Walls are sticky

[Bienes Raices]

My offer was just accepted on an REO. There is visible mold in one closet (photo below), but also the walls in some of the rooms seem to have a sticky feeling. I don't mean that there's actual goop or liquid on the walls, more that the walls have kind of a tacky feeling to the touch (kind of hard to explain without actually touching it). Does this usually mean that there is mold or wetness present throughout house? What causes sticky wall? If it matters, the AC was removed so it's warm in the house.

[Ralph S.]

Not sure they are related. More likely some kind of smoke or something they did in the rooms contributed to the sticky surface. As far as the picture, you need to find and stop the source of the water. What's on the other side of the wall? Bath or exterior? Then again, it could have come from a pair of tenants I once had. I called them The Piglets. Always had to stay on them to clean the place up. Finally had enough. They bailed on the fifth day of the 5 day I served, leaving the clothes. In their bedroom closet, they piled up a bunch of wet clothes, then piled more, dry clothes on top. Under the dry ones, the wet ones had "molded" themselves together and against the wall. It looked a lot like your picture after the clothes were bagged.

[Bienes Raices]

Originally posted by Ralph S.:
Not sure they are related. More likely some kind of smoke or something they did in the rooms contributed to the sticky surface. As far as the picture, you need to find and stop the source of the water. What's on the other side of the wall? Bath or exterior? Then again, it could have come from a pair of tenants I once had. I called them The Piglets. Always had to stay on them to clean the place up. Finally had enough. They bailed on the fifth day of the 5 day I served, leaving the clothes. In their bedroom closet, they piled up a bunch of wet clothes, then piled more, dry clothes on top. Under the dry ones, the wet ones had "molded" themselves together and against the wall. It looked a lot like your picture after the clothes were bagged.

Thanks Ralph. I was wondering the same thing--are they related? Since that mold is in a separate room from the sticky walls. Perhaps the walls just need to be repainted (I hope). There is a heavy dog stink in the carpeted rooms. Maybe they were smokers too? I don't get the impression that the house was flooded.

I'm planning to have a mold person come out and do an evaluation during my inspection period to find out how bad it is and go back to bank with evidence if necessary.

[Don Hines]

Could be the two problems are not related. Search out the mold problem as already recomended. The "sticky" problem could be anything. My first thought is when I had the Piglets about twenty years ago. The cooking grease was so thick all over the apartment, you could scrape it off with your fingernails. Amazingly, I was called to inspect their roach problem. I sure don't miss being a landlord.
Don

[Steve Babiak]

Cooking grease is definitely a candidate for this, as Don has already mentioned. Not sure if you'd see that anywhere other than the kitchen, though - and you said that it is in more than one room ...

Maybe it could be wallpaper related, if they had (or planned) wallpapering.

Since it is REO, it could even be former occupants extracting some "revenge" upon the bank in the form of "abuse of house".

[Bienes Raices]

Originally posted by Steve Babiak:
Cooking grease is definitely a candidate for this, ".

I was back over at the house yesterday and I don't think it is as bad as I thought originally. That was my impression too though, grease in the kitchen perhaps from not using the exhaust or frying a lot of stuff. The fact that AC was stolen is probably not helping humidity levels in house either.