Strong Smell of Urine

[thiambal]

Not strictly a period problem I guess - as it is about modern paint on cement plaster.

Just decorated a room that the previous owner had had replastered with cement (groan) so used a modern emulsion from B&Q. The paint was a little odd in that is was blancmange like in the tub and I had to water it down a little to apply it. Anyway, with a little water in went on, dried and covered as expected.

Then a couple of days later there was a strong smell of cat's p*ss in the room. We do have 3 cats who have never been known to spray but even so we searched high and low for the sources of the smell. Eventually, we discovered that it is the walls that stink, all over, on all walls. The smell is worse after a hot day. - and there is no way cats p*ss have been added to the mix at any stage.

Does anyone have and ideas about what causes this, and more importantly, how to get rid of the smell as it is most unpleasant.

 

[Nimster]

Sorry, I'm laughing at the idea of you going round sniffing the walls

I've used paint in the past that leaves a smell of wee - I think it just went over time. Maybe get one of those plug in air fresheners for now and hope for the best? I can't think that putting anything on the walls will make the smell go away - and it could make it worse. Imagine the whole house smelling like a flock (what is the collective noun for cats? :? - just googled - according to http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/collnoun.htm it's a destruction of cats, how appropriate) of tom-cats have been let loose! Nice :shock: .

 

[thiambal]

I am hoping it will go over time too.....but it has been 10 days now.

Very strange....I wonder what causes it.

 

[Nimster]

I guess it's just the combination of chemicals in the paint.

You could also try spraying the walls (from a distance) with something like Neutradol. Might help.

 

[L1zzy]

I haven't experienced thsi delightful problem myself but i too have 3 cats and apparently should one experience a Pee problem in ones house then it can be neutralised with Soda Water - I'm not sure if this gets rid of the smell but suppose that it might - seems an inexpensive solution to try perhaps. One other thought occurs was the water that you mixed with the paint from a clean source?

Lastly the only other info I can offer is that the Cat pee smell is probably caused by the component urea can you think of any chemical that contains urea?

Good luck - sound awful

 

[thiambal]

The water used came from the mains supply though my brand spanking new plastic pipe so I hope it was clean.

I might have a go at the soda water idea - not sure what effect washing the walls in soda water will have one the paint finish? But may be worth a go.

Open to suggestions as to how urea ended up on my walls?

 

[Nemesis]

As a component of the paint? It's possibly harmless - I think it's when it's urea formaldehyde as in MDF it's not so good. but I'm no chemist.

You don't have cavity wall insulation do you?



http://www.greenchoices.org/diy.html

 

[Moo]

Years ago I bought a couple of cans of paint from B&Q. The first can was fine, but the second one stank to high heaven when I opened it.

The people at the store very kindly came round to collect the whiffy one and deliver a (non-whiffy) replacement. They were mystified as to what had gone wrong.

 

[mark_j_k]

We've never had any new paint that smelt bad before, but an old tin of ours that we used had 'gone off' it was rather lumpy and stirring it didn't do the trick.

A cat of ours peed up a interior wall of ours before and to get rid of the smell we just used detol. Didn't do the wall much harm.

 

[BMcD]

I don't know if it's possible but what if the sand used for plastering had also been used as a giant cat litter, is there any way the nastyness left by the cats could lay dorment only to be re-activated by something in the paint?

 

[Mark]

it has been known for a pissed off plasterer to relieve themself into the plaster mix. Once on the wall the smell when the plaster is damp gives the homeowner plenty of time to repent of their disagreement.

did the previous owner fall out with his builder ?

You can easily check if its the paint - slap some on some card and see if that also stinks.

 

[thiambal]

Strangely enough (as it was done before we moved in) I know the plasterer who did the job so I am fairly confident he did not pee in the mix.

I am going to contact B&Q and complain and see if they have anything useful to say.

I was hoping that after two weeks the smell would have worn off - I mean it cannot go on smelling forever can it?

 

[Penners]

it has been known for a pissed off plasterer to relieve themself into the plaster mix. Once on the wall the smell when the plaster is damp gives the homeowner plenty of time to repent of their disagreement.

