Plaster/Paint rotten egg smell

[diymatt]

Hello

I'm clueless when it comes to DIY matters and would appreciate help from anyone with a bit more nouse than me.

We had our conservatory plastered (hard wall and skim???) in April this year.

I painted the walls less than a fortnight later, first coat was watered down Crown silk emulsion, second coat was same paint, but undiluted, and that was it.

All was fine to start with, however in the last few months there has emerged a smell of rotten eggs which is gradually getting worse (is this Hydrogen Sulphide???).

I've been reading up a bit and found suggestions that maybe I should not have painted so soon after the walls were plastered, that I should have sealed with either diluted PVA glue or diluted matt emulsion, or a plaster sealant.

Worried in case it's hydrogen sulphide as it's toxic and we have a baby already and also my wife is pregnant, not sure how dangerous this can be.

The conservatory is adjacent to the living room (seperated by an external patio door which is closed pretty much all of the time. However even with the patio door closed we still think we can smell the smell in the living room - we did have a small amount of plastering done in the living room at the same time, I have not painted over this yet or tried to seal it).

Or could the problem just be damp? (can't see any signs of damp on the walls). Or could it just be moisture escaping from the plaster as I have not sealed it properly?

Would like to know if anyone can tell me what the problem might be, how worried I should be, and if there's anything I can do e.g. seal the plaster prooperly, or will it all need to come off?

Any help or suggestions much appreciated.

Thanks

[theshedman]

Hi diymatt, try looking at the thread further down this list, the one for THIS PAINT STINKS. There seem to be a lot of people having the same problem and most of the time it's with Crown paint. Have a look at that and you may find something that helps you. You can get a sealer to go on over the stuff you have already put on. If the new plaster was dry then it should have been fine to paint it. May have been better to put a mist coat of flat matt emulsion first but what you put on should be ok.