Hard Bumps in Newly Painted Ceiling

[cjm]

Hello,
We have a late Victorian London house, in good condition. We recently painted the kitchen (which would have been the scullery) with Farrow and Ball paints two weeks ago. Yesterday we noticed very hard bumps/deposits under the paint on the ceiling between the boiler and the window. The boiler was installed 4 months ago. There's' not really blistering, no signs of damp anywhere (the house had a DPC), the ceiling is solid and not moving/spongey and we don't really know where to start in terms of diagnosing this. Does anyone have any suggestions? Could the hot water pipes do this? Or could it be salt? Any advice appreciated.
CJM

 

[Lime]

More details need to be supplied to be certain of the problem.
Photos would help.
What was the paint used, how many coats, any rubbing down in between coats and in what condition was the ceiling to start with?
How was the ceiling cleaned prior to painting?
Was the ceiling lined before painting?
How big are the lumps? (Is the budgerigar missing?)
Have you checked for slight leaks from the plumbing above the ceiling?

If the paint was water based it is possible to have drawn out salts from the ceiling.
It is also possible that the lumps were there all the time, perhaps in the paint, and further shrinkage of the paint after drying has now delineated them.

 

[Penners]

How big are the lumps? (Is the budgerigar missing?)

An oldie but a goodie, Lime. :wink:

As Lime has mentioned, the size of the lumps would be helful in trying to guess what they are.

If they're quite small, I wonder whether the ceiling was covered with stippled Artex at some point, and this has been (poorly) skimmed over.

 

[Anita]

Has the ceiling been newly plasterboarded, or done with some other sheet material? The bumps could be where the nails fixing the ceiling board have "popped".

 

[Gervase]

I was thinking nails, too. Are the lumps regularly spaced in a line?

 

[Raylea]

Could it be a dirty paint pot lid (paint dried and dropped in) maybe not your paint but whoever painted it before. Just a thought we had it in lots of places when we moved in to our house, just plinked them of with a stripper thing (not sure if these are technical terms :lol: )

Raylea