Throat inflammation may cause difficulty in swallowing, breathing. Respiratory difficulties, which may be severe if the chemical is inhaled. Leave for a few hours or overnight to give it time to draw out the remaining solvent vapors and to absorb them. Sweep up and repeat, if necessary, until all the fumes are eliminated. Fresh polyurethane can be walked on as soon as all signs of wet finish disappear.
Is water based polyurethane waterproof? Neither water borne nor oil based poly are waterproof , but they are both water resilient. There is also a misperception that water based poly isn't as durable as oil based poly, and the truth is that it depends which brand of water borne poly you are using. Water based polyurethane doesn't smell as bad. For a regular house, it will not make much of a difference to your neighbors, and I will also point out that both water based and oil based poly smell , and I still recommend that customers go away or stay somewhere else while this work is being done.
Length of time to dry for water based polyurethane: hrs before you can walk on the floors. Hours , you can walk on the floors with socks.
After 2 days, you can move furniture back. It's ideal to wait 1 week before dogs walk on the floors unless they use doggie socks. I think you'll be completely fine with one week cure time. You could probably get by with less, but a week to be completely safe. He has an over-productive olfactory system with absolutely zero tolerance for unpleasant aromas. View all posts by Joe Fresh. Joe we just had out floor installed and 2 coats of polyurethane over stain white oak, our basement smells really bad of the poly.
Onion, lots of it. Absorbs it nicely. I redid a portion of my red oak flooring in a bathroom and had to have it done and ready quickly because my mother was coming to stay and she had respiratory ailments.
I polyeurethaned the night before she came and hung cut onions in a bag on the door and closed it. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content. How to Get Rid of Polyurethane Smell from Floors 1 Open the Windows The good news is that the stench from even the smelliest polyurethane will eventually dissipate.
Published by. Even that would not be great for the indoor air quality, because in the largest room that was refinished, the wood floor is glued down to concrete - so sanding off the glue would be bad, too. But at least the glue is cured and no longer offgassing Just to be clear VOCs are not always detectable by scent. Think skunk smell vs. Carbon Monoxide. One is very heavy on odor but not deadly. The other is deadly but odourless. You would have to make some sort of comment to support "defective oil based polyurethane".
When oil based is defective it does several things to tell you it is defective. The most immediate thing it does is cause "fish eyes" or splotches This is often followed by failure to cure remains tacky. I'm not sure if this is what you mean by "Defective oil based polyurethane" If you have a good looking finish that has hardened enough to move furniture back into the space should have been "ready" by day after the final coat then it is not considered "defective". Smell or off-gassing is not considered a defect.
But it does depend on your brand. Oil based polyurethane has both odourless VOCS and a heavy odour. Still need to add finish. What was the brand they used on your floor? Wondering if we were told the flooring contractor would use water-based Bona Mega but really received an oil-based polyurethane. We were told we could move in last Saturday after work was finished Friday. It's Wed now, and the place still stinks. There are no screens up, so we've had doors and windows open in the cool mornings and have temporary run the old-style house fan and the HVAC fan or AC during the day and nights.
Is this normal for water-based polyurethane? And is it actually bad for our heavy furniture be on the floors before they're cured? Bona Mega shouldn't have this type of profile. The odor is defined as "non offensive" No one should say you can move back in "the next day" after floors are refinished. There is only one type of product that has this type of "time line" and Bona Mega is NOT one of them You did not get a water based polyurethane.
You have an oil based polyurethane. If your contract said "Bona Mega" then you should get Bona Mega. If you did NOT get Bona, you have the ability to take this to the "boss" and to get some sort of compensation. Either they redo the floors or they offer financial compensation. Check your contract to find out what was applied. Be aware that furniture installed over top of a partially cured finish could "sink" into the finish They can get stuck in the finish.
If you ever move the furniture you could "tear open" the finish because it stuck to the bottom of the furniture. Before you move furniture back in you need to know WHAT product was used That's around about the time you can move furniture back in without worrying about the furniture sticking to the finish. Im surprised reading all this. I was searching around for info, I currently have all windows and all doors open and the smell is honestly not bad.
I'm sure with the house closed up it would be, but I called the company and asked about the odor, and I asked if it was safe to be in the house during the process and he told me yes and to open up the house for airflow.
