If you've had white powdery marks appear on a wall a few months after it was painted, or a patch that keeps coming back no matter how many coats go over it, that's very likely what you're dealing with.
What we do in Los Balcones
- Interior painting — including proper treatment of salt and damp marks
- Exterior painting — render and boundary walls
- Gates, grilles and balustrades
Property types here
Bungalows, terraced quads and townhouses predominantly, with some detached villas and apartment blocks. A high proportion of permanent residents, so interior work usually needs phasing around people living there.
Salt, damp and efflorescence
Efflorescence is the white, crystalline powder that appears on a wall when moisture moves through masonry, dissolves the salts inside it, and evaporates at the surface — leaving the salts behind.
Three things matter about it:
- It's a symptom, not the problem. Something is letting moisture into the wall, and until that's identified the marks will keep coming back.
- Emulsion will not cover it. The salts keep pushing outwards and lift the new coating off.
- It has to be removed dry, not washed. Washing it dissolves the salts back into the wall and they simply return.
The right sequence is: find the moisture source, let the wall dry, brush the deposits off dry, treat and seal the surface, then paint. It takes longer than painting over it, and it's the only approach that lasts. More detail in our guide to damp, salt and efflorescence.
Nearby
Torrevieja · Los Altos · Playa Flamenca
“Excellent job, thorough and tidy workman. Would highly recommend.”
FAQs
We've painted the same patch three times and it keeps coming back. What now?
Stop painting it. Something is putting moisture into that wall. It needs identifying and the wall needs drying before any coating will hold — otherwise you're just buying paint.
Is it damp rising, or is it the salt lakes?
It can be either, and often it's a combination — a leak, a failed seal or bridged damp course letting moisture in, and the local salt content making the result more visible. It gets looked at properly rather than guessed at.
Will a damp-seal paint fix it?
It can hold back a mild case on a dry wall. On an active moisture source it will fail, usually by lifting off in sheets. Honest answer: fix the source first.