The implication presumably being that the wall was plastered by a cat. I'd like to have seen that. :wink:

 

[Mark]

Or the pissed off plasterer had a cat ?
Or plastered with a cat ? for the rough coat ? Bringing their own hair/fur ?

 

[thiambal]

Just got this posted on the DIYNOT site

A couple of years back I had the same problem (with exactly the same symptoms when warm/hot in the room)....it turned out to be a batch of B&Q paint - it was a 'one coat' type of paint, and was also 'stodgy'!...They were very helpful, and I got sent a large tub of 'masking paint', got some vouchers for new paint, and they paid for my time repainting the room again (about £100 I think - they also offered more if a firm redid it)..

It might be worth a call to their main headquarters to see if this is a similar problem (have the batch number handy..)

At least it is not me imagining this!

 

[Geoff Flegg]

Confession time.

I used to work for B&Q at their head office, and at one time dealt with the supply of paint.

Going back in time 20/30 years paints used to contain far more nasties than they do now - the levels of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds??? I think, memory a little hazy!) was far higher than today. This had the effect of killing any bacteria lurking in the pipes and mixing vessels of the paint factory.

However, with an increasing move towards low VOC paints (for good & sound reasons) one undesireable side effect is that if bacteria gets into the pipes etc at the factory, it can breed quite easily - the result being extremely smelly paint. This happened 3 or 4 times in the period I was there.

Manufacturers try to prevent this by sterilising pipes etc periodically with steam, which helps, but you can still get problems.

Generally, if you ventilate the room the smell will eventually go away. If you want to complain, write to the paint buyer at the head office and state that you believe the paint had bacterial contamination. Helps if you give the paint type and batch code - depends on the manufacturer though, not all of them batch coded all products.

 

[thiambal]

Cheers Geoff - funnily enough the paint does not smell in the tub but only once dry on the walls - could this still be a bacterial problem. The paint was also very thick (a bit like blancmange) when I opened it.

The paint has been up for two weeks and no sign of the smell abating.

Do you think washing the walls with disinfectent will work?

Have complained to B&Q and waiting for them to get back to me.

At least I can talk with some authority now. cheers!

 

[Geoff Flegg]

Hmmm. I have to say, in the cases I came across, the paint usually smelt in the tub as well. Sometimes the bacteria would produce gas which would cause the plastic tubs to bulge!

Yes, this can cause the paint to have a strange consistency - but so can quite a few other factors (age and storage conditions for example). It usually goes back to it's correct consistency with further mixing though.

Not sure about washing the walls - as I said, with most of the ones we came across either it smelt so bad when customers opened the tub that they didn't use it, or else the smell dies away naturally.

I wouldn't rule out bacterial contamination though - we found a variety of different effects as a result of this. I'm no technical expert on paints I have to say - I dealt with managing suppliers from a stock and logistics point of view, I wasn't involved deeply in quality control. But - your room didn't smell before, it does now, what have you added apart from the paint?

Another possibility is a manufacturing error with the paint, i.e. a chemical from the mix is either not added or added in the wrong dose. Fairly rare, but we did have one where a certain chemical wasn't added - which in that particular case meant the paint crazed as it dried.

An aside, but one of my favourite customer complaints (which I took the call for personally) in my time there was:-

A customer called to complain that he had painted the floorboards in his living room and 3 weeks later the room still smelt too bad to move back into.

"Which floor varnish did you use?" asked I.

Oh no. The customer wanted to stop his floorboards rotting - so he'd painted them with creosote.
:shock:

It's true, I promise you. And I managed not to burst out laughing until I'd put the phone down. There are others I could tell........

 

[Geoff Flegg]

Forgot to say - one of the earlier postings suggested painting some of this paint onto card or similar to see what it was like when it dried - good advice I'd say.

 

[thiambal]

The only other things added to the room was the paint on skirting board but that was from a tin which have used elsewhere in the house - including painting a door at the same time as decorating this room and there is not smell there. I also added ceiling paint - again also from tim used elsewhere.

I am sure the smell is coming from the walls as you can clearly smell it when you put your nose up against and of the walls at any height.

Just waiting for the call from B&Q.....supposed to be phoning back today but no luck so far. oooo hang on.......


That was the phone, chap from the store coming out on Monday evening to have a sniff and to take the paint and send away for analysis. All good stuff......but what about that smell?