Bathroom painting must take into account the harsh environmental conditions of a bathroom. A big factor in paint choice for a bathroom will depend on how well the bathroom is ventilated. Is there a ceiling fan, and does it draw out the moisture well enough to prevent high humidity conditions during and after a shower.
Surface prepartaion
Most bathrooms are painted with a glossy paint, either a satin or semi gloss, sometimes the paint is oil and other times the paint is latex. Glossy surfaces must be dulled or primed before painting for proper adhesion.
Deglossing
If the previous paint was a latex, you can clean and degloss by using a gloss remover. Most chemical deglossers are strong solvents that melt the previous paint and make the paint sticky, this promotes inter-coat adhesion between the old and new paint. There is a new waterbased deglosser which works well on glossy latex paints called Gloss Off by Supreme Chemicals of GA, Inc. This waterbased formula is applied with a coarse rag and allowed to dry before painting Deglossed latex paint does not need to be primed, it is ready for paint “as is”.
Priming
If the previous paint was an oil based paint, you will find that the waterbased deglosser doesn’t work very well on oil based paint. In the case of an oil paint, you should clean the surface with Krud Kutter, to remove any soap film from the walls, and then primer with a bonding primer.
Bonding primers are formulated to adhere to clean glossy surfaces without the need for sanding or dulling. The best type of bonding primer for a bathroom is an oil based primer like Zinsser’s Coverstain or Xim’s 400 white. Oil based primers as such, have strong solvent odor which requires good venilation during and after priming. Open the window, and blow a fan to exhaust the odor as needed. See Eliminating Paint Odor.
Peeling Paint
It is very common to have some peeling paint in a bathroom that contains a shower, particularly in the shower enclouser.
If your house was built before 1978, do not scrape or disturb the painted surface as it could create a lead hazard. Instruction for post 1978 houses: scrape all the loose paint off using a flat spackle knife blade. Next, you will smooth over the affected area with drywall compound to smooth over the roughness. See Skim Coating. Do a couple of coats of dry wall compound, and sand smooth See Dustless Drywall Sanding.
Surfactant Leaching
Latex paints are prone to a particular type of water spotting when the new paint film comes into contact with high humidity conditions as in a bathroom, this is know as surfactant leaching. Surfactant (“surface active agent”) is a soap-like substance in latex paint that aids in application of the paint. Surfactant will leach out of the dried paint film by moisture onto the surface of the film, where is looks like clear or amber cast spots or runs on the paint film. All latex paints have surfactant, and all are prone to surfactant leaching, some more so than others. To prevent surfactant leaching you need to have good venetilation in the bathroom, in the form of a bathroom ceiling vent, sometimes supplemented with a slightly cracked open window during showers. If you can prevent water from forming on the surface of the paint, you can prevent surfactant from leachng. If you get some leaching, you can remove it with a damp sponge rinse or wipe down, just as you would remove a soap film from a surface. Specialty bathroom paints are a little more resistant to surfactant leaching than general use interior latex pants.
Bathroom Paints
There are a few special bathroom paints in the marketplace, my favorite is Zinsser’s Perma White Interior Paint. Perma White has very good adhesion and mildew resistance. It comes in a white base that can be tinted to a pastel color with universal tints. You can tint the paint with the color formula of any brand’s off white or pastel colors. The final color will be close, but not necessarily an exact match to the other brand’s color swatch. The lack of a color deck for the Perma White is the only real downside to the paint. If you need a precise color, and can’t get a paint store clerk to tweek the Perma White to that color, you are better off using a general use latex satin or semi gloss paint.
Oil based paint
Bathrooms that have poor ventilation are prone to heavy surfacant leaching and water spotting. This can be a real problem with bathrooms that have no ceiling fan. In these cases the use of an oil based paint is probably the best way to go. Oil based paints are not subject to surfactant leaching and water spotting. But, oil based paints are more prone to mildew, and don’t flex as well with the heat of a shower as latex paint. To resist mildew growth, a commercial mildewcide can be added to the paint. The flexibility issue can be solved by using an interior / exterior oil based paint. Don’t use an exterior only oil paint. Use one that is made for interior or exterior use. These are harder to find than interior only or exterior only paints. Sherwin Williams Classic 99 Alkyd semi gloss is an interior paint that is recommended for exterior use (doors, shutters small items - not for the whole body of the house), and therefore would have a little better flexibility for the temperature changes that a bathroom environment is subject to.
Ceramic tiles
If the color scheme involves changing the color of the wall tile in the bathroom, this can be done using Xim’s Tile Doc specialty paint. See Painting Ceramic Tile
Choosing a bathroom paint color
When choosing a bathroom paint color, you must take into consideration the color of the porcelain fixtures: the bathtub, sinks and toilet. Usually, these are white, or off white, making the color choosing process easy. If they are not white or off white, they are a real factor in color selection.
The floor color and countertop color are the other two color selection modifiers. Whatever color you choose must work well with the floor and countertops. Outside of these factors you will probably want to stay light for most bathrooms, since they are small rooms with usually only one window, to avoid a dark room. But, if your porcelain fixtures are white, and the floor is white, you may have no problem going with some color on the walls. In general, in a bathroom, the ceiling and the walls are painted the same color, the exception to this would be if a dark color is chosen for the walls. In the case where the ceiling is painted “white” is should match the “white” of the bathtub and sink white or off white (as should the trim: door casing and window casing).
Vacuum the drywall clean of any dust (hepa filtered shop vacuum) and spot prime the area with the Coverstain or 400 white. The oil primer is best for waterproofing the moisture sensitive dry wall compond. Two coats of oil primer will be better than one, for preventing moisture from re-wetting the compound (and causing blistering and peeling somewhere down the road).
Paint
As a rule, a sheen paint: either a satin / eggshell or a semi gloss is used in bathrooms. The reason for the use of sheen paints is that they are more mold and mildew resistant than a flat paint, and they wipe clean better than a flat paint does.
Please read lead paint warning if your house was built before 1978
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