Kicking up a stink... again

radio oxford have been talking about a bad smell in banbury that may be coming from a paint factory. could this problem be related?

I painted my bedroom with the Crown paint fashion for walls range at the end of last year and the room still absolutely stinks, thankfully the weather right now means I can have the windows open all the time. Thought it must be something damp or mouldy in the room for ages but I just couldn't find what it was, I even bought a brand new duvet as it smelled like a dirty teenage boys bedroom who never changes his sheets! I prepared the walls before painting - sugar soaped, filled, sanded and undercoated before painting so I can't believe it is a problem with my walls and not the paint especially since I did another room with a Dulux paint a month before and there has never been a smell in there. Please help me find a solution to this as even the strong incense I've been burning doesn't cover it up!

Saw this on the program and was a bit suprised - I used the Crown paint and apart from a slight odour while I was painting, there was no odour once the paint dried.

Please can you tell me why you ask viewers to contact a premium number to report problems to Crown, giving them extra revenue.

I would ask you to investigate and start a campaign to stop all 0845 etc. etc. premium numbers to obtain quotes, get customer service orcomplain to suppliers. All customer service or complaints should be to free numbers. Comem on you can fix this.

Hi we have been using Dulux natural hessian in our lounge and there is no smell on our walls we have used dulux for the whole house but have never encountered any smell only time we can smell paint is if we use gloss and that is just paint and it is gone in a day.our walls smell fine even when we get up close to sniff.

its not just the Crown and Dulux we bought some [edited] and it smelt like rotten food.

My husband and I are DEDICATED and close professional DIYers. I am afraid that we believe that your complainants are typical Brits who do not READ DIrections and prepare the surfaces as RECOMMENDED.. We have used the Crown Breath easy and Dulux products in the last 8 months. We sand back to the board, clean,patch with paster, let breath, seal, undercoat, light sand (if necessary)(if I am putting on a strong colour - definitely!)then coat, and if necessary light sand and recoat. This does differ per product. But what I think has happened is what we found. Numpties who just paint over paint! Or worse paint over wallpaper. The big thing is doing this without properly prepping. Don't blame the product first consider whether the basics are in place.

We come from New Zealand and do not know the UK system. The product is different BUT READ the Blinkin instructions and use common sense. The UK product is excellent for the UK. We are pleased to be here and have no problems.

my husband has been a decorator for 20 years and it is common knowledge within the trade that any paint will give off an odour if it has frozen in cold tempratures at any point ie in a warehouse van garage etc i find it hard to believe that these big companies have not worked this out yet !!!

THE PROBLEM REVEALED -

I have now contacted watchdog several times about the smelly pain issue. The actual problem is that solvents classified as environmental VOC's have been replaced by solvents that are not officially classified as VOC's. Ethyl-acetate is the usual solevnt in paints, it is stable and relatively non-toxic.

For environmental purposes this has been replaced by UNSTABLE solvents such as methyl-acetate that are also more TOXIC to humans but are officially not listed as environmental VOC's. Methyl-acetate decomposes easily to acetic acid and formaldehyde - giving the cat urine like smells.

"In response to more stringent regulations, the reduction in the solvent content of paint across the industry may mean that previously masked smells emitted from certain walls in certain conditions are sometimes more apparent."

So the above statement whilst correct is also a deception. A whole host of factors will determine how quickly the "eco" solvents will decompose. The problem however is the use of low VOC solvents.

i've been a painter for 12 years and in my experience when the paint smells as the viewers describe to me that means the paints is off which is normally due to the paint being on the shelf for to long so the problem may lie with the wholesalers

After reading ad watching the issues about the wall paint odour i have to dis-agree with you all.

Im a 18 year old lad and have had to decorate a few rooms myself. We first decorated on room with the crown paint breathe easy and yes it did smell quite bad. However i then had to decorate a second room. This time we decided to wash the wall because the walls were dirty and were in need of a clean. However this time when we painted the room, again using breathe easy paint, the room did not smell.

To add to this i had to decorate my mothers house. Again we used the breathe easy paint because she has some respiratory problems and we wanted to keep the smell to a minimum. Again we washed the walls and after we had applied the paint it did not smell.

Another time i was talking to some of my friends who were also in the process of decorating. I advised them to use the breathe easy paint but i lied to them and advised them that the paint goes on better if the wall had not been washed. So they went ahead and applied the paint, and hey guess what? the room smelt for a long time after...

I agree it is the bacteria on the walls that causes the smell, it's just like any other bacteria for example when sweat reacts with the bacteria under the arms and it smells.