We did get an oil based poly. Should I be concerned?? I just came back in after being gone the whole day, and the smell isn't anything alarming, it's pretty mild. Could be an oil modified product. Lower VOC content with lower odour. The real test will come once you close the doors and let the interior heat up. That's when you can decide about the odour. And to be clear If they used Minwax stain sigh Just WAIT until they throw down the 3 layers of product over the next 3 days or so.
And the oil based finishes can take as much as days to cure. If you are having a hard time with the stain You may not be able to handle a month in your basement with the smell. Just a little FYI. Please check the brand and the product name You could be in for a bumpy ride with the olfactory offenses.
Cancork, or anyone else, can you please advise: Our contractor will be refinishing our floors in 2 weeks. They typically use Dura Seal oil based stain and poly I believe this is the step up from Minwax.
They have worked with other products as well, including Rubio monocoat. After reading all of these posts, I am wondering if it is safer, and wiser to use a water based process? Or is there another alternative? I am not as concerned with odor as with safety from off gassing. Also, we have pets, and I am concerned that if it takes several weeks to fully cure, that the animals claws will scratch up the new finish before it has cured.
We live in the northeast and I'm guessing it will be pretty humid here in July. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Dura Seal and Minwax are made by the same company. They come from the same chemistry lab The water based polyurethanes can be less than half the VOC content than the oil based. Beware the floor "guy" who says, "Sure. I'll give it a try. What's the name again? HappyEmpire and HouseFlip32 , I'm about to order air quality testing to assess the level of aliphatic hydrocarbons VOCs from the refinished floors.
I asked the testing company what the reported levels would be compared to in order to establish whether they were hazardous or not, and they answered that the levels would be compared to ACGIH indices.
Is this the same comparison point that your air quality reports provided? If not, what standard or index was your testing compared to? I can't wait to move forward with the testing to prove to the flooring contractor that there is a problem and then have the floors pulled out. It's been nearly 4 months since the floors were refinished, and they still reek so much that I can't use half my house.
In fact, with summer coming and temperatures going up, the offgassing has increased rather than decreased over the last month. For the first few months after the refinishing, I couldn't bear to be in that part of the house with the windows closed, but I could stand it if the windows were open.
What were the results of the testing company? Now, 13 weeks later, the house still smells. My sister won't come over because she gets a headache, and pretty much anyone who comes in asks where that smell is coming from unless they're polite and don't say anything! I have aired out the house a ton, and it makes zero impact. As soon as the windows are shut again, the smell is just as strong as before.
My flooring guy is blaming it on the painter, and the painter is blaming it on the flooring guy. The whole house was painted at the same time the floors were being done I would love to have a definitive test so that I could prove to either of them that it is the floor or the paint although I'm pretty sure it's the hard wood floors because the basement does not smell and we had it painted and new carpet placed. Would love to hear any advice from people on what my options are, especially if there are companies that will test this for me.
And also, what I can expect the flooring guy to do to fix the problem. I had an environmental engineering firm test the air in the rooms of interest. The way it works is that they need to know what to test for - they can't just test for anything and everything that might be a problem. At that point I gave up on being able to prove to the original flooring contractor that there was a problem, and decided to just pay out of my own pocket to have the floors totally redone with prefinished wood.
I then chose new wood and a new flooring contractor, and paid thousands of dollars to have the old floors and baseboards totally removed, and new floors and baseboards installed. When they removed the old baseboards, they found gobs of finish that were still wet and tacky and off-gassing. That finish had been pushed under the baseboards during the refinishing process and had never dried. Thinking that the undried finish had been the only problem, I expected immediate improvement once the new floors went in since I used prefinished wood on the second go-round , but in fact what happened was that the odor was nearly as bad after the new floors went in.
At that point I realized that a big part of the odor problem had been and continued to be from offgassing of the glue used to glue the flooring down - not the finish, or at least not just the finish. The second flooring contractor used a low-odor glue on the upstairs room where the new flooring was glued to a plywood subfloor, but the downstairs room has a concrete foundation that the flooring got glued to, and he couldn't use that low-odor glue over the concrete.
The different glue used for the downstairs room has been a huge odor problem for me for months now. The odor upstairs was a problem at first, too, but that one improved faster than the downstairs room.
The second set of floors was installed in November of last year, and now it's May, and it's just now getting to the point where I can stand to be in the downstairs room.
For about 4 months after the new floors went in, I couldn't stand to be in that room at all. I am hopeful that in another months, I'll be able to go back to using my house normally. I don't know if my situation helps you at all, but at least if you pursue the idea of air testing, you will be aware of the limitations In my case I was sure the problem was from the finish; but actually it turned out it was probably more from the glue than from the finish. Caroline, no, I never considered an ionization machine.
