paint cracking and peeling

[Unregistered-wallst32]

I live in New England and moved into a condo about 6 months ago. The place was freshly painted 3-4 months prior to me moving in. The owner left behind the extra paint, Benjamin Moore latex base; not sure what primer was used.

In one of the bedrooms, in one spot right at the door trim, the paint started peeling away from the wall and would curl up. The length of the peel back is about 1/4″ or less. At another spot in the middle of the wall, the paint just split apart and curled up a little in both directions, leaving a gash of about 1/8″.

Then the one that puzzles me the most; also in the same room, I have a crack in the paint running almost straight down from the ceiling to the floor. The crack is only in the paint, not in the dry wall (from what I can tell). It starts from the top, then runs into a 3 foot window, then after the window, the “crack” resumes at the same location and continues to run until it hits the trim at the floor. Since there is a window there, I don’t see how any type of pressure that would crack the paint on top would also affect the bottom, unless it came from the window itself. The crack is not centered on the window, but more towards one side.

Any ideas? Is it just a poor paint job? The rest of the unit was also painted with the same paint, and so far so good.

Thanks.

[HenryinMI]

Paint cracks because the substrait under it is moving. Paint does allow a little movement but when there is more movement than the paint will allow, you see a crack in the paint. A window, door, doorwall or other opening in a solid wall is typically where you get the most movement and that’s where you see the crack. Peeling is typically caused by water being under the paint when it’s applied or getting under the paint.

There are latex based products that you can paint on the walls in a limited amount that allow more movement before the paint cracks. You probably do have a small leak in the side or roof of the house that is showing up in these cracks. It can be very difficult where a small water leak is involved to find a source. Ice damming on the roof might be the problem if you are suddenly seeing this with cold weather. Water can travel quite a bit one it gets to house framing before you see the evidence that water is there. At this point, I think that you might just want to investigate the high latex material. You can paint your regular paint over it. When the weather is better, you can check the outside of your place and caulk–or have the condo association people do it.

Henry in MI

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