Mysterious dust

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desperateDan

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Hi everyone. Hope someone can help out with this. Sorry it's a long post for my first one, but we're pretty desperate to find out what is causing our problem and to get a solution that lasts more than a few months.

We have a rental property which I and my dad lived in for over a decade before we rented it. Three bed mid-terrace 1935 with full loft insulation and cavity wall insulation too. While my dad and I lived there, we just stripped walls back to original plaster and lined them and painted them. I say this to let you know that we never had a mould problem in the house historically. Ever.

Prior to private rental, we refurbed the house. This was in October 2015. We hired a reputable building firm to do most of the work, but a separate plasterer to do the plastering. He didn't get on with the builders and it was hard to manage him. He did the entire house and it looked fab. The builders decorated once the plaster had dried out and we let the property shortly after to a young mum and her three young kids. They were delighted with it.

About a year into the tenancy, the tenant complained about dust appearing on the walls particularly in bedrooms although it has subsequently appeared in the rooms under the bedrooms. See attached images. It smeared when they tried to wipe it off and had a musty smell. She was concerned for her kids' health. We couldn't contact original plasterer. He was a one man show and seemed to have vanished. We got in other experienced plasterers and also the original builders. No one knew what it was or had ever seen anything like it.

Landlord forums I was on suggested it was tenant's lifestyle and not ventilating properly. Tenant was known by letting agent to have kept her previous properties with them immaculately and we now know her well enough to know this is true. She ventilates regularly. We even got the council's environmental officer in who confirmed that it wasn't mould. We knew historically that there was no mould in the property.

We tried sugar soap washing it down. A few months later, it was back. We tried washing and then redecorating with silk emulsion. A few months later, it came back. The photos are from last week so that's three years into the problem. We're now considering washing it down with some sort of barrier wash and then lining it and painting with silk emulsion over the top. But we've no guarantee of success with this either. That will also be a really difficult job to perform on the ceilings.

Have any of you ever seen anything this or got any idea what's causing it? Did we get shafted by a disgruntled plasterer who added something to the mix he shouldn't have done? Any suggestions how we tackle this?

Lots of thanks in advance...
 

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Is it only around the chimney breast? Could it be the paint used?

Did the plasterer re-skim these walls?

You could consider fitting an envirovent. It may work but if you get sued it shows you have tried as well as what you have already said.
 
Hi everyone. Hope someone can help out with this. Sorry it's a long post for my first one, but we're pretty desperate to find out what is causing our problem and to get a solution that lasts more than a few months.

We have a rental property which I and my dad lived in for over a decade before we rented it. Three bed mid-terrace 1935 with full loft insulation and cavity wall insulation too. While my dad and I lived there, we just stripped walls back to original plaster and lined them and painted them. I say this to let you know that we never had a mould problem in the house historically. Ever.

Prior to private rental, we refurbed the house. This was in October 2015. We hired a reputable building firm to do most of the work, but a separate plasterer to do the plastering. He didn't get on with the builders and it was hard to manage him. He did the entire house and it looked fab. The builders decorated once the plaster had dried out and we let the property shortly after to a young mum and her three young kids. They were delighted with it.

About a year into the tenancy, the tenant complained about dust appearing on the walls particularly in bedrooms although it has subsequently appeared in the rooms under the bedrooms. See attached images. It smeared when they tried to wipe it off and had a musty smell. She was concerned for her kids' health. We couldn't contact original plasterer. He was a one man show and seemed to have vanished. We got in other experienced plasterers and also the original builders. No one knew what it was or had ever seen anything like it.

Landlord forums I was on suggested it was tenant's lifestyle and not ventilating properly. Tenant was known by letting agent to have kept her previous properties with them immaculately and we now know her well enough to know this is true. She ventilates regularly. We even got the council's environmental officer in who confirmed that it wasn't mould. We knew historically that there was no mould in the property.

