White paint turning yellow?

[solveproblem]

We are renting a property with white walls and ceilings, we've been here two years.

I've recently started noticing that where we've put pictures on the walls, the wall behind the picture has turned yellow.

And just now I had to take the smoke detector down to change batteries, and the back of the detector has turned yellow, not the ceiling.

Why is his happening? Never heard of white turning yellow like this before.

And we've never smoked indoors so that's not it.

Smoke will still come inside, even if you smoke outside, but I'm pretty sure the bits behind the pictures etc would stayer 'whiter' than the bits that are exposed.

Is it possible that the rest is actually getting lighter and what's behind is actually the original colour?

We redecorated our whole house almost 3 years ago and this has happened to us too.

I read that it was something to do with paints being re formulated in line with EE rules and that this was the result. Some professional decorators got compensation from the paint manufacturers.

I think the problems been resolved now, but dh and I were just discussing today that we need to redecorate some areas.

EU not EE.

No it was definitely white to start with and it has turned very yellow behind pictures.

I've read about white paints turning yellow but wouldn't it turn yellow evenly and not only behind things?

Oooh we have got this too and we are in a new build house. The paint on our window sills and in the cracks of the doors are yellow too. V annoying.

sunlight helps to bleach white paint, so if you expose the surface to sunlight it may get pale again.

curiously the modern low voc oil paints stay white outside, and on windowframes, and even on the faces of doors in rooms with big windows, and will go yellow in halls and landings. Formulations have been modified over the last five years or so and yellowing is not so bad with the newer paints.

I am surprised you mention it happening on walls, which are presumably painted with emulsion, because water paints normally stay white. You haven't got a multifuel stove or an open fire, I suppose?

or candles?

As BastardDog said, there have been changes in the paint's ingredients. My FIL was compensated by the manufacturer as his newly glossed doors, skirtings etc turned yellow very soon after being painted.

We are currently having all our white gloss repainted as it all yellowed. Well when I say all, it yellowed where it hadn't had sunlight. If we moved anything away from it it was really noticeable. I had a couple of dressing gowns hung on the back of a door and when I moved them it was very noticeable,

It was do do with the paint companies have to change the formulations and they got it wrong. Crown covered themselves by having something printed on the label but Dulux didn't. So if you have used Dulux and still have the tins or receipts and they can pinpoint it to those batches, it is worth claiming. They are paying materials and labour for us.

No candles or open fires, got a gas boiler.

We haven't painted it so wouldn't know what paint has been used, but a bit worried they're going to deduct money from our deposit when we move due to all these yellow rectangulars on the walls.

could you not tell the ll or letting agent you rent from that its happening so then you should be covered when you move? we rent and if that had happened here we would let the letting agent know as soon as we noticed. not gonna happen though as our house is covered in magnolia

try taking the pictures down for a few weeks or moving them along the wall, see if exposure to daylight fades the patches.

It usually works on oil (gloss) paint, I don't know about emulsion.

My mum had the same and I think got compensation from Dulux too.

I am just going to use Zinsser BIN primer for all my woodwork instead of normal paint. It is amazing stuff and does not yellow at all.