Radams2233
Member
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2022
- Messages
- 8
Hi everyone,
I would love to ask for advice from some who know. I have read through the other threads on this but didn't find exactly what I am looking for so I am posting a new thread.
In Feb 2022 I had some attic rain because the house we purchased had no ridge vent on the garage. So I took this as an opportunity to fix up our garage. We spray foamed the roof for insulation, left it exposed (14ft high ceilings so it's an industrial look) and painted it black with a water based paint, fixed up some drywall along the walls and epoxy'd the floor.
The timing and product details are:
1. Spray foam completed June 8, 2022 - JM CORBOND® IV
2. Epoxy Floor was July 18 - 23, 2022 - Epoxy was Pure Epoxy PE-100 : STANDARD EPOXY CLEAR, and the Poly aspartic top coat was Pure Epoxy PP-S85 : HYBRID HI-PERFORMANCE POLYASPARTIC (SLOW-NO ODOR)
So there was some spacing b/w the 2 items being done and I believe the product itself was a quality product. I didn't notice anything after the spray foam, but the epoxy floor was different:
First, then the floor was being put in they were also building a berm along the wall perimeter to help the sloping as water was settling there. When this was being done we noticed a terrible smell in the house. I asked the applicator and he said they were using Xylene with a product to build the berm, but they would switch to methyl hydrate (this was when half the wall berm was done). It was along the wall about 2 feet grading out from the wall. They continued and completed the berm, finished the Epoxy base and did the topcoat for Polyaspartic.
When followed has been a nightmare. I noticed that after the week they told me it would take for it to settle, that there still seemed to be a smell. It wasn't as strong as pure Xylene or anything, but a chemical smell. It would go away if i left the garage door open but build up again as soon as it was closed. It was bad and got worse in the heat. So basically left the garage door open and had fans running for months. I tried venting the floor as much as I could but we felt like there was something coming into the house. We have 2 very young children so I have been really worried about this. The applicator was suppose to be a good guy but has been terrible. He refused to do anything about it. Since then I have:
1. VOC testing completed for Xylene = below detection limits <0.42 ppm
2. VOC testing completed for Benzyl Alcohol = below detection limits <0.26 ppm
3. VOC testing completed for HDI Monomer = below detection limits <0.0002 ppm
4. TVOC testing ranged up to 2,200 ppb which was high
5. Also tested for Isocynates incase there was something coming off the spray foam, but everything tested below any detection limits. The ones tested were 1,6 Hexamethylene Diisocynate + 2, 4 Toluene Diisocynate + 2, 6 Toluene Diisocynate + 4, 4, Methylene Biphenyl Diisocynate
During this period we became hypersensitized to something that was fuming in there. So in early October we had the floor torn out. A different applicator came in, used a diamond grinder to get it out. This did what was needed on the main space but the wall footings and tops of the stairs are still remaining. He removed everything else including the berm. He used a vacuum but i don't know how good it was because it was super dusty. So I took a backpack blower and blew out everything i could a few times over. There is still about a 1/2 foot left near the garage door as there is a drain trough that they could not grind around. I was planning on doing that come spring.
Since then, the issue went down dramatically. The fuming is way less, and you can't smell it anymore - but we are still having some issues with it. When I go in there I get a throat irritation. no joke, I even put in a HRV to cycle air our with ducting along the roof. it's great and has helped, but as soon as I run the heater in the garage, the fumes become too much for us still. We don't even park in there anymore.
So I'm not sure what to do now. I don't know what VOC the floor is emitting now but the TVOC is clear that it's still there. There is still a little but of the stuff along the footings and stair landing but could that little bit be creating all this pain still? Does anyone have any ideas of what to do or next steps because it's making it so we are considering moving if we can't fix this.
Thanks for any input or advice you can give.
I would love to ask for advice from some who know. I have read through the other threads on this but didn't find exactly what I am looking for so I am posting a new thread.
In Feb 2022 I had some attic rain because the house we purchased had no ridge vent on the garage. So I took this as an opportunity to fix up our garage. We spray foamed the roof for insulation, left it exposed (14ft high ceilings so it's an industrial look) and painted it black with a water based paint, fixed up some drywall along the walls and epoxy'd the floor.
The timing and product details are:
1. Spray foam completed June 8, 2022 - JM CORBOND® IV
2. Epoxy Floor was July 18 - 23, 2022 - Epoxy was Pure Epoxy PE-100 : STANDARD EPOXY CLEAR, and the Poly aspartic top coat was Pure Epoxy PP-S85 : HYBRID HI-PERFORMANCE POLYASPARTIC (SLOW-NO ODOR)
So there was some spacing b/w the 2 items being done and I believe the product itself was a quality product. I didn't notice anything after the spray foam, but the epoxy floor was different:
First, then the floor was being put in they were also building a berm along the wall perimeter to help the sloping as water was settling there. When this was being done we noticed a terrible smell in the house. I asked the applicator and he said they were using Xylene with a product to build the berm, but they would switch to methyl hydrate (this was when half the wall berm was done). It was along the wall about 2 feet grading out from the wall. They continued and completed the berm, finished the Epoxy base and did the topcoat for Polyaspartic.
When followed has been a nightmare. I noticed that after the week they told me it would take for it to settle, that there still seemed to be a smell. It wasn't as strong as pure Xylene or anything, but a chemical smell. It would go away if i left the garage door open but build up again as soon as it was closed. It was bad and got worse in the heat. So basically left the garage door open and had fans running for months. I tried venting the floor as much as I could but we felt like there was something coming into the house. We have 2 very young children so I have been really worried about this. The applicator was suppose to be a good guy but has been terrible. He refused to do anything about it. Since then I have:
1. VOC testing completed for Xylene = below detection limits <0.42 ppm
2. VOC testing completed for Benzyl Alcohol = below detection limits <0.26 ppm
3. VOC testing completed for HDI Monomer = below detection limits <0.0002 ppm
4. TVOC testing ranged up to 2,200 ppb which was high
5. Also tested for Isocynates incase there was something coming off the spray foam, but everything tested below any detection limits. The ones tested were 1,6 Hexamethylene Diisocynate + 2, 4 Toluene Diisocynate + 2, 6 Toluene Diisocynate + 4, 4, Methylene Biphenyl Diisocynate
During this period we became hypersensitized to something that was fuming in there. So in early October we had the floor torn out. A different applicator came in, used a diamond grinder to get it out. This did what was needed on the main space but the wall footings and tops of the stairs are still remaining. He removed everything else including the berm. He used a vacuum but i don't know how good it was because it was super dusty. So I took a backpack blower and blew out everything i could a few times over. There is still about a 1/2 foot left near the garage door as there is a drain trough that they could not grind around. I was planning on doing that come spring.
Since then, the issue went down dramatically. The fuming is way less, and you can't smell it anymore - but we are still having some issues with it. When I go in there I get a throat irritation. no joke, I even put in a HRV to cycle air our with ducting along the roof. it's great and has helped, but as soon as I run the heater in the garage, the fumes become too much for us still. We don't even park in there anymore.
So I'm not sure what to do now. I don't know what VOC the floor is emitting now but the TVOC is clear that it's still there. There is still a little but of the stuff along the footings and stair landing but could that little bit be creating all this pain still? Does anyone have any ideas of what to do or next steps because it's making it so we are considering moving if we can't fix this.
Thanks for any input or advice you can give.
