# low odor VOC paint smell-help!



## ShineliketheSon (Aug 20, 2008)

My husband painted our daughter's room 3 weeks ago with Olympia low odor paint from Lowe's. We were not told that by adding tint it highers the VOC, well her room is a deep pink so who knows how many VOCs were added. Anyway, the paint went on with little odor but now 3 weeks later it still smells in there. It isn't even like a paint smell, I can't even describe it. We've opened windows almost everyday, even putting a fan in the window to suck the smell out and spraying aresol spray...nothing is working. Our daughter is still sleeping in her old room cause I can't put her in there with that smell... I hate even stepping in the room. I wish we had just done regular paint because the room would be back to normal smelling by now! Any suggestions on how to get this smell out? Do you think painting over would work or washing the walls? This is so frustrating!







:


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## wobblykate (Apr 14, 2008)

I don't know, I'm sorry







. I wouldn't use the aerosol sprays, tho. They only mask smells and the chemies are bad for the babies, too. GL and hopefully they smell will dissipate.


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## treehugginhippie (Nov 29, 2004)

That would be very frustrating! I have 2 air purifiers so if experienced that I'd use 1 of those but don't have any other suggestions.


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## wobblykate (Apr 14, 2008)

How about ozone machines? I know they use those to get smoke smell out of houses that have fires. You might be able to rent/borrow one. Or I think they sell them places like sharper image. Probably expensive, tho.


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## MamaMonica (Sep 22, 2002)

moved to Mindful Home Management







.


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## slsurface (May 8, 2007)

We used the same Olympic paint throughout our house. I didn't notice strong oder, but we also chose lightly tinted colors. Just so you know, the amount of tint that goes into paint to color it is very minimal, so there is still probably very little VOC's in your paint (unless it's a _really_ dark color). I used to mix paint for a living







, that's why I know this.

As for getting rid of your oder. STOP using aresols - those are adding to your VOCs, not reducing them! Second, I would us a good air purifier with a HEPA filter. I wouldn't recommend an ozone machine, because they are not healthy (http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html). But a HEPA filter will pull any chemicals out of the air and make it safe to breath. Good luck.


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## babycarrier (Apr 2, 2004)

We just had the same problem with the same paint. The smell is finally gone after almost a month. We just kept the windows open whenever we could.

The stuff stinks. Paint coverage was good but I didn't expect the lingering smell. There are so many other chemicals, not just the voc in paint. I'm looking into Milk Paint for the kid's rooms.


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## ShineliketheSon (Aug 20, 2008)

Finally the paint smell is out...we repainted the room using a strong odor blocker primer/sealer then DH repainted with our normal Behr paint we use (same color). Well it was much better but still had a faint smell for a month...we aired it out, used an ozone machine and put alot of plants in it but what really got the smell out was the box we left in the room after getting DD a new large dresser, go figure, must have absorbed the smell, we also have a small plug in air freshner I'll leave in for a few weeks...The yucky smell is now gone and DD has been enjoying her new room for 2 nights! We even got started on baby's room...NO painting though, not going through that again!


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## annekevdbroek (Jun 5, 2005)

I had the same experience with Sherwin Williams low VOC paint. It smelled much worse amd much stronger than Behr. It also cost almost twice as much!


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## alinajoy (Dec 9, 2006)

Just in case this will help someone reading this thread... always buy ZERO VOC paint. Lowes and Home Depot carry it now. low-voc varies a lot by manufacturer and the only way to make sure you are getting toxin-free is to go for zero voc.

all the best
alina


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## MrsMike (Aug 4, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *alinajoy* 
Just in case this will help someone reading this thread... always buy ZERO VOC paint. Lowes and Home Depot carry it now. low-voc varies a lot by manufacturer and the only way to make sure you are getting toxin-free is to go for zero voc.

all the best
alina

Are they really expensive? We want to paint our apartment, but I heard the low and zero voc paints were pretty dang expensive.


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## kanga1622 (May 23, 2005)

We bought no-VOC paint at Lowe's to paint our guest room. It was about $35 a gallon so quite a bit more than regular paint. The brand we used had no-VOC tint as well.

