myhouseismyhouse
New Member
I had these wavy orange/brown lines appear recently on my wall. Any idea what could be causing them?
I recently changed a doorway on another wall in this room. After that, the walls were all primed in preparation to redo the room (a remodel that then got very delayed). There are still a few cracks to be dealt with etc, but nothing huge. It's a 150 year old house, so that's not a big deal. But months later, these lines appeared on this wall, and now I am concerned. I don't want to smooth out the cracks and get everything painted and built-ins installed, only for these lines to seep back through. I need a sense of where they could be coming from. Without opening walls again!
The lines had not been there prior to priming, so this is definitely a recent development. It is an interior wall, no plumbing anywhere around it. The floor above the wall is a finished room, no plumbing. So I don't think there could be a leak in the wall. But I do live in a hot/humid area, and constantly deal with the battles of old leaky house, newer tighter features, and AC. Sometimes there can be mildew issues. This is something we are working on overall, but it has not been an issue in this room, so I thought it was safe to work on it. Now I am nervous. Yet, this doesn't look like any other moisture issue we have dealt with before.
I also got paranoid and worried about termites, which are very common here. My house is under termite contract, and the guys saw nothing the last time they were here, but that doesn't mean termites couldn't have appeared in between appointments! But a google search for signs of termites shows nothing like this.
I am attaching pics. Ignore anything else on the walls, it is just shadows and age. The issue is those orange/brown lines. I am including a distance shot, to show the pattern they kind of form up the wall, and a close-up shot. They are totally flat, definitely not something that somehow got on the surface of the wall from the exterior.
Do these wavy vertical patterns spark any ideas from people here?
I recently changed a doorway on another wall in this room. After that, the walls were all primed in preparation to redo the room (a remodel that then got very delayed). There are still a few cracks to be dealt with etc, but nothing huge. It's a 150 year old house, so that's not a big deal. But months later, these lines appeared on this wall, and now I am concerned. I don't want to smooth out the cracks and get everything painted and built-ins installed, only for these lines to seep back through. I need a sense of where they could be coming from. Without opening walls again!
The lines had not been there prior to priming, so this is definitely a recent development. It is an interior wall, no plumbing anywhere around it. The floor above the wall is a finished room, no plumbing. So I don't think there could be a leak in the wall. But I do live in a hot/humid area, and constantly deal with the battles of old leaky house, newer tighter features, and AC. Sometimes there can be mildew issues. This is something we are working on overall, but it has not been an issue in this room, so I thought it was safe to work on it. Now I am nervous. Yet, this doesn't look like any other moisture issue we have dealt with before.
I also got paranoid and worried about termites, which are very common here. My house is under termite contract, and the guys saw nothing the last time they were here, but that doesn't mean termites couldn't have appeared in between appointments! But a google search for signs of termites shows nothing like this.
I am attaching pics. Ignore anything else on the walls, it is just shadows and age. The issue is those orange/brown lines. I am including a distance shot, to show the pattern they kind of form up the wall, and a close-up shot. They are totally flat, definitely not something that somehow got on the surface of the wall from the exterior.
Do these wavy vertical patterns spark any ideas from people here?
