Lingering ODOR polyaspartic polyurea decorative flooring

Greetings,
I am a new member to this site. My neighbor had a polyaspartic polyurea floor coating professionally put down a month ago. The floor is still off-gassing to the level that the garage cannot be entered even with a charcoal filter respiratory mask since the filter becomes saturated within minutes. Has anyone had this type of problem? The manufacturer of the products, side A and side B of the polyaspartic polyureas as well as the PM acetate solvent reducer will not evaluate the problem and the local contractor is not sure what needs to be done. I am concerned not only for my neighbor but also for myself since I can smell the odor next door! The neighbor tells me that the manufacturer instructed the contractor to use 25% solvent reducer. Can anyone help us understand what chemical reaction seems to be going on here? The floor is a bit tacky and tire tread marks are evident where some cars had been parked. Thanks. Bill G

BillyG said:

... The floor is a bit tacky and tire tread marks are evident where some cars had been parked. Thanks. Bill G

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wow, that sux.

can you claify "...tire tread marks are evident..."?

Sounds like the mix was off or the solvent was not compatible. I think they need to grind it off and start again.

Thanks for your note, Jaguar Fan. Of the 6 collector cars parked within this garage that was to be a "show garage," there were 24 patches of tire tread marks left from the cars parked in one spot over 3 weeks and these tread marks did not come up after detergent cleansing and vacuum rinsing the floor! Yes, my neighbor thinks it is the garage from H!

I just think polyaspartic polyurea is a funny name. It could really use an acronym. Polyaspartic PU sounds about right given the circumstances.

I wonder why the manufacturer won't help... I would imagine the contractor who did the work would be on the hook for this; I would imagine there is some form of warranty. On the chemistry side, it's difficult for me to imagine anyone other than the manufacturer being able to diagnose this (e.g. bad product, improper mixing, improper application technique, wrong temperature, etc etc etc)... but at the end of the day Fuller is probably right that the solution is to have the contractor remove it (hopefully under warranty) and try again (with, one would hope, a different product).

Where is Eric?

It sounds like the installer thinned it out too much and caused it to cure too slowly and improperly. For it to leave tire track indents and still smell........UUUUFF, they must of went way overboard with their reducer.

Usually manufacturers would recommend you use some acetone or MEK or other comprable chemical to thin it out in case the viscosity is thick and difficult to work with. Sometimes contractors use this method to thin it out to get more sqft coverage. Most of the time it'll bite them in the ***. This sounds like one of those cases. They are gonna have to completely remove that floor.

Jaguar Fan said:

I wonder why the manufacturer won't help... I would imagine the contractor who did the work would be on the hook for this; I would imagine there is some form of warranty. On the chemistry side, it's difficult for me to imagine anyone other than the manufacturer being able to diagnose this (e.g. bad product, improper mixing, improper application technique, wrong temperature, etc etc etc)... but at the end of the day Fuller is probably right that the solution is to have the contractor remove it (hopefully under warranty) and try again (with, one would hope, a different product).

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THANKS JAGUAR FAN AND ALL OTHERS, who have kindly given their opinion as to how to help. The manufacturer has taken the position that they just don't want to send their sales, tech or chemical experts on site as they "have never had this problem before." The local contractor states he does not have the product tech sheets although he "puts down one garage floor a day on average" in his business and these things "just don't happen." We suspect that the chemical off-gassing will be shown to be hazardous to human health and the chemicals have likely adsorbed down into the concrete substrate, walls, rafters, cars that had been parked there, etc., does anyone know about needing a environmental contractor to grind off the floor coating, clean up and resolve re-emissions of VOCs? Has anyone heard of this happening before to anyone or any floor coating? My neighbor has gotten physically ill upon re-exposure and has closed down his garage after having used high flow industrial fans and open doors/windows for nearly a month without any improvement in the floor coat system or off-gassing dilemma. EPA and other fed and state agencies don't take care of residential chemical exposure problems so it seems that despite paying Fed/State/local taxes and being a US citizen, we have no help from environmental agencies. My neighbor and I wish he never had this floor installed as 6 month old drab-looking concrete slab with a moisture barrier would not have been so bad on which to park cars!

