LESLIE: Frank in New York is being haunted by the ghosts of the past; meaning old paint. What’s going on? And I hope it’s like some hideous color (chuckling) that’s driving you crazy.
FRANK: Yeah. Yes, my bathroom – you know I primed my bathroom with the best primer possible and I put two coats of paint on with bathroom paint and you know how my daughter is: she takes like 45-minute showers with (inaudible at 0:13:45.0) …
TOM: Oh, yeah. You know we know how your daughter is. (Leslie laughs) She’s terrible, Frank.
FRANK: Yeah. It’s unbelievable. (Tom laughs) It’s unbelievable. And it’s like …
TOM: Just like my daughter. (chuckles)
FRANK: Right, and my walls keep on staining. It’s bleeding right through it still.
TOM: Yeah. Well, Frank, how many coats of paint do you have on that bathroom?
FRANK: I put two coats of paint on there.
TOM: Well, but you put two coats on now. How many have you had before? How old is this bathroom?
FRANK: It’s over 20 years old so probably maybe like …
TOM: Well, you know here’s what might be going on, Frank. There’s a point of no return when you put so much paint on that it just continues to delaminate. That’s one issue.
FRANK: OK.
TOM: The second issue is you may need to have a more powerful fan in there so you can properly ventilate that space. Do you have a bath fan in there right now?
FRANK: Yes, I do.
TOM: Alright. Well, it may not be doing the job because – I mean if you get – if your window fogs up, your mirrors fog up when somebody is in the shower, it’s probably not strong enough.
FRANK: (overlapping voices) Yeah.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) It’s not a strong enough fan.
TOM: It’s not strong enough because all that humidity is condensing. So, at this point, what you need to do is: first, you need to strip off the old paint and I do mean paint stripper. You need to get off as many of the old layers as possible. You can’t keep putting good paint over bad paint.
Then, I would prime it and I would prime it with an old-based primer because you’re going to get the best adhesion. Then I would put my top coat and you’re right to use bathroom paints because they have mildicide in it and then, in between all of that, make sure you get a better bath fan and put one in that’s on a timer so that it can run even when somebody is done with the shower and out of the bath. It’ll run for another five or ten minutes to absolutely get all of that moisture out. That’s what’s going on.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) And you know what, Frank? You can even get a bath fan with an occupancy sensor put in; you know put it into your system there. This way, in case your daughter goes in for one of her marathon showers and forgets to put on the fan, it will automatically go on for you.
FRANK: (overlapping voices) Right. (chuckles) OK, great. Alright. Thank you for your time.
TOM: You’re welcome, Frank. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. 888-666-3974
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