<p>We are in the process of remodeling an unused finished basement.
The basement had some parts to it with glued down (yes glued down) carpets. Carpet came up fairly easily.
We used a low-voc product to soften the residue glue – it worked, lots of scraping but in good shape. It was an orange-gold glue.
The basement now has a chemical-fume type smell. There’s no windows, no fans. I don’t want it to off gas throughout the house (and so far so good)-- but where is this smell going to go? How long to get rid of this smell?
Will any type of filter or air purifier work.
There’s already a dehumidifier and any moldy/musty smell has been overpowered by the low-voc product which clearly is high voc!</p>
<p>You may have to call in a service such as ServicePro, which has HEPA filters- they can seal off the room except for tubing that runs to the filter outside the house, and suck all the fumes out the basement. </p>
<p>worked great for eliminating the smell from a god awful smelling sewage pipe spill under our house.</p>
<p>An ozonator could take care of smelly volatile compounds if they can be broken down by reaction with ozone. An air recurculator equipped with activated charcoal filter could also work by trapping the greasy molecules that have affinity for charcoal. I would try both.</p>
<p>Okay, this is going to sound really weird and really dangerous, but it is not. Do you have a dryer down there? If you do then you have a vent. Take a big damp towel that you don’t care about, put it in the dryer and run the dryer. You can run it on fluff dry. It works faster if you run it with some heat, but if you are afraid you will blow up the house fluff dry will work. Let it run a while. The towel will suck up what does not go out the dryer vent. Take the towel out and let it air out outside. It usually takes a couple hours. My husband has a workshop in the basement and he uses varnishes, paints and stains all the time. This is how we deal with the smell.</p>
<p>overachieversmom, I would not recommend an ozone generator as an everyday air purifier. But for one-time use it would be ok. Since you are not going to be present in the room while the ozonator is doing its job, it cannot harm you, and as soon as you shut it off, the ozone production will stop. Any residual ozone will self-destruct by gradually reacting with organic matter. I looked up the prices, and any decent ozonator will set you back several hundred $$. Since you do not really need an ozone generator other than for this one-time use, I think it would be cheaper for you to call a professional service, since they also can give you some tips on how to deal with stale air in that room.</p>
<p>Another idea. You can probably use a regular air purifier in that room. I would get an air recirculating purifier equipped with an activated charcoal filter from a big box home store (HD, Lowe’s, etc.), give it a try (to see if the charcoal will capture the smelly stuff) and then either keep it or return depending on the result.</p>