I'm really sensitive to smells so it didn't smell much different to me going up and it took a good week for the smell to dissipate but the first few days we kept the door closed to that room to keep the dog out while we finished cleaning up.


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## Barcino (Aug 25, 2004)

Oh goodness so glad to hear this because we are going through the same thing. Painted Aura benjamin moore Low VOC 4 weeks ago and we still have residual smell in the room when we close it up. I am loosing my mind. We are going to give it another two weeks of fans blowing out and then I am going to get some transitional primer to AFM safecoat to cover this stinky paint and hopefully mitigate the issue.

Thankfully I had a air quality guy come yesterday to test the air and after being closed up for 5 days he found low voc levels. So that made me feel better but still I want the smell gone 

Thanks for following up the post - gives me hope. I know this is an old old post but I wanted to bring it back in case anybody else is dealing with this.

Waiting to hear from Benjamin Moore if there is an issue with the paint or what. Sigh. You try to do the best and you end up worse than if you had used cheap regular paint


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## Yve (Jun 17, 2014)

*Month later paint is still of gassing!*

We painted our son's room and it continues to of gas chemical type of smell. 
I washed his bedding it also now smells like the of gas smell in the air. 
The odor has seeped into his bedding. 
Washed and continues to smell like what is in the air. 
Re washing again to see if this is permanent, maybe need to throw out the bedding.

Our other rooms do not smell like this. 
We painted the whole house, same brand and this is the only room which continues to linger with some sort of a of gas residue from the paint. 
The room was painted in different color, perhaps it is in the tints and not in the base of paint.

We are trying the card board box trick as previously mentioned. 
Also trying the cut up onions in bowls of water.
We shall see.


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## Keldal (Jun 18, 2014)

I'm so glad you posted this thanks!! We always use Benjamin Moore Aura becames I have serious chemical allergies and must use no VOC paint in our home. We've painted a few rooms these last few months with no issues. However, yesterday I was painting our bedroom and half way through got very ill. Here the Aura paint smells horribly!!! It has never smelled before, so I'm blown away at how badly it stinks! I can't begin to describe how sick I am from the paint!

I called my paint store and they have never had complaints about this batch of Aura. I called Benjamin Moore and they did file a report. They will send the remaining paint to the lab to find out what is happening. Benjamin Moore told me to return the paint to the store and get an entire new batch of paint. (Or refund). While I appreciate that, it doesn't fix how sick I am, or the fact that we can't use the bedroom until the smell dissipates. I asked if there was anything we can put on the walls to seal the odor, but they said no. This is so frustrating!

Do you have the batch code from your can of paint? I'd love to know if it was the same batch as ours!! 
Kelley


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## Barcino (Aug 25, 2004)

Ladies with the recent Aura paint issues please contact me directly. I will send you batch numbers and info.


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## ShantelPace (Jul 8, 2014)

I think you should use room freshener. If it is not working, then there is only one solution, change the paint. Take some other brand's paint and before painted it, smell it and check that your daughter likes it or not.


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## michaell (Jun 20, 2015)

ShineliketheSon said:


> Finally the paint smell is out...we repainted the room using a strong odor blocker primer/sealer then DH repainted with our normal Behr paint we use (same color). Well it was much better but still had a faint smell for a month...we aired it out, used an ozone machine and put alot of plants in it but what really got the smell out was the box we left in the room after getting DD a new large dresser, go figure, must have absorbed the smell, we also have a small plug in air freshner I'll leave in for a few weeks...The yucky smell is now gone and DD has been enjoying her new room for 2 nights! We even got started on baby's room...NO painting though, not going through that again!


May you please share what primer-sealer you have used to block the paint odor?


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## hannaomar (Feb 16, 2021)

Usually the finish type of the paint doesn't have anything to do with the smell. Lowe's Olympic Icon paint is no VOC. It's not the greatest paint in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but gets the job done really well if you keep stirring it while using it! Recently I used the semi-gloss of the same paint in a bathroom, and we were smelling it for 2 weeks. Unfortunately time is the only real solution. For the future reference, If you're looking for a top of the line paint, I'd highly recommend to use odourless interior wall paints .


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