I thought that ionization machines only help with particulate matter as opposed to gaseous substances diffused in the air. So I didn't think it could help remove gases from off-gassing. So much information here. I don't think I would have done the floors if I had known how much smell it was going to be.
We are getting ready to sell our home and thoujght it would help sell if they had been done. Here is the problem While living in the basement we decided to do the laundry The gas dryer reaks of the poly and all the clothes need re done. I just don't know how to get the smell off the heating coil in the dryer??? Also the fumes made the sensor on the hot water tank guit as well.
We had the repairman come in and he replaced the sensor but said it would continue to go each time they came to do each coat. With my husband being an electrician by trade he made sure that he took the sensor out and out it in a plastic bag in the garage while they were doing the coats, once the fans had run he replaced the sensor so we could shower and have hot water.
Is there anything we can but in the dryer to remove the smell before we start doing laundry again? Any help would be appreciated. I wanted to say thank you for warning us about potential off-gassing issues with mattresses, pillows, and rugs. I will need to buy a new mattress very soon, and in fact already started shopping for one. After reading your comments I'm thinking I would do best to stay away from any mattress that is even partially foam.
The last thing I need is to be breathing in off-gassed odors and chemicals all night, every night. About renovating -- I have remodeled 3 bathrooms in my house, and have not had any problem with off-gassing from the cabinetry each bathroom got a new vanity cabinet plus medicine cabinet.
That was Dynasty series semi-custom cabinetry from Omega Cabinetry. As far as standalone wood furniture, in the past when I have bought furniture that is "stock" premade furniture, I haven't had a problem with odors, because I guess by the time I took delivery, the furniture had finished off-gassing.
However, recently I did purchase a piece of custom furniture that was built to my specs and then delivered to me immediately after being built, and that definitely did have an odor when I received it, presumably from the finishes used. But the odor was not overwhelming, and it decreased and became undetectable within about weeks. Re: doors, a few years ago I bought some unfinished red oak Feather River interior doors from Home Depot, and had a handyman finish them in the garage here at the house with polyurethane no stain, just polyurethane sealer.
The two types of polyurethane include water-based and oil-based or solvent-based. When it comes to the different types of polyurethane finish sheens, they all will work and look differently on wood flooring. The three sheens include high gloss, semi-gloss, and fast-drying sheen.
This high-performance, the heavy-duty sheen is a two-component finish that will dry to be a very shiny surface. High-gloss polyurethane is typically used in industrial environments and is recommended for covering prepared metal like iron and steel. Semi-gloss polyurethane dries to a sheen that is a cross between gloss and flat.
This is typically found on woodwork, furniture, doors, floors, and cabinets and is applied using either a bristle or foam brush. Fast-drying types are quick-drying polyurethane that dries within 24 hours after application. This type of polyurethane sheen gives the wood a more subtle gloss while offering shine and a little additional color.
Polyurethane is available in many different forms, giving this varnish versatility allowing it to be used for a plethora of applications on materials. This varnish lasts for a long time and is one of the most common materials used for insulation and wood coatings including on wood floors.
Polyurethane contains isocyanates, a compound that can potentially harm your lungs upon exposure through inhalation or ingestion. Isocyanates are the raw materials that make up all polyurethane products, however, this chemical is a classified carcinogen that will cause irritation of skin and mucus membranes, chest tightness, and difficulty breathing.
Along with isocyanates, other harmful toxins such as VOCs reside within the polyurethane used on wood flooring that will become airborne into the environment and trigger health issues in this area. VOCs Volatile Organic Compounds evaporate into the air when the finishing product is wet and as it cures inside of the indoor space — these VOCs can include xylene, ethylbenzene, and acetates.
As these VOCs become airborne the process of off gassing begins in the environment for an undetermined amount of time, which will impact air quality and the health of those exposed to these off gassed VOCs. As we discussed earlier, there are different types of polyurethane varnishes that can be used on hardwood flooring in a home — some of which will contain a strong odor and others that will be seemingly odorless.
The type of polyurethane that is used can play a major role in the length and severity of off-gassing that occurs from new wood floors that are installed in a home. The VOC off-gassing will begin immediately upon installation of the flooring and will steadily be emitted into the air as the flooring dries.
How to speed up off-gassing?
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