't really been totally successful except drywall rip and replace (at least for the hydrogen sulfide gas). Or waiting 1+ years for the gas off to finish. I suspect this has to do with what's actually causing the smell (bacteria, mold, etc.). Waiting 18 months is not an option for me since this is my computer lab/home office.

The sealers might not work due to the following (this is from SCOE 10x site):

"Once the science of odor is understood, sealing or painting a surface to stop odor is just plain physically impossible.

This has to do with the size of the molecule your nose detects as odor and how paints and sealers dry.

The odor molecule is a gas molecule produced by odor causing bacteria eating urine residue deposits. It's size is in the 2-5 micron size range. A very small particle.

However, when a coating such as a sealer or paint is applied, the solvent in the coating, (a water or oil based liquid) needs to evaporate for the coating to dry. The evaporation process leaves very small holes in the coating; usually in the 25-45 micron size range. This also is a very small hole (cannot be seen by the naked eye), but compared to the 2-5 size micron odor molecule, it is indeed, a large hole.

Consequently, when the odor causing bacteria (eating the urine residue under the coating) release the odor molecule, it finds its way through the holes in the coating to your nose.

And thereby notifying you, you just wasted your time and money coating a floor or wall."

OK, this could be total BS, but it seems plausible to a humble software engineer and from my research of people reporting back after applying sealers with varying results.

So now I'm thinking I'm stuck with removing the paint (not easy with knock down and orange peel textures on drywall) or rip and replace which would be pretty expensive even for a 10x10x8 room. I did some research on restoration and came across soda blasting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsSrPe61XNE

This basically blasts off the paint down to the drywall, but it's not cheap. Sodium bicarbonate is the only media that will not damage the drywall (or wood). The blaster guy told me a 50 lb bag costs $42 US and it takes 200 lbs to fill his tank. He charges $200 US an hour for labor. To blast the entire room is about $1000 US. The good thing is the baking soda kills mold spores and bacteria as a side effect of removing the paint. They use soda blasting for mold and fire remediation as well.

Luckily I can afford the $1000 (yes it will hurt). If any one has found a sure fire way to remediate the bacteria issue short of rip and replace I'd like to know. There's just no a lot of hard data on success stories. I'm not sleeping worrying about this because I quit my job a month ago and do not need this right now. I should be prepping for a new job. I feel bad for everyone going through this and would like to provide a success story even if it is soda blasting. There's only one mobile guy in town and he covers a 200 mile radius. I feel lucky in that respect, but he has no competition. The blaster rig costs $50K US, so you really cannot go to Harbor Freight Tools and pick one up.

Personally, the last person i would get in touch with is Crown. They won't admit to anything. I would spend rime searching as many forums as possible for others that have this problem & cut & paste the URL/address for these pages as a list to give to the environmental agency & really badger them to get involved. Then send Crown the list & tell then you are thinking of legal action. I bet there is another 50 with the same problem.

The SW sales rep said he never heard of it before, but if you talk to remediation experts they have been sued and people have won. I'm not willing to wait around for months or years for them to jerk me around. I'll gladly pay 1K to remediate this just due to the stress. I have 260K invested in my house, so I look at it as 1/260th of the price and I know it works based on insurance paying for it. Insurers do not pay for anything unless it's an approved technology. I worked in Insurance for 18 years. They do everything they can to not pay out. The paint companies offering shellac as a solution is a joke. I'll report back after the soda blasting.

The drywall rip and replace also includes all your framing which most drywall guys do not do, so in the end of the day I can have this remediated in one day. I spent 11K on new flooring and do no want them dropping tools on it of having a drywall job that's not 100% match. At this point I'm about a week from the paint curing and it's still as strong (7 out of 10). No use waiting around.

OK I have some final numbers to soda blast a ~10x10x8 room with a small close doing walls and ceilings. I'm doing all the prep work since the blasting guys get $200/hr. It's about $2,400 US and part of that is $800 ~16 50lb bags for sodium bicarbonate. The rest is labor.

I'm getting an estimate for drywall orange peel and knockdown texturing. I suspect this would be less than $700, so maybe paint and everything I'll be into it for $3400. A lot more than I expected, but I haven't seen more than a few success stories using other methods. Covering bacteria or mold is probably not a good idea any ways. This may not be for you if you do not have the cash to do it, but my wife and I do not live extravagant lifestyles and save where we can. I've probably saved $10,000 by doing my own lawn care, pest control, fertilizer over 12 years. You have to rationalize it some how. :(

The rip and replace of all the drywall in the effected areas was quoted at $4,000 without paint. Plus you have to deal with insulation in the attic, the workers maybe hitting power or PVC pipes in the walls, dropping tools on the floor (probably $1000 of flooring in that room alone) and it's much more invasive and disruptive to your life. When all is said and done soda blasting is probably going to be $1,000 or more less expensive than rip and replace. If any of the trim is ruined during demolition you'll probably need to replace all of it to get a match. I also have a plantation shutter in that room that nailed into the stud. How is that frame going to come out? I'd worry about doing it myself.

