Stinky Dresser! - Question of the Week

December 20, 2007 | Filed Under Blog, Question of the Week 

This week’s second question comes from Melanie. She writes:

My Father in Law made a gorgeous dresser for our son…problem is when we use it, the clothes smell like finish and then so does our baby. We’ve aired it out numerous times and it also aired in his shop before it came over. I’ve tried a couple of odor discs and sachets, but the smell comes back. I’m afraid to try anything stronger for fear of adding/combining the smell. FIL and my grandfather (who also does wood items) are both stumped. What can I use to safely conquer the smell and use the dresser?!

And here was my reply:

“Hey Melanie. This is actually a very common problem. As oil cures, it maintains an odor. Fortunately this odor dissipates over time. But on the inside of a piece of furniture, where very little air exchange takes place, the oil can produce an odor for many many years. So what can you do? The first option, which I’m sure is not feasible, would be to let the unit air out for a very long time. The second option would be to coat the interior with a new finish that doesn’t produce an odor. There are two finishes that are perfect for this: shellac and water-based polyurethane. One or two coats on the interior should do the trick. This material will lock in the oil odor while producing no smell of its own. Your FIL or Grandfather should be able to help you apply either material. So as an FYI for your woodworking relatives, its a good rule of thumb to leave the interior of casework (especially those intended for clothing or blankets) unfinished, or finished with a few coats of shellac or water based polyurethane. That should take care of it.”

Comments

6 Responses to “Stinky Dresser! - Question of the Week”

  1. Al Navas on December 20th, 2007 11:28 am

    I feel your pain, Melanie!

    Marc has given you excellent advice. Both materials are easy to apply, and WILL solve the stinky problem for you. Good luck!

    Oh - and let Marc know how thing work out.

    —— Al

  2. Roger (rjack) on December 20th, 2007 12:54 pm

    If you leave interior of the casework unfinished, will the wood warp due to a difference in moisture absorption?

  3. LordLQQK on December 20th, 2007 6:09 pm

    I would suggest that you use a solvent to try and wipe clean as much of the oil based finish as possible. Problem there is that it is probably going to seep back up to the surface after a couple days. So you need to wipe the oil clean off, dry it out quickly (fan or low heat hair drier used far away from the wood), and then apply your alternate finish. I would suggest shellac over water based poly. I have had and heard of issues with water based finishes adhering to uncured oil finished. Once the oil finish has cured, which could take a while depending on the finish, you could still use water based poly or you could use the poly on top of the shellac.

    That is if I am understanding the problem correctly.

    LQQK

  4. Ace HoleInOne on December 20th, 2007 6:13 pm

    I have a stinky clothes story to tell ya:

    My workshop is in the basement directly under the laundry room. Our laundry room has a hole cut in the floor to allow the gas clothes dryer exhaust pipe to travel through the hole and to the outside wall of the basement.

    At the time, I was refinishing a desk so the wiping stain and poly fumes were everywhere. It was wintertime so the house was sealed tight.

    Days later and for weeks on end the family and I couldn’t understand why our clothes smelled so awful. We were convinced our clothes dryer was going on the blink and our clothes just smelled of gas.

    Since our dryer wasn’t really that old. I suspected it had to be something else. Therefore, I did a Google search of our strange odor. Bingo, I found an obscure post describing that a clothes dryer draws in air from the room mixing with paint fumes in the air causing the homeowners clothing to stink.

    In conclusion, since we close our laundry room door to isolate the noise, our dryer was pulling air from the laundry room, as well as, our basement from around the vent pipe. Hence the stink!!!

    -Ace-

  5. Claude Stewart on December 21st, 2007 7:55 am

    Good call Marc.

  6. thewoodwhisperer on December 21st, 2007 9:09 am

    Thanks for the extra ideas guys! And RJack, I usually dont worry about that too much in a finished piece. I finish the interior when possible, but I personally dont think its entirely necessary. The panels and frames are all locked down. So little movement here and the (if it happens at all), really isnt going to affect the piece very much.

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