I had a house fire in October '09'. As a result my house had to be fully redecorated. The childrens playroom was closest to the seat of the fire and therefore was very badly smoke damaged. The ceiling was removed and replaced and the walls were washed down and a sealant was applied before the paint was put on. Since moving back in the playroom has had a strange odour (no, not the children!!) that I have not been able to get to the bottom of. At first I thought it could be the new carpet, but all the rooms in the house have been re-painted and carpeted and yet this is the only room that smells. I have just seen your programme about the smelly paint and came into the playroom to smell the walls and it does seem that the smell is coming from them. The paint used was [brand removed]. If it is that my walls smelt previous to painting then surely the room would smell of toxic smoke like before not the now odour of wee! Also, would the smell get through if the walls have had sealant put on them??

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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

We painted our bathroom with [edited]. Slowly the bathroom started to smell of cat pee. We have cleared all the cupboard, washed out the drains and could not get rid of it. We were considering calling out the gas board in case we had a gas leak when i saw your item. Although it is none of the brands you mentioned i am convinced it is to much of a coincedence for it not to be the paint.

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Just watched the report on ‘Smelly paints’

Not sure if watchdog have really got there facts straight. Two weeks ago your first report on the 'smelly Paint' issue stated that other leading brands, Dulux must have been one of them, although not mentioned, had only had a couple of issues of smelly paint reported to them.
This week your presenter told viewers that Dulux have now reported 11 issues to them.
One of two things has happened here:
1/ Dulux told you two weeks ago a little porky, to keep out of the limelight
Or
2/ your researchers have done a very poor job on seeking out all of the information.

This is the first program I have watched that has been very poor on the facts presented.
Your program tonight has made it clear that the industry has a problem, not just Crown Paints, but the whole industry.
Would it be more professional to have found this out by research before trying to destroy a British independent company?
Shame on BBC shame on you.
Watchdog has been built on facts not hear say: Less of the caviller approach to gutter press.

Finally DULUX have started to admit that they have a problem as well only 2 weeks ago no one had complained about their paint smelling now its 11 in 12 months i think it's a lot higher, so it is indeed an industry problem not just a sole manufacturer another BBC Watchdog botch up job blaming one company will Ann apogise me thinks not

I used a crown paint just before christmas to decorate my stepdaughters bedroom, since then the smell at its worst is seriously intolerable, it does come and go but when the heating is on its just revolting and can be smelt from downstairs if the bedroom door is left open, at first i thought it was something that had been spilt on the carpet, so the carpet was thoroughly cleaned .... no change... i took the carpet up thinking that cleaning had not worked .... still no change , and until i saw the programme the next step was going to be ripping up the floorboards to see if there was something nasty underneath. Please bear in mind that i have lived here for 10 years and my grandparents 50 odd years before and there has never been a problem anywhere in the house. HOW LONG has the paint company known about this! I have just ripped up a carpet that was only 18 months old, i went to [retailer removed] where i bought the paint and they had no idea about the problem but rang crown who sent me to their centre in hull where i have had to buy a sealant and then was told that when i repaint i have to buy a specific type of paint... so does this mean that the sealant doesnt work or am i being ripped off by being told to buy a really expansive paint. If paint companies have known about this problem they should have made sure that there are notices on the shelves to advise customers of the possible pitfalls. I defy anybody to sleep in a room with such a foul stench!!!

I have recently painted my downstairs loo with [edited], and have experienced the same smell, that of a cat (or several). It was so bad that I have bought a sonic cat repellent to place on the outside all of my property to deter them. It would appear I didn't need it. I will let you know! [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

My Mum painted my son's room in the [edited] a few weeks, and all I could smell was Cats Pee... We have had the windows open for 2 weeks, and you can still smell it - as yet, my son has been unable to sleep in his newly painted 'Football' Bedroom.... [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxford/10293305.stm

not just walls, it seems that whole neighbourhoods are affected by the cat-wee smell!

Painted a bedroom in September with Crown paint. It still stinks badly like cat's pee, especially in warm weather and when the central heating is on. This infuriating as the work was undertaken by a painter and decorator and at 78 and 72 we are too old to be taking it off and repainting. It is a disgrace when the manufacturers were a reputable company of long standing. There shouild be proper compensation.

