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do you smoke or did the previous tenents smoke? my guess would be its nicotine that is 'pooling' because of condensation in the bathroom. wash the entire ceiling throughly, might help

I had that happen in several different houses. We ended up scrubbing the walls and using Kilz paint as our basecoat. It was indeed from previous people smoking in certain rooms of the house. It wasn't dangerous, it just looked revolting.

My bet is old wallpaper glue. Someone painted over it and the steam from the shower is reconsituting it and now it is seeping through the paint.

I think it's mold. Mold can be killed with a bleach and water solution. Ventilate that bathroom, if you can, to prevent it from cropping up again.

I think it is nicotine too. It happened to us and we used 3 coats of kilz and it still came back!

No, I don't smoke, and the family who lived in there before me had 2 small kids so I'm guessing that they weren't puffing up in the kids' bathroom...I'm thinking it could be mold because the bathroom doesn't have a fan (not very well ventilated) or even wallpaper paint (previous owners did a cosmetic remodel on the bathroom). I'll try cleaning it tonight! Thanks!

Given that it's right above your shower, I'm going to suggest that it may be body oil - steam rises from your shower, and some of it's bound to connect with your body on the way up. I think certain wall/ceiling treatments just cause it to bead up or stick more, and so it's more noticeable.

That's my two gross cents!

It's either mold, which can be removed with elbow grease and bleach.

Or it's excess hardeners and other awesome chemicals that are present in a fresh coat of paint. You may have not painted the bathroom, but it may have been done anyway. Every time i re-paint my bathroom, after some condensation -- the paint oozes excess goo. Once you scrub it off, it never happens again.

I've had this before, and was told that it was chemicals or something from the wood seeping through - you may notice that the "zits" are spaced where the wall studs are.

Painting it with a base coat of Kilz solved the problem.

They can be hard to find these days, but if you can get an old fashioned rectangular block sponge mop, they can make it a lot easier to scrub your ceiling clean. Just mop your ceiling the way you'd mop your floor, taking care not to use too much cleanser or get the mop too wet. (Wear glasses or goggles - you probably don't want that stuff dripping in your eyes.)

I think it's mold. Particularly if you don't have any good ventilation in your bathroom. My bathroom has just a small window we leave open a crack (the neighbors in the building next door feel awfully close) to get some air circulating. I wiped it off with a squeezed out sponge that I'd soaked in some cleaning solution and it came off easily. But that was months ago and the zits are back. Sigh.

I live in new construction, which I moved into 6 mos ago, and I too have weird brown spots on the ceiling. So, in my case, it's not smoke or old wallpaper glue. I'm going to clean it this weekend - when I find a ladder tall enough.

That would happen in my bathroom too. It's mold dude. It happens because your bathroom is not ventilated well. My maintenance guy suggested to keep a small fan in the bathroom. Turn it on for about 10 minutes or so, after your shower to dry the condensation.

I've got the same thing and it has happened in all of my apartments. I don't think it's mold though. It's not black or green like mold, it's rust colored. I think it's dirt that's in the air or your body that connects with the water vapor and then sticks to your walls.

Do you use hair spray? I got spots like these when I used hair spray. It was either mop them off regularly or give up hair spray. I gave up hair spray.

No hair spray.. no smoke.. and I have a bathroom fan. Still a mystery

It's mildew. Mildrew loves dark, damp areas. If your bathroom doesn't get adequate ventilation, mildrew will grow. I have the same problem, since I have an old bathroom with no ventilation.

One thing you can do--leave the lights on longer--this helps dry out the bathroom. Also, if you can increase the wattage of your lights in the bathroom, the increased heat will help dry out the air.

Cleaning--bleach or a fungicide. Once mildrew has grown on your ceiling it will be easier for it to come back, so you'll need to be vigilant. If repainting is an option, you can also paint with paint that has had fungicide added. This helps as well!

HTH,

-B

I have that problem too. I always assumed it was mildew since my bathroom has poor ventilation. I have a fan but I just don't think it is good enough, and there is no window. It keeps coming back and I just scrub it off again!

Hello,

It may be due to condensation but I do know that when it's this color it can be from an older oil based paint coming/seeping through a latex paint. Try "Kilz" to cover and seal then repaint and hopefully that'll due the trick.
Have a great night!

I have similar brown spots form on the plastic shower rod. Smoking is not the explanation, inadequate ventilation maybe, but I am intrigued by the body oil/condensation explanation.

Yes! I get them too, not on the ceiling, but little drips down the wall. They come off with soap and water, are kind of sticky and rust colored, very tiny. I do not think they're mold- we have a window, fan, and probably not nicotine, we don't smoke. We did just repaint---maybe chemicals oozing out? mystery! we just wipe them as they appear, but they keep coming back.

I had them in one apartment and we always assumed it was a mildew thing. We scraped them off, scrubbed them off, painted over...and they always came back. Would be great to finally know what they were.

i have them on my ceiling too -- and they still appear after the ceiling's been repainted (twice). i always assumed that it was the water -- either from condensation from my showering or from leaking pipes from the apt above -- partially as a result of old pipes (they're from the 20s and not copper so the water is rusty for the first few seconds when you turn it on) and partially because the water in la's very hard (hair's definitely not as shiny as it is with one quick rinse in nice soft ny water). now that i put on a fan after showering and leave the bathroom window slightly ajar, i've had less of a problem.

I had the same problem at my previous apartment.
Paint the ceiling with oil based Kilz primer.

I had those in my old bathroom too... I gave up after awhile. I don't think it was mold though. The spots seemed evenly spaced, like they were nails or something that were rusting due to the dampness of the bathroom. My bathroom was poorly ventilated as well.

bellwethr has it right. I too had this problem in my apartment as the bathroom does not have a window and the shower area is way over in a corner. What i did was on a regular basis sprayed diluted clorox to the ceiling and then ran the spongemop on it until I repainted. I purchased paint specifically for bathrooms and kitchen (supposedly made especially to prevent mold and yellowing) and to be on the safe side had the additive for mold prevention (comes in a tube) mixed in. This seems to have done the trick - though its only been about 6 months since I painted the bathroom. If you don't have to worry about modesty - I would leave the door open to the bathroom a bit so that it doesn't get too steamy in there.

I get these occasionally. It's just condensation collecting on the ceiling. If you have dusty walls, it will look like this. It's no biggie....

It's not a problem for me in the winter when my bathroom is well heated and ventilated because of the force gas heat blowing in it or my portable heater. In the summer when I take my long hot showers I have to be mindful of it because there are no windows in my bathroom and it takes longer for the condensation to evaporate because it's not ventilated.

I get it on my walls in my kitchen and in my old apartment in the bathroom. It almost looks like drips of tree sap!

I have those too. We're just finishing up a bathroom renovation, and the contractor said they were due to condensation and really hard water. Because of all the iron in the water, it leaves rust spot behind. Good ventilation should really help. I've cleaned it in the past, but they were coming back regularly. I'm hoping our new fan will make a difference :o).

In my experience, this happens with latex paint but not oil-based paint.

My roommates and I got these in our bathroom that had no ventillation. We tried some experiments, and realized it was condensation that had our "products" in it. This happened ALOT when there were more than one of us using aerosol shaving cream during our showers. The drops even changed color when we started using "flavored" shaving creams. Are you shaving in a steamy shower? We sprayed our floor mop with a bleach cleaner and it wiped right off of the ceiling.

Just adding my 2cents but we have them at my house and no one smokes in my family at all, I think it could be mold due to moisture or something with the paint.

It's from the paint.

Use Kilz.