Could you post the name/manufacturer of the product? It might help to narrow down the possible cause.

I'm surprised the installer doesn't have the MSDS available - not to get all legaleses - but that sounds like pail or two of 'not good.'

On the political side of the equation - maybe I'm too jaded and cynical, or maybe I've just had more experience with the government, but despite paying taxes it's really not wise to count on the government to do anything for you.

Greetings,
I am a new member to this site. My neighbor had a polyaspartic polyurea floor coating professionally put down a month ago. The floor is still off-gassing to the level that the garage cannot be entered even with a charcoal filter respiratory mask since the filter becomes saturated within minutes. Has anyone had this type of problem? The manufacturer of the products, side A and side B of the polyaspartic polyureas as well as the PM acetate solvent reducer will not evaluate the problem and the local contractor is not sure what needs to be done. I am concerned not only for my neighbor but also for myself since I can smell the odor next door! The neighbor tells me that the manufacturer instructed the contractor to use 25% solvent reducer. Can anyone help us understand what chemical reaction seems to be going on here? The floor is a bit tacky and tire tread marks are evident where some cars had been parked. Thanks. Bill G

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Hi Guys,
We're always SLAMMED before a holiday weekend. So, I haven't seen the forums here in about a week!

Bill, I got your message via our website. I totally misunderstood you. I thought that you were using one of our products but it doesn't sound like it anymore since we would have at least tried to helped a customer calling in. So... I take it that it is NOT our product??? We NEVER recomend thinning our Polyaspartic products. And, before anyone asks... No, we don't sell PAPU (Polyaspartic Polyurea) to anyone other than certified applicators.

Polyaspartics are VERY touchy chemistry. Basically, they chemically cure but moisture drives the reaction. The hardest thing to do is to slow this reaction down. Many applicators attempt to do that with solvent but it isn't a great idea... especially on concrete. When coating concrete, you have to consider the moisture in the air as well as the moisture in the concrete. The other thing is that these reactions usually start at the air/coating interface and work their way toward the substrate (concrete). UNLESS... you have a whole lot of moisture in the slab that is driving the reaction from the bottom up.

What it sounds like has happened here is that solvent has become trapped in the film (the surface cured before the solvent could evaporate) and is trying to get out. ***SAFETY*** I wouldn't smoke out there or do anything that could cause a spark if the odor is that bad. This is a pretty common failure mechanism for many types of solvented paints.

Either too much solvent was used, too thick of a film applied, humidity was too high, the concrete had alot of moisture in it, or the product was subjected to atmospheric moiture (like leaving the lids off of partial kits or something). I guess one more option would be that the PM Acetate had moisture in that!

Unless the manufacturer forbids thinning of the product this is most likely a mistake that the contractor made. If the manucfacturer does allow thinning the product by 25% and they supplied the solvent... THEN... they could have some responsibility.

Oh, I guess I probably need to spell it out that... from the information you have given... that floor will need to be removed (without creating a spark) and redone.

We're all curious who the manufacturer is that won't help a person out.

WolverineCoatings said:

Hi Guys,
We're always SLAMMED before a holiday weekend. So, I haven't seen the forums here in about a week!

Bill, I got your message via our website. I totally misunderstood you. I thought that you were using one of our products but it doesn't sound like it anymore since we would have at least tried to helped a customer calling in. So... I take it that it is NOT our product??? We NEVER recomend thinning our Polyaspartic products. And, before anyone asks... No, we don't sell PAPU (Polyaspartic Polyurea) to anyone other than certified applicators.

