White paint yellowing

martin1959

We have taken a property back from tenants last week, who have been in for two years. The property was decorated to a high standard before they had moved in. Due to typical tenant clothes drying habits, there is mould on the wallpaper which we accept as we are redecorating.


However, some of the skirting we painted white have turned various shades of cream/yellow. We know the tenants did not smoke at the property. This is a pain, as we did not plan to repaint all the woodwork......


Any thoughts what may have caused it?


Cheers

Reece_

If oil based was used, this is pretty common

somethingcorporate

Poor quality/cheap paint can be a cause.

There was a thread on here a while back about B&Q (or Wickes) own brand paint yellowing very quickly.

chazsucks

Is it gloss? Tends to yellow. I think a lot of people use satinwood now

savemoney

Some gloss paint yellows if it doesn't get enough light. Last year I painted South facing front porch which has houseplants with in a few months the paint went yellow under the plant pots. I usually avoid gloss paint now for that reason and go for satin wood or water based paint like Johnsons Aqua

phill99

A couple of years ago the EU changed the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in gloss paint. The VOCs were the things that kept white paint white. White gloss turns yellow within months now.

To avoid this you heed to be using Satinwood or Eggshell.

daveyjp

Decent (Leyland, Johnstones, Dulux Trade) oil based eggshell finish will have a durable finish and will stay white.

Fraise

Is there nowhere you can buy white gloss that actually stays white?

27col

savemoney wrote: »

Some gloss paint yellows if it doesn't get enough light. Last year I painted South facing front porch which has houseplants with in a few months the paint went yellow under the plant pots. I usually avoid gloss paint now for that reason and go for satin wood or water based paint like Johnsons Aqua

I thought that it was just me. I have noticed over the years that the paint that was mainly in the shade was the paint that seemed change colour the most.
It seems a bit counter-intuitive. But, hey, what do I know.

adandem

It's the oil content that causes the yellowing, so even oil based satin/eggshell will be affected.
Water based gloss will stay white.

force_ten

phill99 wrote: »

A couple of years ago the EU changed the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in gloss paint. The VOCs were the things that kept white paint white. White gloss turns yellow within months now.

To avoid this you heed to be using Satinwood or Eggshell.

Phill99 has got it spot on it is down to the VOC,s in the paint

the paint manafactures had to change the formula of paint to meet EU standards and as a result in certain conditions paint will start to yellow in around six months

I now used water based gloss as i find it stays whiter longer, it is very easy to use and quicker clean up but the one downside is that it is not as high gloss finish as traditional gloss

Customers complained that the company's oil-based paint turns a creamy yellow colour over time - often within weeks of application.

Dulux has admitted the problem was caused by new EU regulations which forced it to reduce solvent levels in the paint.

But customers have slammed the company for failing to warn them of the problem before they invested hours painting their homes.

that is a quote from a news article about a particular brand but it seems that all manufacturers are in the same boat with this one