Odor After Refinishing Hardwood Floors

To me it s not worth the risk.

Odor after refinishing hardwood floors. The place is inhabitable now but the wood floors smell. What we have found is that even under the best of circumstances floor refinishing will likely double the chemical levels in your home. Get tips on how stripping the floor and finishing it can seal in the odor and how using an odor eliminating paint on ceilings and walls can get rid of bad smells in an old house. If you leave a shirt on the floor for a few hours it picks up a strong solvent like odor from the floor.

Water based polyurethane can have less of an offensive odor when compared to oil based products but floors require at least four coats to achieve the desired level of protection. It s not easy to get rid of the finish smell from hardwood floors. As we ve already mentioned it can take up to 30 days for the smell to go away. Some vocs in hardwood floor refinishing products include benzene formaldehyde toulen xylene and arsenic.

It s an old trucker s trick they used in refer units spread on the floor and wait 2 days no odor. I recommend to my clients not to finish the floors if they have kids as their lungs are still developing. Mix a small amount of bleach in a bucket of warm water if the floor has a musty odor or you notice any mold or mildew on the wood. The noxious odors and chemicals will not go away in a few days and sometime not in a few months.

Mop the entire floor with the bleach solution if the bleach does not change the wood s color. Test the solution on a small part of the floor to see if it has any adverse effects on the wood. Cut some squares out of a pair of panty hose big enough to hold 1 cup of coffee grounds. These things travel quite fast and fill out the air of the entire house in no time.

The floor should be mostly cured enough to live on in the first 5 7 days but it can take up to a month for the odors to be completely gone and for the finish to reach its maximum hardness. The grounds will absorb the odors in a few days. For the first few days airing out the house should be a priority. While oil based polyurethane only needs two or three coats the odor may be so strong the home is uninhabitable for several days.

It is especially noticeable when the windows are closed and in areas with gaps in the floor probably pooling. Learn how to eliminate odors from old hardwood floors and from ceilings and walls. Tie them up and put them where air will circulate around them. All of these materials off gas at normal room temperature leading to dizziness eye.