A few weeks weeks ago we painted our downstairs loo with Crown Covermatt paint. The whole room was completely gutted, new loo, sink, flooring and glass wall panels. Since then the stench has been unbearable! I have tried everything, the window is open, I have bought every air freshener under the sun and am buying scented flowers weekly but all this does is mask the underlying odour. I am currently keeping the door shut and hoping it will gradually wear off so we can use the room again. I am INCENSED by some of the comments on here that this is a problem caused by incorrect preperation or incorrect storage of paint. The paint we used was NEW. My husband has been a builder for 25 years and knows what he is doing. Our walls were thoroughly and completely rubbed down AND washed before the paint was applied. I have called Crown this morning and in their defence I have to say they appear to be trying to help. They are sending vouchers for a sealant and topcoat which they say should help. This indicates to me that they accept the problem is theirs (or the industry as a whole) to put right. There was no suggestion from them that we may have wrongly applied the paint. Watch this space as they say..

i would like to complian about crown piant,i have painted my full house with it and it stinks,it smells like gas,I have called the gas people out three times now thinking I had a gas leak.

Please explain why you remove other manufacturers names (Dulux) and not Crown's this now proves you are indeed bias especially when you featured the said edited manufacturer in your last program freedom of speech (not with the BBC!!!)and no doubt this will be edited

Hubby just painted our ceiling this morning, with dulux. The smell is there. I could smell it as soon as I came in from work. We have painted all the walls and ceilings in the last 6 years and there was never a smell like that before!

I have painted 3 bedrooms, bathroon and hall recently with crown paint and my hall stinks - the rest are OK. What a smell when I open my front door!

I used crown paint to decorate my hall and sitting room back in March of this year since then I have been been trying to understand where the smell of cat wee has been coming from, It stinks from the minute you walk in my front door, everyone has commented.
There are no animals in my home and I have stayed here for 8 years so I am in no doubt that it is the crown paint that is causing the offensive smell, great to pinpiont the problem but is there anything I can do to get rid of the smell, I have spent a fortune on oil burners and room sprays.

We have just used Crown paint to decorate a bedroom and it absolutely stinks. In fact it has made us realise that a smell we had 2 years ago downstairs was the same smell but at that time we didn't realise and we thought it was a drain probelm or even methane! We had an inspector out from environmental health who could smell it but couldn't identify the smell. He lifted all the manhole covers possible around our house but they smelt sweet in comparison!

In a way we are glad to have identified the problem as its a relief there isn't some massive sewage spill under our property but on the other hand what on earth can we do????

I have had the windows wide open now for 10 days and its not making the slightest bit of difference.

I can't believe that Crown are saying that this problem occurs very infrequently as this has now happened both times we have decorated with their paint.

What on earth can we do?

My husband spent ages putting on 3 coats in a large bedroom and it looks great but smells awful.

Crown - its over to you - we need a solution and quickly.

We repainted our bedroom using the same paint from last year (Wickes trade emulsion) without any problem, BUT when we painted the coving, cieling & skirting using Dulux suddenly the whole room smells of cat wee!!!!..........EXPLAIN THAT DULUX?

I live in Lower Darwen, Lancashire approximately 1/2 mile away from Crown Paint and on certain days there is a real stench in the air I have had to close my house windows.

One user commented in response:

[i would like to point out that the so called smell that she is getting comes from the Sewerage plant that is IN Lower Darwen if you use google map you will see this, therefore this comment is totally false and should be removed as Crown is NOT in lower Darwen and this comment is totally inaccurate.]

I have just heard about the "smelly paint" I am so relieved, because I thought there must be a gas leak in my living room, have not had my gas fire on because I was waiting for Corgi registered friend to check it out, I have recently painted my living room ceiling and walls with Crown Brilliant white for ceiling and Dulux paint for walls,, I am only relieved, that it is not a gas leak for the obvious reasons, but will I have to put up with this obnoxious smell, I have even spent money cleaning and freshening carpets thinking my dog was to blame,. I hope this matter will be dealt with soon, I certainly won't be buying this paint again, and knowing what I know now, I will be mentioning it to the Family Retail business which sells it,.

I've just spent the night in a hotel room in Huntingdon that has just been repainted with odourfree paint. It smelled of feet. There's no other way of describing it. Really bad feet. Utterly horrible.

I have emailed [edited] to alert them to the problem. How stupid to redecorate an entire hotel with paint that is going to stink out your guests! I won't be staying here again, THAT's for sure!

where is my comment? is it being ignored?

When I first heard about this I wondered what it was in paint that is causing the smell. It is formaldehyde. Look up formaldehyde on google or another search engine to see what is in paint.

The amount in paint is very small but it is the formaldehyde that is causing the awful smell so it is nothing to do with the walls in the houses at all.

There are some things you can do to lessen the smell. Houseplants are often used to reduce the smell because they absorb it. Gerberas and chrysanthemums are good for doing that, but, again, if you look up formaldehyde you will find plants that will reduce and absorb the smell too.

It is clear that paint manufacturers have had to change their recipes or the breatheasy paint that I have used in 3 different houses, with no smell attached after the walls have dried, would not now have so many complaints about it.