It's scheduled for next week and I'm going to wait a week or more to make sure the smell is gone. Baking soda will obviously remove smells on contact, but after it's all cleaned up I want to make sure the drywall paper is good and no smells. I even told the drywall guy I want to put anti microbial in the texture mud. I'm really gun shy now.

Hey folks, thought I'd cheek back in. Soda blasting didn't work. I had to throw the guy out after 1.5 hours because he only had 10% done. I'm not paying $200/hr plus soda when drywall rip and replace is less. It turns out only the walls were affected, so I had them ripped out and replaced. Total cost was $3.5K. I just painted again, so you can recover if you don't want to wait out the gas off period.

Hello, I too I’m suffering from Smelly paint and have tried everything. I’m going to wallpaper as suggested but did you strip off the old wallpaper first?

quote="Birchglen"]I HAVE A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM!!

I suffered with the smell for about four months, during which time I tried everything from overpainting to Crown's suggested Alkaline Resistant Primer. Nothing worked. Then I decided to wallpaper over the walls and the smell disappeared immediately and completely.

Hope this helps someone![/quote]

Hello, I had the same problem, did the smell come back?

quote="Hwis40"]Hi, after I had all the ceilings in my flat re skimmed I painted all the rooms in turn, mostly using Dulux and Lakeland zero Voc paints except for the bedroom, where I used Wilks durable paint on 3 walls and the ceiling. The paint was brand new, as were the brush and roller. Within 4 days the walls and ceiling emitted a foul rancid stench as everyone in this post has experienced. I returned the unused tin of paint for testing, but Wilks refused to test any of the paint applied to the walls and ceiling. After 4 weeks of not being able to use the bedroom and getting nowhere with Wilko, except an email telling me I must have introduced bacteria to the tin or had bacteria on my walls and ceiling, I discussed the problem with my University colleagues, all researchers in microbiologist or biochemistry. As nowhere else in my flat smells at all, including the remaining wall in the bedroom which was painted with the last of the Dulux, we believe the cause is bacteria or fungi surviving latent in the paint tin until it was opened and oxygen was introduced allowing the bacteria to grow and metabolize something in the new or old paint which stank. The human nose can detect just one or two parts per million of certain smells, which may be below the level the quality testing would detect.
I applied a fungicide wash made by Astonish which was suitable for applying to walls, and kills all known fungi, moulds and 99.9% of all known bacteria. It took 3 applications on the ceiling and the 3 walls where I had painted with wilko paint, I had used durable paint which is washable, I would expect to need just one or 2 applications for normal emulsion.
It has worked, the smell of the fungicide took 3 days to completely disappear, but with it the foul rancid sour milk stench has also completely gone, hopefully for good. I was reluctant to paint or seal over the top of the bacteria in case this just trapped it in its latent phase and did not kill it.
Anyone trying the same remedy you will need a face mask and goggles to wear when applying the fungicide spray as it is hypochlorite based which is an irritant, then keep out and keep the room well ventilated until the chlorine smell has gone.[/quote]

Hi, what is the astonish product called that worked, thanks

I'm so glad I found this old thread that is still active.

Will try to make my situation so clear and concise.

5 months ago my new home was painted with som 5-10 matte paint (The name of the supplier is being held back at the moment but i can tell it's a Danish brand).

3 rooms, hallway, living room, kitchen, small entrance hall, toilet and utility room.

>The room facing east: During the day when the sun comes in the room smells like burned rubber and burned hair.
> Kitchen east: Have roughly the same smell but not as clearly as the room facing east.
>Bedroom West: old sweat and rotting meat with a bit sulfur.
>Living Room West: Where the sun hits the wall, it also smells of burnt rubber and sulfur and in the evening/night it smells sweet and unpleasant - rancid.

As some write that it is bacterial growth, I think the same!
Something has happened to the paint especially matte paint.

I'm starting to feel sick. irritated eyes, sore throat, running nose like a cold.
(Covid negative)

What i have tried.
Rodalon
Chlorine
Baking soda
Coffee
white vinegar
candles

Not tried yet.
hydrogen peroxide
bake the rooms (Gas Room Heater)