Uh-oh! Your property is haunted!
Well, not exactly. But paint ghosting can be a haunting sight, and once it starts, it often deteriorates quickly. If it’s already affecting your home, you might be feeling overwhelmed or lost. What’s causing the damage, and what can you do to fix it?
At AJ Cochrane & Sons, we’ve got the answers you need. Here’s everything you need to know to un-ghost your walls in no time.
What Is Paint Ghosting?
Paint ghosting happens when thermal tracking lines and streaks begin to appear on painted surfaces, such as ceiling or walls.
The phenomenon can cause dark stains to mark your paint job, making for a less-than-ideal shift in your home’s aesthetic. The impacts are especially noticeable in lighter interiors, where dark lines contrast starkly against pale surfaces.
What’s worse is that once ghosting starts, it tends to get worse. Far from fading with time, streaks are likely to darken and thicken. That’s why it’s important to address the issue early on whenever possible with a long-term solution.
Why Ghosting Happens
Paint ghosting is caused by the accumulation of dust, soot, cooking oils, and other airborne particles on cooler parts of walls and ceilings. It’s especially common in ceiling joints, wall studs and trusses or other parts of the building framework with reduced insulation.
Airborne particles are attracted to the colder parts of the walls and ceilings. Clinging to cold spots, trapped by small amounts of condensation, they soon begin to form clearly visible lines that often mirror the framing and other structures behind your walls.
In Western Australia, paint ghosting is helped along by a variety of climate factors. WA’s extreme seasonal temperature swings amplify the temperature difference between your home’s interior and uninsulated cavities, offering perfect conditions for ghosting to occur.
Further, the combination of cold, damp West Aussie winters and indoor heating use creates high humidity, leading to stickier cold wall surfaces that trap airborne particles with ease.
Paint ghosting can also be helped along by coastal breezes throughout the Perth metropolitan area, letting tiny salt particles prolong dampness, giving ghosting streaks more time to form.
Is It Enough to Paint Over Ghosting?
If you’ve started to notice ghosting on your walls or ceilings, you might be considering a fresh paint job as a quick fix. Right?
Think again.
Unfortunately, just painting over ghosting is rarely a viable solution. Soot bleed-through is a chemical interaction. If you paint over streaks without establishing a proper thermal barrier, ghosting marks will return in a matter of months.
Instead, you need to clean affected surfaces, prime with a high-quality stain blocker, and add a strong thermal barrier. After you’ve taken these steps, it’s safe to repaint the area.
It’s also a good idea to look at improving your home’s insulation to reduce dampness and cold patches, preventing the problem from recurring over time.
The Help You Need
At AJ Cochrane & Sons, we know exactly what it takes to manage all kinds of painting problems.
When ghosting arises, we can wash away soot deposits and apply professional-grade stain-blocking and oil-based thermal primers before applying a final layered premium wash-and-wear topcoat. We rely on high-quality products and years of industry experience to get the job done.
Our skilled painting team is committed to quality, and with almost 100 years in the business, we never let our customers down. Need help getting your walls and ceilings back in shape? Contact the team today to find out how we can help.