Polyaspartics are VERY touchy chemistry. Basically, they chemically cure but moisture drives the reaction. The hardest thing to do is to slow this reaction down. Many applicators attempt to do that with solvent but it isn't a great idea... especially on concrete. When coating concrete, you have to consider the moisture in the air as well as the moisture in the concrete. The other thing is that these reactions usually start at the air/coating interface and work their way toward the substrate (concrete). UNLESS... you have a whole lot of moisture in the slab that is driving the reaction from the bottom up.

What it sounds like has happened here is that solvent has become trapped in the film (the surface cured before the solvent could evaporate) and is trying to get out. ***SAFETY*** I wouldn't smoke out there or do anything that could cause a spark if the odor is that bad. This is a pretty common failure mechanism for many types of solvented paints.

Either too much solvent was used, too thick of a film applied, humidity was too high, the concrete had alot of moisture in it, or the product was subjected to atmospheric moiture (like leaving the lids off of partial kits or something). I guess one more option would be that the PM Acetate had moisture in that!

Unless the manufacturer forbids thinning of the product this is most likely a mistake that the contractor made. If the manucfacturer does allow thinning the product by 25% and they supplied the solvent... THEN... they could have some responsibility.

Oh, I guess I probably need to spell it out that... from the information you have given... that floor will need to be removed (without creating a spark) and redone.

We're all curious who the manufacturer is that won't help a person out.

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First of all, we would like to express appreciation to all those, who have kindly responded and offered comments and suggestions regarding our neighborhood’s on-going “odor” dilemma…the dilemma is really more serious than an offensive odor!. [email protected] and Eric @Wolverine Coatings have asked for some specificity….We will name names and name products very soon after we speak with some additional experts by phone tomorrow. Please know that none of the known floor coating manufacturers and distributors of this blog site had anything to do with our problems.
Looking at the TDS, EDS and MSDS for human chemical hazards and referencing Eric’s note about volatility and sparks, we agree that the wildly abundant…and overpowering….VOCs off-gassing into the air within this garage over the past month could have triggered an nice, perhaps uncontrollable explosion considering that 6 battery tenders on all cars parked there for 3 weeks…good thing all doors, windows were open and industrial fans were in operation. Again, the manufacturer consistently has displayed no concern about our human safety or hazzardous chemical exposure despite requests for any of their local, regional or national representatives to come to the site to help us through this “unique” dilemma; and the only notice they sent us in the past few days was from their legal department admonishing us that any further communication will only be to their legal department. We have not even consulted an attorney and only wanted their expert help! This type of handling gives an end-user some pause and a few other things……….!

Please know that none of the known floor coating manufacturers and distributors of this blog site had anything to do with our problems.

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Thanks... that means... Not US!!! Wooo Hooo....

Again, the manufacturer consistently has displayed no concern about our human safety or hazzardous chemical exposure despite requests for any of their local, regional or national representatives to come to the site to help us through this “unique” dilemma; and the only notice they sent us in the past few days was from their legal department admonishing us that any further communication will only be to their legal department. We have not even consulted an attorney and only wanted their expert help! This type of handling gives an end-user some pause and a few other things……….!

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[email protected] and Eric @Wolverine Coatings have asked for some specificity….We will name names and name products very soon

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ouch... now I'm not sure I WANT to know. My goodness, I hope that these are not people I know... that are friends... or customers...

If they are taking that stance, you might not want to post the identity of who it is publicly. I mean, we're all curious... but... we don't want to know at your expense! Obviously, this company is being a big bully. They've got your cash and they have lawyers on staff. They figure that even if you go to court they can outspend you... this is so sad... I would file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau... right now... https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/GetStarted.aspx

most Polyurea products don't have any VOC's They may not have use the proper top coat is all I can think of. Need name of manufacturer. I know of one company that is pushing polyaspartic polyurea (Citadel) Good company may want to call them and ask some questions. tough product to work with because of hardening properties. Need to work quickly most floors are done in one day with this type of product

Bob

Thank you all for your helpful remarks. We posted a new thread: Floor Coatings 101: Learn From Our Mistakes!!!

