Moved into Old Home, Use to be Smokers, Something is Weird..?

Question

I've never grown up in a home with smokers, but I'm assuming that is what this is caused by, since the previous tenants were chain smokers.

When I moved in my friends and I, all repainted, took down wallpaper, and fixed up the place. (It’s is a rental home).

Where we have repainted on the walls there are orange streaks, that comes down from the ceiling.. this has happened gradually. I woke up this morning to one in the family room in a random spot. What the heck is that? Its driving me a little batty..now I've also found spots with mold too.. Now I'm getting a little tired of this.

I asked my landlord to come over today to look at it.. were cleaning up the mold with Javex too today.(Although I know that is more for cosmetic purposes, and from what I hear it won't fix the actual problem)
How do I get rid of these orange streaks on my painted wall? Has anyone ever heard of this?
(Their just small little lines starting from the ceiling.. it looks like their dripping down) ugh

Just some more information, I did put primer on the walls before I painted them ^-^

Answer 1

The streaks are caused by the tars and nicotine which were absorbed into the old paint from the smoke and because of the liquid base of the paint and paste they have dissolved and are bleeding through the new paint. You need to get a really powerful cleaner and wash down the walls thoroughly. You should then paint them with a good primer, I believe they make a special primer for smoke. Then repaint with your top coat. Since you have already painted you can try just washing the walls. Be prepared to do this more than once until the tar is completely bled out of the paint. I used to do apartment painting and have ran into this problem many times and it is a lot of work. Good luck.

Answer 2

Hello-First of all, you should have washed the walls and ceilings prior to painting or re-wallpapering. That is the dirty smoke film coming through. It's a big job to do that. I would recommend you start over by washing, then re-paint/wallpaper. A good product to use is "Kilz". I don't know the exact spelling, but any hardware/paint store would sell it (Menards, Home Depot, etc). The Kilz will work on the mold too. But bleach works the best. Depending on where the mold is, (basement?) you would need to have the walls sealed with a waterproof sealant. I certainly hope your landlord is paying for all this, reimbursing you, or knocking what you pay off your rent. Especially if you are doing the work yourself. Good Luck!

Answer 3

in an old home it could be several things. Before you paint you should wash the walls with watter and bleach, that will get rid of the mold and the smoke residue, you should also use a primer that has a mold retardant in it. The other thing it may be...
Some times in Bathrooms you will see a dripping orange or bright yellow residue, it is caused from minerals in the watter. When you take a shower the watter is humidified into the air and gathers on surfaces such as walls. If you live in a very humid area that has allot of minerals in the watter that may be part of the cause.

Answer 4

Your walls and ceilings need to be painted with a primer like KILZ that will prevent stains (and odors) from seeping through. THere is also an additive you can buy to add to your paint to prevent the growth of mold and mildew.
We are fixing up a house we bought out of forclosure and we had to clean and prime every surface because there was so much smoke residue left.
Good Luck

Answer 5

If your ceiling is not leaking causing the discoloration, than it is left over nicotine. Before you painted the walls, did you wash them? If the orange streaks are coming through where you had wall paper, I am thinking it is left over glue showing through. Either way if it is not a water leak the walls were dirty when they got painted.

Answer 6

Ugh- that place should have been scrubbed before it was painted and you moved in.

You'll need to apply a sealant and primer before you repaint and repaper, since you've already painted over the source of the streaks. And yes, tar from cigarette smoke does do that. I've cleaned many an apartment after heavy smokers moved out!

Good luck!

Answer 7

you need to bleach the ceilings first,same thing happen to us...then we painted with kilz paint and it went away, and came back when it rained a good one and we found out that the ceiling was leaking in a few spots,which brought out the yellowish streaks, very disappointing,beings we spent our own money out of our pocket.

Answer 8

It is the nicotine bleeding thru the paint. I don't know how to get rid of it we had it in a house that we lived in, it was only noticable in the bathroom there. We ended up redrywalling the whole room when we remodeled the bathroom. But that is probably not an option for you. Maybe try the KILZ paint.

Answer 9

Thats is not from smoke! Something is wrong with the house, have they guy come and look at it cause something is leaking! The only thing smoke will do to your walls is make them dull looking after a few years!

Answer 10

You should have washed the walls before you painted