We tried sugar soap washing it down. A few months later, it was back. We tried washing and then redecorating with silk emulsion. A few months later, it came back. The photos are from last week so that's three years into the problem. We're now considering washing it down with some sort of barrier wash and then lining it and painting with silk emulsion over the top. But we've no guarantee of success with this either. That will also be a really difficult job to perform on the ceilings.

Have any of you ever seen anything this or got any idea what's causing it? Did we get shafted by a disgruntled plasterer who added something to the mix he shouldn't have done? Any suggestions how we tackle this?

Lots of thanks in advance...
Tell us more about this disgruntled plasterer?
 
Hi everyone. Hope someone can help out with this. Sorry it's a long post for my first one, but we're pretty desperate to find out what is causing our problem and to get a solution that lasts more than a few months.

We have a rental property which I and my dad lived in for over a decade before we rented it. Three bed mid-terrace 1935 with full loft insulation and cavity wall insulation too. While my dad and I lived there, we just stripped walls back to original plaster and lined them and painted them. I say this to let you know that we never had a mould problem in the house historically. Ever.

Prior to private rental, we refurbed the house. This was in October 2015. We hired a reputable building firm to do most of the work, but a separate plasterer to do the plastering. He didn't get on with the builders and it was hard to manage him. He did the entire house and it looked fab. The builders decorated once the plaster had dried out and we let the property shortly after to a young mum and her three young kids. They were delighted with it.

About a year into the tenancy, the tenant complained about dust appearing on the walls particularly in bedrooms although it has subsequently appeared in the rooms under the bedrooms. See attached images. It smeared when they tried to wipe it off and had a musty smell. She was concerned for her kids' health. We couldn't contact original plasterer. He was a one man show and seemed to have vanished. We got in other experienced plasterers and also the original builders. No one knew what it was or had ever seen anything like it.

Landlord forums I was on suggested it was tenant's lifestyle and not ventilating properly. Tenant was known by letting agent to have kept her previous properties with them immaculately and we now know her well enough to know this is true. She ventilates regularly. We even got the council's environmental officer in who confirmed that it wasn't mould. We knew historically that there was no mould in the property.

We tried sugar soap washing it down. A few months later, it was back. We tried washing and then redecorating with silk emulsion. A few months later, it came back. The photos are from last week so that's three years into the problem. We're now considering washing it down with some sort of barrier wash and then lining it and painting with silk emulsion over the top. But we've no guarantee of success with this either. That will also be a really difficult job to perform on the ceilings.

Have any of you ever seen anything this or got any idea what's causing it? Did we get shafted by a disgruntled plasterer who added something to the mix he shouldn't have done? Any suggestions how we tackle this?

Lots of thanks in advance...
Looks like you have had a fire it the house or a bbq :whistle:
 
Check it first with a damp meter
And a moister meter see what the humidity in the house is.if its high get a dehumidifier.if the wall shows damp on the reading there your answer.
 
no damp in the house at all. Builders checked for that and came up negative. House has never had a damp issue. Owned it for over 20 years.

Not all walls have been redecorated. We've done the upstairs bedrooms. All have been done once. One has been done a couple of times. First time was with normal emulsion. Last time was with silk to see if this would act as a barrier... which it obviously didn't.

Someone mentioned that it might have been painted before it was dry. The builders did the decorating and they did three other properties after this one. Only this one has the issue so I'm pretty sure they know when plaster work is ready for decorating. However, if they did paint when it was wet 4 years ago, is there anything we can do about it now?

No one has re-skimmed the walls since the original plastering was done. Would that be an option that would prevent this dust appearing again? Would that be worth trying instead of putting up lining paper?
 
When you say a dust is it a soot like dust ? Does the tennant use candles ? My mum used to use candles in her home only a couple at a time and gradually over a few months she would get a build up of soot in the corners and celing lines like in your pictures.
 
Thanks for the reply. No it's not soot, and tenant doesn't use candles. For this coverage, she'd have to basically turn the house into a Catholic cathedral. Downstairs, the dust is in the passage between kitchen and lounge where there are no shelves you could put candles on. Whereas, above the mantlepiece where you'd expect candle soot if someone did use them, the dust isn't noticeable at all.
 
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