With all due respect, there allways 3 sides of every story. Yours, theirs and the truth. We are only hearing your side. How do we know that what you are claiming is actually true? So far no pics. You claim a human health hazard..... Where is your proof? Maybe you are just a pain in the *** customer who made up a wierd complaint to avoid paying your final bill. We don't really know because you wont name names. If this is such a health hazard like you claim, there's gotta be at least 1000 local lawyers in the ready to file a suit for you.

Name names, show pictures and file a suit. Until then I will reserve judgement.

thegarageguy said:

With all due respect, there allways 3 sides of every story. Yours, theirs and the truth. We are only hearing your side. How do we know that what you are claiming is actually true? So far no pics. You claim a human health hazard..... Where is your proof? Maybe you are just a pain in the *** customer who made up a wierd complaint to avoid paying your final bill. We don't really know because you wont name names. If this is such a health hazard like you claim, there's gotta be at least 1000 local lawyers in the ready to file a suit for you.

Name names, show pictures and file a suit. Until then I will reserve judgement.

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thegarageguy
Senior Member


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Status: thegarageguy is offline
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Location: NJ Re: Lingering ODOR polyaspartic polyurea decorative flooring
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With all due respect, there allways 3 sides of every story. Yours, theirs and the truth. We are only hearing your side. How do we know that what you are claiming is actually true? So far no pics. You claim a human health hazard..... Where is your proof? Maybe you are just a pain in the *** customer who made up a wierd complaint to avoid paying your final bill. We don't really know because you wont name names. If this is such a health hazard like you claim, there's gotta be at least 1000 local lawyers in the ready to file a suit for you.

Name names, show pictures and file a suit. Until then I will reserve judgement.

thegarageguy
Senior Member


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Status: thegarageguy is offline
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 149
Location: NJ Re: Floor Coatings 101: Learn From Our Mistakes!!!
________________________________________
Even though your right to do the research, I hesitate to form a proper opinion because I and no one else on this board knows the facts. We are only hearing one side. For all we know the client is a borderline nut case. Or it can be the fact that the installer screwed up the mix and blamed the manufacturer. So this wouldn't make the manufacturer at fault. Plus, if it was a "bad" batch from the manufacturer, they would have a slew of complaints and failures where they would need to correct asap. I could understand why the manufacturer may not want to be bothered with this. Then again, I don't know all the facts.

Show pictures and name the contractors name. If its as bad as you say then its a free country, explain your experience. You can't be held liable for letting people know your experience with a company. If that was the case, ebay, angies list, craigs list and so on would be out of business. Come clean!

As for insurance, any legitimate company has to have insurance and should be able to provide you with a certificate of insurance. I usually have my insurance company send one out after we have recieved the contract and deposit.

