polyaspartic polyurea coating - mild smell 6 months later, asthma problems

[heythereguy]

Hi. 6 months ago we had a company do a polyaspartic coating in our garage. It looks great and we have since put a desk in the garage so we can use it as a work space. However, we are having an issue with smell / fumes: I can work in the space without a problem, but my wife, who had asthma when she was younger, has been getting recurrences of her asthma symptoms when she spends extended time in the garage. After the work was initially done, the smell was quite strong, but it did dissipate within a few weeks. I can still smell it slightly, but it doesn't bother me at all. It also doesn't bother my wife now if she's in there for a short time. But if she spends more than an hour doing work in the space, she will definitely have symptoms the following day (or same day if she's been in there for a really long time).

Is this normal? Is there anything else we can do to help with the smell? Will it get any better even after 6 months have already passed, or is this likely as good as it will get? The garage itself is not well-ventilated, but my wife still had a problem even when she worked with the garage door open most of the day. I know there are a lot of other threads about the smell being unbearable-- but our problem isn't exactly that. It's specifically my wife's asthma issue from being in the garage for a prolonged period of time.

A couple other things particular to our situation-- I do recall that it was an atypically rainy day when the bulk of the work was done in the garage. They set up some over-head tarps to keep moisture out of the garage even with the garage door open, but again, it was pouring outside. I'm not sure if that could have caused problems from the beginning. I also live in southern California, so even in December when we had it done the temperatures at night dip down into the 40s at the lowest, and typically back up into the 50s during the day. Lastly, we are only about 1 mile from the beach, so not sure if the sea air could have any effect on it.

Thanks!

 

[Shea]

Unfortunately, this is one of the few, but common complaints that raises its ugly head from time to time with professional polyaspartic installations. Polyaspartic coatings cure faster and allow for one-day installation and return to service the next day. Time is money and some installers don't allow the base color coat to cure long enough before applying the clear coat. The remaining solvents in the base coat get trapped and slowly leach out over a period of months. Nothing short of replacing the coating will keep that from happening until all the solvents in the base coat have dissipated.

What is interesting is that higher humidity actually accelerates the cure time of polyaspartics. They may have anticipated that and thought they could apply the clear coat much sooner than they should have or they may have used an additive that slows the curing time to counteract the effects of the high humidity and didn't wait long enough for the base coat to cure.

An ozone generator can be used to remove organic contaminants from the air, but there are other potential health effects to consider before using one. I would suggest reading up on them before you try one.

 

[dcg9381]

I've done several polyurea floors and love the stuff. But it does VOC off gas like crazy. I just completed another floor yesterday (doing a cargo trailer) and there is no way I could set foot in that thing for another 72 hours.

I have polyurea in my home (indoors) - we did it while the house was past framing, just before drywall.. No doors, so I suppose that helped.

I have read (I believe here) at least one other post like yours, so you're not the only one.

If it were me, I'd open up that garage and run some large fans in it for about a week.

The other option (perhaps) is venting the garage (actively). We have an "attic fan" in our garage - I use it on a thermostat so it gets triggered when the heat soaked cars park in there. Basically we pull air up into a "sealed" attic area (sealed by foam insulation to the living areas) that has perforated soffits for vents.


Your wife had no issues in the garage prior to the coating? Or was this new construction?

 

[Andy Smith Jr.]

Hi. 6 months ago we had a company do a polyaspartic coating in our garage. It looks great and we have since put a desk in the garage so we can use it as a work space. However, we are having an issue with smell / fumes: I can work in the space without a problem, but my wife, who had asthma when she was younger, has been getting recurrences of her asthma symptoms when she spends extended time in the garage. After the work was initially done, the smell was quite strong, but it did dissipate within a few weeks. I can still smell it slightly, but it doesn't bother me at all. It also doesn't bother my wife now if she's in there for a short time. But if she spends more than an hour doing work in the space, she will definitely have symptoms the following day (or same day if she's been in there for a really long time).

Is this normal? Is there anything else we can do to help with the smell? Will it get any better even after 6 months have already passed, or is this likely as good as it will get? The garage itself is not well-ventilated, but my wife still had a problem even when she worked with the garage door open most of the day. I know there are a lot of other threads about the smell being unbearable-- but our problem isn't exactly that. It's specifically my wife's asthma issue from being in the garage for a prolonged period of time.

A couple other things particular to our situation-- I do recall that it was an atypically rainy day when the bulk of the work was done in the garage. They set up some over-head tarps to keep moisture out of the garage even with the garage door open, but again, it was pouring outside. I'm not sure if that could have caused problems from the beginning. I also live in southern California, so even in December when we had it done the temperatures at night dip down into the 40s at the lowest, and typically back up into the 50s during the day. Lastly, we are only about 1 mile from the beach, so not sure if the sea air could have any effect on it.

Thanks!

The contractor should of never installed the system on a rainy day. I agree with Shea on ozone generator but just read up on it before using.

 

[haugy]

The contractor should of never installed the system on a rainy day. I agree with Shea on ozone generator but just read up on it before using.

To the OP, heed Andy's suggestions on reading up on an Ozone generator. They can do some damage to certain things and make a mess if not properly used. Great on smells, but hard on other things.

 

[CombatNinja]

What's with all these members with one post complaining about fumes from their garage floor? Then they disappear forever. Seems like a weird way for the Chinese to undermine American society.

 

[craigdt]

If there's one thing Im an expert on, its odors.

Among other bizarre reasons for why I consider myself an expert, I just had new carpet, pad, primer, paint, and furniture installed in half of my house.

It was ofgassing VOC's horribly. Headaches, odors, etc.

What you need is industrial-grade carbon filtering, and its very reasonable.
Forget those cheap chinese air filters on Amazon.

Get yourself a Terrabloom carbon filter and duct fan.
Mount the duct fan on top, place a grille of the matching size on top of the duct fan, and you have a purpose built VOC and ordor filter.

I have 4 of these in my house now.
2, 4-inchers in small bedrooms, 1 6-incher in a larger living room, and 1 larger 8-incher in the basement where 3 cats take care of their business.

Basically, they are a really heavy, 2 inch thick bed of carbon pellets.
They specifically trap the VOCs as the air moves thru the filter.
You run the fan on low speeds to ensure plenty of dwell time thru filter.
They have a little cotton pre-filter on the outside to catch particulate matter before it gets thru the carbon.
They work remarkably good. The big one was something like $250 total, between the filter, fan, and little grille.
I'd get an 8" unit for a garage.

Edit:
Ozone generator did not help in my case. I'd try the carbon filter first.

Filter:
https://terra-bloom.com/products/te...-tents-hydroponics-odor-and-smoke-elimination

Fan:
https://terra-bloom.com/products/te...-and-hydroponics-airflow-boosting-710-cfm-75w

Grill- just search something like "8" round duct grill" or whatever on amazon.

The fan just sits on the filter, it ***** air thru the bottom, and blows nice, filtered, VOC-free air thru the top.

Here's the 4 incher:



And the 8 incher. This thing moves serious air:

 

[heythereguy]

Wow, thanks so much everyone for responding. This was a lot to process and I honestly have to re-read it all again and do some research into some of the suggestions (unfortunately, I'm not super handy and so am a bit of a noob). I will post an update once I've made some decisions or if I have any other questions. I'm super grateful for all your responses!