# Forum Home Renovation Flooring  Getting rid of smell from newly polished floor.  help!

## kaz11

Hi,  I have had my floors re-polished using Polycure.  The job looks great, but nearly 5 days after the last coat, the smell has gone into my cupboards, my fridge, has permeated the food in my pantry so much so that i have to throw food out and is making the house unlivable.  Whenever i spend any time in the house i get a chemical kind of taste in my mouth.  I am worried about my and my 5 month old babies health.  How do i get rid of the smell?  I have had floors polished before and not had this experience.   The house has been open now with fans on for 4 full days.  Please help?

----------


## Dusty

Have you spoken to the sander about this?

----------


## kaz11

Yes, I rang the Sander and he said that it isn't usually that bad and that he hasn't heard of it impacting in that way, that its smelly but not dangerous at this stage.  He is going to get the distributor to contact me.  He doesn't know any way other than what I am already doing.  This morning i have been here for about 10 mins and already the taste has returned to my mouth.  Karen

----------


## Dusty

MMM? Definitely not normal, the smell should be well gone by this stage. I'm wondering if it was single pac or two pac polyurethane that was used? 
Oh, and good luck with getting a call from the distributor......May not happen. Your best bet will be to hassle the guy who applied the product. 
In the meantime, get several large Onions, cut them in half and place them cut side up in a bowl of water. To clarify: have three or four bowls of water with one whole Onion cut in half in each bowl, place them on the floor throughout the freshly polished area.

----------


## stevoh741

Ive also heard a bowl of vinigar is good to removing paint smells. Never tried it, not sure if it works, not sure if it does work for paint it will work for poly, but I gues you've got nothing to lose.

----------


## Gaza

Use waterbased floor coatings that are low in VOC's,

----------


## ringtail

> Use waterbased floor coatings that are low in VOC's,

  
x 2 with that.

----------


## The Livos Lady

if you are having issues with smell and taste, then take your kids out of there. their immune system is not developed and you don't know how they will be effected. rather safe then sorry.....and if it doesnt go away, consider having it sanded off again. find out at least the ingredients of the floor polish and check them out wiht a medical person or building biologist.

----------


## watson

Have you checked the Msds for Polycure???

----------


## kaz11

Hi thanks for your advice.  I have moved out of the house again. In the end i will have been out of the house 2 weeks.  The guy that did our floors has been very helpful and put me in touch with the manufacturer.  They acknowledge that this can sometimes happen, particular in high heat, high humidity situations which Brisbane has been experiencing.  He gave me the same advice re the onions.  Unfortunately I have had to throw all the food out both in my fridge and pantry.  Will now switch the fridge off to air it out.  It has also got into all my baby's bottle teats, which i will also have to throw out.  I will have to wash all the clothes and linen in the house.....  I think i will only repolish in the winter now..... Karen

----------


## kaz11

Hi,  Do you know how long I should leave the onions in place for? Karen

----------


## Dusty

In my opinion: read wild arsed guess. Probably as long as it takes for you to be satisfied that the smell has subsided. If you feel that the onion thing may be working it would be a good idea to refresh them daily.

----------


## Larry McCully

Um! whats the onion going to do ?

----------


## stevoh741

> Um! whats the onion going to do ?

  Maybe you should read the thread before commenting?

----------


## Jim Carroll

> Maybe you should read the thread before commenting?

  Maybe you should answer the question. 
 Everyone assumes the onoin will get rid of the smell from paints etc, but how does it do this.

----------


## Gaza

> Maybe you should answer the question. 
>  Everyone assumes the onoin will get rid of the smell from paints etc, but how does it do this.

  does onion remove the VOC's from the building, i dont think so, there are many cases of "sick building's" where the internal envt of a building makes people sick.

----------


## stevoh741

> Maybe you should answer the question.

  Thanks for the clarification but the poster IMO was eluding to what it is going to do to which was answered in earlier posts that it will aid in reducing the smell/fumes from the room. As to how, who the hell knows, maybe a scientist reads these threads and can post and explain the reasoning however Larry asked WHAT is it going to do? not HOW is it going to do it. Big difference the way I read it. Oh and for clarification I don't know how/if it works and if Larry asked this then I probably wouldn't have answered or answered with "I don't know".

----------


## r3nov8or

It's the enzymes that do it  :Smilie:

----------


## stevoh741

sounds good to me  :Smilie:

----------


## Larry McCully

Thanks Jim, I was just about to call that guy a fat head and to chill out. Every body are friends here. And i know that i would be yanked from the thread if i did say that, so i wont call him those things, instead i will say something like ..... Its cool steve baby, i was being a bit facisious, and i did read the thread but found no reference to the use of the onion. but i realised that the onion was to try and obsorb the smell. And i have the same opionion as Jim...How does it do that. mabe you know what it does Steve.!!!!!!!  

> Maybe you should answer the question. 
> Everyone assumes the onoin will get rid of the smell from paints etc, but how does it do this.

----------


## stevoh741

How old are you Larry? "I was going to call him a fathead but now I won't......"very mature mate. I never meant to cause any offence by my original post but given the question posed by you (What is the onion going to do) then the answers were in earlier posts. Yet given your above post shows you still haven't read them as you ask me if I know when I clearly explained earlier that I did not know HOW it worked and maybe a scientist could provide an answer to that. So before you get on your high horse calling me a fathead then thinking you can negate it by saying you won't call me that maybe you could read the threads rather than wasting peoples time by having to answer the same thing twice. It is only in your most recent post after you resort to name calling before asking HOW it works. 
In addition you call yourself a timber floor contractor so being it your game and all you should have more of an idea than anyone as to how/why it works. If you have no idea then maybe you should find out and report back to the rest of us informing as to why it works. Who knows it may just give you that competitive edge when you can explain to a client 1. How to rid their house of the poly smell and 2. why it works. It may well make it look like you really know what your on about rather than being just another dumb tradie (general term) that has turned up to do the floor.

----------


## denaria

Maybe it also requires dancing round the onion dishes chanting incantations....

----------


## Larry McCully

That would work, i knew there was something to the onion bit. HMMMMMMMMM HmMMMMMMMMM raja raja boogie woogie cha cha cha
Thanks for sharing Steve. its always good to have a different slant of the subject.   

> Maybe it also requires dancing round the onion dishes chanting incantations....

----------


## Larry McCully

enzymes, hmmm that sounds good. Thats sort of tecnicall, teckneecal, tekkneekal, um techicnal !!!! doh   

> It's the enzymes that do it

----------


## stevoh741

> enzymes, hmmm that sounds good. Thats sort of tecnicall, teckneecal, tekkneekal, um techicnal !!!! doh

  I guess your just happy to fulfill your description from the last line of my last post. Well done champ!

----------


## r3nov8or

i wonder how kaz11 got on?

----------


## Larry McCully

I dont mind at all bro, i am having fun with it all. take a chill pill and breath a bit. You might find that life isnt to bad afterall. :Biggrin:   

> I guess your just happy to fulfill your description from the last line of my last post. Well done champ!

----------