Hi thegarageguy:
Thanks for your thoughtful, illuminating and humanistic postings. You sound very much like the manufacturer of our new floor coating! I mean it might be challenging to have an intelligent, coherent and logical conversation with someone whose personality exudes from this blog at about the same parts per million as our new floor coating off-gasses volatile organic compounds.
By your photo on this blog site, thegarageguy, it looks like you live "on the edge." So….let’s cut right to the chase: I will offer you the same amount I paid in-full 6 weeks ago, on the day of my new floor installation, about $7 K+, if you can endure a single night in my new garage. I will provide you with a handful of wax candles and a cigarette lighter just so you have the option for lighting your way, if you are fast enough, toward one of the 8 exit options from this garage where the air is laden with 100% volatile and flammable chemical compounds. Good luck or your safety! And by the way, just so you can plan ahead, there are two separate exit doors, including an industrial-sized overhead garage door…. and then there’s always one of the 6 windows. The $7K pot should more than cover your trip expenses down from the state of New Jersey, the Garden State.
Also, thegarageguy, it’s just so difficult, even with today’s most advanced cameras, to take JPEGS of VOCs or chemically-induced asthma; but here are a couple photos of our local area’s first response HAZMAT team inside and outside our long anticipated, new garage with its newly installed floor coating. HAZMAT was called at 3 weeks post installation because the manufacturer and the local contractor both refused to reveal the true nature of my “lingering odor” to which I was repeatedly exposed. HAZMAT identified a hazardous VOC situation and cautioned against humans or animals occupying this building, where PM acetate solvent reducer had been recommended and was used at 25% concentration by the local contractor.
A Ph.D. organic chemical expert, after evaluating this site in person, advised that this chronic, overwhelming off-gassing could go on for many years due to PM acetate’s very slow evaporation rate and the likelihood that excessive solvent got trapped below the surface coat.
There are also a couple other photos of the tacky floor surface area, including one picture showing 1 of 24 tire tread patch marks left behind by 6 cars that were removed just prior to the HAZMAT team’s visit.
Also, garageguy, industrial hygienist qualitative and quantitative air sampling testing results are pending, so that when the floor coating is ground off very soon, human safety can be proven through re-testing the air quality to avoid any further chemical re-exposure to hazardous re-emissions of VOCs……
The only purpose of my postings has been to inform unsuspecting consumers of unexpected, adverse results with what I thought would be a "simple" decorative floor coating for my special garage project.... and I thought I had all my bases covered! I don't plan to sue but I would like to occupy my garage someday again with a nice, 0% VOC decorative floor coating. Stay tuned....
http://s303.photobucket.com/albums/nn139/BillyG101/

BillyG said:

thegarageguy
Senior Member

Hi thegarageguy:
Thanks for your thoughtful, illuminating and humanistic postings. You sound very much like the manufacturer of our new floor coating! I mean it might be challenging to have an intelligent, coherent and logical conversation with someone whose personality exudes from this blog at about the same parts per million as our new floor coating off-gasses volatile organic compounds.

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I did post with all due respect, right? Now just because you call the cops doesnt mean there is a crime committed or just because you pull a firealarm doesnt mean there is a fire.

My point was that we didn't have the facts yet. You could be the nicest, most logical guy in the world, but then again you can be a nut case. I've done business with both, we just don't know you. Now reading a bit more of your response gives me pause. There is no need to lash out at me. I'm not the one who you contracted, focus your anger on them.

BillyG said:

but here are a couple photos of our local area’s first response HAZMAT team inside

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I see everyday Bunker gear and SCBAs....where's the pic of the HazMat truck?? or equipment used??

Well it sounds like a very solvent rich poly. It was not mixed right first of all, and there is no need to add a thinner to most polyaspartics. Flexmar, Citadel, and Instacoat all have thin thin products, dont use them indoors. Obviously someone put the floor down without knowing how to use it correctly. The problem with mixing it wrong, is you have the component sitting in the concrete.... big problem. MEK does not work in polyaspartics either, well at least the stuff i use. Acetone is the only thinner compatable.

xylene works fine in a lot of them as well... at least some of the ones i have used

BillyG said:

Greetings,
I am a new member to this site. My neighbor had a polyaspartic polyurea floor coating professionally put down a month ago. The floor is still off-gassing to the level that the garage cannot be entered even with a charcoal filter respiratory mask since the filter becomes saturated within minutes. Has anyone had this type of problem? The manufacturer of the products, side A and side B of the polyaspartic polyureas as well as the PM acetate solvent reducer will not evaluate the problem and the local contractor is not sure what needs to be done. I am concerned not only for my neighbor but also for myself since I can smell the odor next door! The neighbor tells me that the manufacturer instructed the contractor to use 25% solvent reducer. Can anyone help us understand what chemical reaction seems to be going on here? The floor is a bit tacky and tire tread marks are evident where some cars had been parked. Thanks. Bill G

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BillyG, please be my friend;it will be a good relationship

This thread reads like a script for "how to conjure up a tale that makes people scared to death of "polyaspartic polyurea decorative flooring products".

