Hello:

My daughter has a purple room. Ever since I painted it I noticed that if you hang a picture on the wall for any length of time and remove the picture, it looks as though something brown, like a soda ran down the wall right behind the picture.

At first I thought it actually was a spilled soda, until I noticed this behind all the pictures. What ever it is doesn't come off easy, and Im wondering what could be causing it.

Like I said, its only behind the picturues. This doesn't seem to effect the other rooms. Nobody smokes in our house, we have no gas or oil fired appliances.

I thought it might be condensate gathering dirt as it runs down the wall, but why only behind pictures? and why is it never wet, its always dried up. Plus, if it were that damp in there you'd think Id have mold growing on the ceiling, or a musty smell, to which I do not. The room smells fine. Nobody is getting sick, its just little brown run marks behind the pictures.

Any ideas?

Very interesting.
Did you ask the guy/gal at the paint store if the ever heard of this problem.

No,

It came from walmart, so they would most likley be clueless anyway.

Im pretty sure it has something to do with condensate, but I just can't figure out why.

andrewcocke, does your Daughter keep her room door closed a lot? I'm no expert but maybe moisture is building up in there for some reason. Do you have an air exchanger? Moisture will show up mostly under things that's close to your walls and maybe now because of the color you just began to notice it. I have a wooden sign up over my french doors in the kitchen and even though I got a exchanger, I noticed some behind it when I did some cleaning a while back. Sometimes all moisture doesn't escape. Just my opinion.

Well, she doesn't keep the door closed, but I will say, that we don't have a somewhat damp basement. We have to run a dehumidifier down there all the time. Perhaps some of the dampness is coming from upstairs. That in the bathroom is right next to her room.

That seems to answer your question. Some of the steam from the bathroom is getting in there. I have one of my air exchanger vents just outside the bathroom door which is in my hallway and we lost the motor in no time and that's what I blamed it on. Steam gets in places real quick like behind pictures and stuff and has no way out. GOOD LUCK.