# I'm concerned about the moisture build up on the bathroom walls -Any advice?



## MrShadetree0222 (Oct 4, 2008)

JayBird said:


> In one of my bathrooms I have a shower stall thats built between to partitions in the center of the bathroom. Typical stall about 6 feet high and drywall meets the plastic surround. The walls that meet the surround get wet from mist and general over spray and the water rolls down the wall to where the drywall meets the stall.
> 
> I feel its an excess amount of water and I just re caulked and repaired the area that got water logged, lol. The paint is a bathroom paint for moisture but I noticed some paint bubbling where the drywall meets the stall.
> 
> Is there anyway to better protect this area? The exhaust fan doesn't cut it. I even notice moisture on every wall from the steam. What can I do about this issue?


 
Take a cold shower, maybe? Nah just kidding, why not just go to your local superstore(hd, lws, mrds) and buy a section of the plastic wall sheeting and finish the wall to the ceiling with the plastic sheets?

This would require minumal amount of time for a pretty good do-it-yourself fix to the problem! This would require the surface to which you were going to adhere the material too, to be clean and free of moisture, and dirt and cut and glue the sheets into place. These sheets must over lay your current shower walls in order for the water/moisture to run down on to the existing surface, dont forget to caulk your seems especially in the corners!

Well i just spent 20 minutes looking for an example of whta i am talking about with the plastic sheets, but wasnt able to find them online at any of the superstore websites, but go to your local store, and in the paneling section(horizontally placed shelfes) their will be 4'X8' sheets of this plastic material it will come in a variety of colors and textures to better fit your application! The use of this product requires nothing mor ethen a tape measure, and a sharp razor knife, and a tube of caulk( if you dont have a caulk gun to get a sleeve of caulk) , and some sort of adhesive, many different typees of adhesives for different applications! 
Good luck, just my .02 cents worth! Not worth much as you can tell!


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## JayBird (Aug 23, 2007)

Is this plastic clear? I will have to look into this, thanks for the reply.


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## jamiedolan (Sep 2, 2008)

JayBird said:


> In one of my bathrooms I have a shower stall thats built between to partitions in the center of the bathroom. Typical stall about 6 feet high and drywall meets the plastic surround. The walls that meet the surround get wet from mist and general over spray and the water rolls down the wall to where the drywall meets the stall.
> 
> I feel its an excess amount of water and I just re caulked and repaired the area that got water logged, lol. The paint is a bathroom paint for moisture but I noticed some paint bubbling where the drywall meets the stall.
> 
> Is there anyway to better protect this area? The exhaust fan doesn't cut it. I even notice moisture on every wall from the steam. What can I do about this issue?


A bigger exhaust fan may be helpful. Don't use caulk, use 100% pure silicone. It comes in clear, white and other colors and is 100% waterproof. 

Buy a gallon of Zinsser paint: This one:
http://www.zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=35

Or you can buy any of the Benjamin more primers and paints. Make sure to get all the old loose paint off before you repaint. 

The high quality paints rarely bubble or crack and peel even with high humidity. I pratically turn my small upstairs bathroom into a steam room, (on purpose) and the paint is just fine, the walls and ceiling get covered in water. I do run the fan when I am done to help clear out some moisture.

Jamie


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## flameup (Sep 29, 2008)

> A bigger exhaust fan may be helpful. Don't use caulk, use 100% pure silicone. It comes in clear, white and other colors and is 100% waterproof.


But in time that becomes dark (not white)


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## jamiedolan (Sep 2, 2008)

flameup said:


> But in time that becomes dark (not white)


Thats when you clean it or apply a fresh coat of silicone if necessary.
The silicone itself doesn't discolor as far as I know. I believe it is all just dirt that gets on the surface of the silicone.
jamie


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## MrShadetree0222 (Oct 4, 2008)

JayBird said:


> Is this plastic clear? I will have to look into this, thanks for the reply.


I miss spoke when i said it was plastic sheets, it is vynil sheets that comes in 4'X8' sheets, and could be cut to size the molded with the matching proper molding for the application, and sealed with silicone not caulking!(i must of been half a sleep when i told you to seal it with caulk sorry)No sorry it aint clear it is generally in white, but if you are going to repaint , and primer, and repaint again and again over and over again, then why not just spend the money to use the sheets I have spoken of to finish the shower surround to ceiling, or just tile it the rest of the way to the ceiling? Tiling it would be a very inexspensive project and something you could do yourself! Just done a quick tile search and you can pickup the tiles at your local store for as cheap as $0.14cents per tile! $1.26 per sqr ft' using the 4" white tiles! Or if you are a fancy person then you could get into the fancy tiles for up wards of $18 for 4" sqrs Just my .02 cents worth since that is about all i am worth anyways! hehehe


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## jamiedolan (Sep 2, 2008)

MrShadetree0222 said:


> I miss spoke when i said it was plastic sheets, it is vynil sheets that comes in 4'X8' sheets, and could be cut to size the molded with the matching proper molding for the application, and sealed with silicone not caulking!(i must of been half a sleep when i told you to seal it with caulk sorry)No sorry it aint clear it is generally in white, but if you are going to repaint , and primer, and repaint again and again over and over again, then why not just spend the money to use the sheets I have spoken of to finish the shower surround to ceiling, or just tile it the rest of the way to the ceiling? Tiling it would be a very inexspensive project and something you could do yourself! Just done a quick tile search and you can pickup the tiles at your local store for as cheap as $0.14cents per tile! $1.26 per sqr ft' using the 4" white tiles! Or if you are a fancy person then you could get into the fancy tiles for up wards of $18 for 4" sqrs Just my .02 cents worth since that is about all i am worth anyways! hehehe


HI

There is nothing wrong with your idea, all good suggestions. I just want to point out that quality paints applied properly will do well for many years even in a wet bathroom. I think paint gets a bad rap because people use some pretty horrible quality paints. If you really can't afford the good paints, watch the good hardware stores for missed tints. I have found a number of gallons of Benjamin Moore in nice colors for $5 a gallon....