If you are going to have to take up the floor anyway, then you could cut and scrape off a sample and get it to ARDL (www.ardl.com) for analysis. They can tell you quantitatively and qualitatively what you have causing the off-gassing problem. However, if the contractor admits to adding 25% NBA to the coating (wow that is a lot to add - who's idea was that anyway?) then I'm sure that is what you are smelling. I pull up polyaspartic floors that exhibit adhesive failure about once a month. Without fail, I can smell the acetate still trapped in the coating. It is usually accompanied by the coating turning yellow in patches and splotches, by the way.

If the applicator added 25% NBA and the floor was applied in humid conditions then it should come as no surprise that there is a lot of solvent trapped in the coating.

Here is some math... If your floor is 1500 sq. ft. (I know you listed it above, but I can't find the exact number again on a quick look) and it is a polyaspartic floor applied in three coats at 6 mils each (most are thinner than that), then the applicator should have used about 17 gallons of material. If he added 25% NBA to the coating then that is about 4 gallons of solvent added to the floor. Four gallons of NBA is enough to coat 1500 square feet at just over 4 mils thick. If a quarter of the NBA (1 gallon) is 'stuck' in the coating, then it will be a long time before it all diffuses out. It will have a noticeable smell the entire time.

I'm sorry to hear about the problems you are having. I hope you get to post a positive solution in the near future.

Guys,

Do you realize that this thread is over a year old???

That floor is either fixed or the man is dead from exposure...

Does sound a bit like a camp fire horror story!

Done correctly this wouldn't happen. But done wrong - it can be, and has been, considerably worse.

What can happen is that the top skins over before the material below has cured, so it is encapsulated.

WCC has polyaspartic products in the catalog, but it's only sold to floor coating contractors because it takes specialized tools and techniques.

I'm no expert with it, not much call for it - primarily used in situations where a very rapid return service is paramount.

GeorgiaHybrid said:

Guys,

Do you realize that this thread is over a year old???

That floor is either fixed or the man is dead from exposure...

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Sigh - I missed the 2008 - that seems to happen more and more as I get older....

LOL

"That floor is either fixed or the man is dead from exposure..."

I didn't realize the thread was old, either!

Best laugh I've had all day!

We got involved in this project and I can tell you that while he was neither completely honest here... or with us... he did have a real problem.

Polyaspartics use moisture to drive the reaction. The problem is that when it is humid the coating will skin on the top and the skin will trap the solvent in the coating.

So, why the lingering odor?
It's a pressure cooker under the skin. And, the solvent is going to find a way out... typically through tiny micropores. Solvent or waterbased coatings typically have micropores that are created when solvent molecules exit the coating upwards during the cure. Basically, it leaves a trail as the solvent escapes but the coating has reached the stage (as it is getting hard) where it can't fill the trail back in.

So, the solvent escapes just a little bit at a time over a very long period of time.

According to 'the guy' or 'his neighbor' Sherwin Williams did in fact pay to grind the old coating off and redo it. Such a shame since he probably had about a million dollars worth of cars in that garage! The sure would have looked a lot better on a Wolverine floor!!!

In our opinion, Polyaspartics need to be applied by trained professionals.

BillyG if your still out there, please make me a friend so we can talk

WC - Thanks for the update.

I too am having odor issues with a floor coating I had installed in November, and which still has a really potent smell. Some places I read that the temperature at which it was installed at could have affected how it cured - they installed at about 8 pm on a November night, when it was about 40 out, left it overnight, then came back first thing the next morning to put the topcoat on. Very likely dropped into the 20s overnight. Still stinks pretty badly when we close up for even a short time and dramatically moreso whenever the floor gets wet (e.g., I hose it down). We've had the first couple of hot days of the year in the past week or so and it smells slightly less, but really not much less.

