A woman was left puzzled by ‘yellow marks’ spilling down her bathroom walls, with people amazed to find out the reason behind them. Usually, when you relocate to a new house, you’re expected to give it a good clean until it feels homely.
Yet, at times you might come across unusual things that leave you clueless. After weeks of trying to scrub them off, the desperate woman shared a picture on the internet showing yellow stains running down her walls, Irish Mirror reports.
She expressed her frustration saying: “Recently moved in here and keep noticing these yellow marks dripping down the walls. It also sticks my organisers to my bathroom sinks and leaves marks. Does anybody know what this is? This bathroom in general was pretty gross when I moved in I’ve tried to clean but the paint is coming off in a lot of parts of it too. Any tips would be amazing!”
Another respondent chimed in: “It will stop with time, sometimes days, sometimes months, but it will stop. Persevere and just keep wiping it off (no chemicals needed, just wipe while humid). It’s to do with the conditions in which the area was painted.”
Speaking of the origin of the issue, they suggested: “Not quality of paint or anything: basically just took too long to dry is all – and that is why it’s so common in damper areas like bathrooms. That is also why it’ll eventually go, just takes longer than elsewhere after painting.”
Other people were shocked by what they learned. One person said they thought it was just dirt showing after a steamy shower.
Reddit users confidently resolved her concern. One user clarified: “That’s called surfactant leaching. Usually happens in spots with more moisture, such as bathrooms. It wipes off pretty easily.”
Another person added: “It definitely can be dirt. My bathroom walls looked like this after showers. They brought a heavy-duty cleaner in who said the prior tenant must have smoked in the bathroom.”
Dulux, a paint company, explains that surfactant leaching happens when paint dries too slowly. This makes the chemicals come to the surface and leave sticky spots.
If you see this on your walls, you should wash the area with water or a gentle soap mix. Use a soft cloth or sponge, and then rinse well with clean water.
To stop this from happening, Dulux says to use special paint for bathrooms and let it dry all the way, maybe even for seven days, before it gets wet.