Jamie


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## Blondesense (Sep 23, 2008)

Not really a suggestion here, just an observation. 

Our first house had a similar problem. There was a fairly obvious horizontal line two inches above the surround. Those two inches just above the surround "bubbled" but the rest up to the ceiling was fine. I always assumed the builder mis-measured and those few inches were done in drywall rather than greenboard. 

Perhaps you have a similar situation.

.


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## JayBird (Aug 23, 2007)

Hey all, thanks for the replies. The caulk I used was silicone caulk specifically for areas prone to water. The paint I chose was Lowes Valspar brand which is their top brand that I have been happy with prior projects. I always felt Valspar was a decent paint. I've been watching the area closely and I'm not sure if the bubbling is from the paint not sticking to the caulk properly. I also thought the caulk/silicone was paintable too. 

The whole reason this issue started is because I noticed the drywall getting saturated where it met with the shower surround. There was no caulk in that area. I applied those self adhesive tub strips that are supposed to seal the edges and corners...........BIG MISTAKE. They didn't stick properly and when I removed them they took the paint and spackling with them. So I patched the area with drywall mud re-painted and caulked. I'm thinking I shouldn't have used drywall mud?? Anyways............


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## jamiedolan (Sep 2, 2008)

JayBird said:


> Hey all, thanks for the replies. The caulk I used was silicone caulk specifically for areas prone to water. The paint I chose was Lowes Valspar brand which is their top brand that I have been happy with prior projects. I always felt Valspar was a decent paint. I've been watching the area closely and I'm not sure if the bubbling is from the paint not sticking to the caulk properly. I also thought the caulk/silicone was paintable too.
> 
> The whole reason this issue started is because I noticed the drywall getting saturated where it met with the shower surround. There was no caulk in that area. I applied those self adhesive tub strips that are supposed to seal the edges and corners...........BIG MISTAKE. They didn't stick properly and when I removed them they took the paint and spackling with them. So I patched the area with drywall mud re-painted and caulked. I'm thinking I shouldn't have used drywall mud?? Anyways............


Most caulk is paintable.

Silicone is NOT paintable. Sometimes you can get a bit of spray paint to stick to it, but it really is not considered paintable. Silicone comes in at least 6 colors now, you should just get the closest one or use clear:
http://www.dap.com/product_details.aspx?product_id=25

I am having a little trouble picturing exactly what is going on and what your describing, is there any way you can post a photo to show me these problem areas?

Jamie


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## AndrewY (Apr 2, 2009)

MrShadetree0222 said:


> Take a cold shower, maybe? Nah just kidding, why not just go to your local superstore(hd, lws, mrds) and buy a section of the plastic wall sheeting and finish the wall to the ceiling with the plastic sheets?
> 
> This would require minumal amount of time for a pretty good do-it-yourself fix to the problem! This would require the surface to which you were going to adhere the material too, to be clean and free of moisture, and dirt and cut and glue the sheets into place. These sheets must over lay your current shower walls in order for the water/moisture to run down on to the existing surface, dont forget to caulk your seems especially in the corners!
> 
> ...



try this online store: www.decorplastics.com 
they seems to have those plastic boards (planks)


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## Nia (Jul 18, 2008)

I would 1st suggest checking a piece of the sheetrock to see if they used green board drywall.

Another suggestion would be to extend the tile in the shower further up the wall where it is getting wet. I recommend using hardi backer to prep the area 1st then install tile or drywall then paint and that should take care of the problem.

Nia


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## annie68164 (Jun 15, 2008)

I agree with Jamie. My bath ceiling was bubbly really bad all over. I had to re-texture then re-paint. I used Behr bathroom paint and have not had any trouble since and it gets very wet on the ceiling. Also I trimmed out my shower with mildew resistent (vinyl?) trim where the tub meets the tile walls. It's been great so far. Caulked with some clear 100% silicone.


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## Thurman (Feb 9, 2009)

From experience: a couple of questions first. When was the last time you removed your bath vent fan for a good cleaning? The moisture going over the blades blends with any dust creating a coating that interferes with air flow, much like an airplane wing with ice. When you do use the shower, do you turn the fan on a few minutes before the shower to start a good air flow, and more importantly do you leave the fan on for at least fifteen minutes after a shower to remove as much moisture as possible? On the same note. where does your bath vent actually vent to? Check the air flow the entire route. Is your home sealed up so tight that it won't vent? Maybe opening a window slightly while taking a shower will help, remember to close/latch it back. One of the nicest things I have found lately is a timed switch made by Mark Time (not an ad here), I have it in my house now that easily replaced the standard fan/light toggle switch. This switch allows the fan/light combo to be turned on, and then when you turn it to "OFF" the fan will continue to run for a pre-set time, set behind the wall plate, to remove adequate moisture to prevent build-up. Yes, you will have to split the fan/light combo wiring to do this. I have also had some luck with painting silicone caulk after spray painting it with the primer used for plastic outdoor furniture.


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## Blondesense (Sep 23, 2008)

The original post was back in October. They may have found a solution or not be following the thread anymore.


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