Getting very little help from the contractor who hasn't even told me exactly what product he used. He sent a TDS, but this doesn't identify the product by brand name - just says "100% Solids Polymer (Pigmented)" and that it's to be topcoated with "Poly-Hybrid Clear Coat." there's a warning in the TDS saying that you need to wait longer before topcoating the product at colder temperatures... I'm really not sure if 12 hours was long enough or not.

Either way, the contractor did come out to take a look - came in the garage and looked at us and just said he didn't smell anything. We were speechless, unsure if he was lying or just had no sense of smell left after working with these kinds of products for a certain amount of time. We sent a note after the visit underlining our concern and asking what else we could do to avoid having to remove the coating and start over. We got a fairly terse email back saying that there was in fact nothing they could do and that they now considered the matter closed, since they didn't smell any noxious odor.

Since I don't know what specific product they used, I don't yet have a manufacturer to contact.

We paid extra for a low VOC coating and we can barely spend more than a few minutes in the garage if it's been shut up for more than a few hours - as it is we leave the doors open a few inches whenever we're home and the two windows open a couple of inches 24/7 - and we can STILL smell it when we go in there.

Saw a note about the BBB - sounds like definitely worth pursuing.... but other than that, not really sure where to turn at this point.

Any recommendations? Anyone know a good attorney to handle this sort of thing (we're in Philadelphia suburbs, in case that should matter)?

Thanks, all - and in case you haven't seen it there's also another good thread on this topic, which I recommend checking out as well.

NCar said:

I too am having odor issues with a floor coating I had installed in November, and which still has a really potent smell. Some places I read that the temperature at which it was installed at could have affected how it cured - they installed at about 8 pm on a November night, when it was about 40 out, left it overnight, then came back first thing the next morning to put the topcoat on. Very likely dropped into the 20s overnight. Still stinks pretty badly when we close up for even a short time and dramatically moreso whenever the floor gets wet (e.g., I hose it down). We've had the first couple of hot days of the year in the past week or so and it smells slightly less, but really not much less.

Getting very little help from the contractor who hasn't even told me exactly what product he used. He sent a TDS, but this doesn't identify the product by brand name - just says "100% Solids Polymer (Pigmented)" and that it's to be topcoated with "Poly-Hybrid Clear Coat." there's a warning in the TDS saying that you need to wait longer before topcoating the product at colder temperatures... I'm really not sure if 12 hours was long enough or not.

Either way, the contractor did come out to take a look - came in the garage and looked at us and just said he didn't smell anything. We were speechless, unsure if he was lying or just had no sense of smell left after working with these kinds of products for a certain amount of time. We sent a note after the visit underlining our concern and asking what else we could do to avoid having to remove the coating and start over. We got a fairly terse email back saying that there was in fact nothing they could do and that they now considered the matter closed, since they didn't smell any noxious odor.

Since I don't know what specific product they used, I don't yet have a manufacturer to contact.

We paid extra for a low VOC coating and we can barely spend more than a few minutes in the garage if it's been shut up for more than a few hours - as it is we leave the doors open a few inches whenever we're home and the two windows open a couple of inches 24/7 - and we can STILL smell it when we go in there.

Saw a note about the BBB - sounds like definitely worth pursuing.... but other than that, not really sure where to turn at this point.

Any recommendations? Anyone know a good attorney to handle this sort of thing (we're in Philadelphia suburbs, in case that should matter)?

Thanks, all - and in case you haven't seen it there's also another good thread on this topic, which I recommend checking out as well.

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This contractor needs a beat down on Yelp if he is there and I would consider small claims court. It sounds like the installer didn't follow instructions. This is one of my worst fears with installing a floor in my attached garage. My wife can't even stand the smell of latex paint or polyurethane. I am sure if this happen to me, my wife would divorce me!