I've never had a problem about a residual smell or even much of a smell whilst drying and do prepare walls by washing them down and sanding them too so that the finish is better. I also put a base coat of white on if it is necessary to obliterate a strong colour.

Formaldehyde is nasty stuff and as I'm not a paint chemist I don't know why it is in the paint at all. As a known carcinogen, pathogen and allergen, it is a substance to avoid and it has an awful smell too. All the advice on formaldehyde is that you should not handle it without gloves and mask on, but the quantities in the paint should not be significant or the manufacturers would recommend mask and gloves too. How many decorators do you know who bother with gloves or a mask unless sanding down?

We recently had our walls skimmed by a plasterer to even out our walls to be freshly painted. On two of the walls we used crown period colours (parchment)paint which is odour free yet on the other two walls we used breatheasy (english fire red) paint and it absolutely stinks.

[A user responded to this post:
Both products listed are breatheasy. Statement is inaccurate.]

After a number of years in safety and risk assessment, I was a bit concerned to see Anita resting, what appeared to be a full tub of paint on a handrail outside the Crown offices, high above a fairly busy road. Had the tub fallen, it could have caused a serious accident.

I've always used both Crown and Dulux and have always had good results, but will certainly test a small part of the wall prior to a full job. It sounds horrendous and probably smells a whole lot worse.

I missed all of this, as i work in the evenings. This weekend after months of waiting we could finally afford the paint we wanted, which unfortunalty happened to be a crown breatheasy paint, after less then 24hrs my bedroom stank of wonderful mix of stale wee and vinagar. One wall was painted in a b&q paint but it was the wrong colour so i know it is not chemicals on the wall, as that wall didnt smell at all.

Crown have been very helpful, and are picking the paint up today for testing, and sending me vouchers to get some sealant and another tin of paint.
however, i suffer from ME and to re-decorate my bedroom is going to wipe me out for a month. We have a very heavy set of bedroom cupboards and i dont know if that will survive another moving about.

So for the next few weeks or so we are having to keep air freshener companys in business to mask the foul stink in order to sleep. I swear i can smell it in the whole house now. I am just glad i didnt use this brand in the childrens bedrooms.

The Dulux paint we used to paint our shiny new kitchen last Autumn started exhibiting this problem in the last 3 weeks or so as the current hot spell hit. An awful cheesy smell started filling the kitchen but we were unable to locate the source.

Obviously suspecting a morsel or 2 of Stilton was lurking somewhere festering, we scrubbed the entire kitchen top to bottom, and cleared out all the cupboards and drawers cleaning everything till it sparkled. No joy, the horrible smell remained, with no obvious source. It was only when a friend mentioned the Watchdog story that we thought to sniff the walls and discovered that the walls were the source of the stink!

In someways I am relieved to have finally traced the smell as it was driving us mad. But equally as we paid a decorator to paint our walls we are not happy about having to pay them again, and pay them extra to put coats of sealant on the walls before repainting.

We have emailed Dulux, hopefully they will be able to sort this out for us without us having to get the decorator back in at our own expense.

We painted 2 West facing bedrooms back in January, one with Crown Breatheasy Wheatgrass and one with Dulux "Once" Magnolia. Both are matt emulsions. Now we have hot weather the Dulux room stinks of drains and the smell is comming from the walls. Having watched your program and thinking we had escaped the smelly walls scenario I am devastated to think that we now have to repaint or reseal around new carpets and fitted furniture. Will the smell go away? Am I only the 12th person to have a problem with Dulux?

I bought a bright pink dulux paint to paint one wall, to decorate my daughters room a couple of months ago. Its a lovely bright pink which i had mixed at homebase. I had never had any problems with dulux paint and have had the whole house painted with it.
But this paint smells of cat wee,its driving me mad. I have had the windows opened in her room since i painted it 4 months ago. but the smell is still there. I painted the other walls a light colour using dulux and those are fine.
I havent contacted them directly and dont think they would do anything about it. I read the statament that dulux have made about only having recieved 11 complaints.
like myself some people dont call up and complaint because they wont do anything plus its expensive to call 0845 numbers.

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We painted a bedroom with crown paint almost a year ago and it still smells damp. None of the other rooms we have decorated previously smell like this so I don't accept it is the wall. We have also put in a new carpet and so don't want to repaint! unless of course crown agree to replace the carpet should it be damaged.I think it is obvious that this problem is more wide spread than the paint manufacturers will acknowledge.

Re my comment no 41. I contacted Dulux via their website about their smelly paint and what solution they had, other than sealing and repainting. To date I have had no communication from them, either by phone or telephone. If the cause of the smell is not due to the walls, as many people think, then what is the point of repainting with paint that could be just as smelly?