Fuzzy wall

[Keni]

We have started having a line of what I what could a fuzzy white fluff appearing along our bedroom wall. It started with a crack in the paintwork, which is now about a metre long, the paint has cracked and the fluff appears to be coming through this crack.

Is this lime plaster having a tizzy fit, and what can I do - I had used water based emulsion to allow the wall to breathe, I thought, realising it could be lime based. The problem starts about a metre up the wall, towards the corner and working now towards the middle of the room. There appears to be no problem with the wall below the fluff or above it.

Can anyone confirm what this is and how I cure it please?

[Cat]

Could it be saltpeter (salpêtre)?

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/555851/ShowPost.aspx

 

[Keni]

Thanks Cat  - I wrote on that post about Thomsons stuff, as the wall was dry - this has started up on another wall - against the garage of an empty house and our linking wall. I presume it is damp and now there is a new roof this might stop in time?

I will check up what saltpetre looks like. Thanks.

[seleandijon]

i would say saltpetre too - and the height you mention would indicate rising damp

[JohnRoss]

If you scrape some off and mix it with an equal quantity of sugar or icing sugar and you put a match to it and it burns like stink it almost certainly is saltpetre. Has to be dry though. Caution such a mix is an explosive! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate ........................JR