PDA

View Full Version : Strange question... burning smell from natural gas appliances when using polyurethane



Greg Book
08-02-2016, 11:41 PM
I have a rather strange question, but I wanted to see if anyone else has encountered it. Years ago in our old house, I used polyurethane on a project in the basement. That evening we noticed a really bad burning smell coming from the natural gas boiler, and the smell permeated the whole house. It was the dead of winter and we had two small children, so we called in an HVAC company. They found absolutely nothing wrong. Everything was in working order and their combustion analyzer showed no problems. The smell eventually went away, but I didn't connect the two events until a week later when I did some more polyurethane and burning smell came back. So I found a pattern: whenever I used poly in the basement, the vapors found their way to boiler and caused a bad burning smell.

In our new house we recently switched from oil to natural gas, and I had completely forgotten about the problem at the old house. A few days ago I used polyurethane on a large project in the basement. The workshop is no where near the boiler, so I haven't noticed a smell there. But... the gas stove is right above the shop. Whenever we cook, the smell comes back in the kitchen. Obviously the poly vapors are working their way up from the basement and burning and producing that awful smell.

I don't smell any poly when I'm cooking, but I know the vapors must be there because of the smell coming from the stove. Has anyone ever encountered this before?

Charles Wiggins
08-03-2016, 10:25 AM
We did in our prior home. My shop was in the same space as the furnace and we had a similar unnerving experience.

At first I thought it was a gas leak, but we eventually figured it out. The fumes from the oil-based poly were getting sucked into the HVAC system. I was finishing our bed and I noticed the smell every time I put a coat of finish on. I did not have a lot of space so I had to finish the parts in stages, so this drug out for about 10 days. Once I figured it out I opened the vent window and hung a small box fan blowing outdoors and left the garage door on the other end of the basement cracked. That took care of most of it.

John TenEyck
08-03-2016, 2:43 PM
I used to have the same problem with our gas dryer every time I used OB poly. It happened every time. Our cloths would smell awful.

It's just another reason I eventually switched to water borne products.

John

Greg Book
08-04-2016, 1:48 PM
Glad I'm not alone. I have smelled it a little with our electric dryer. I even smelled it when I printed something from the laser printer. The fuser inside gets up to 400F, apparently enough to combust the vapors.

What's amazing is that I don't smell any of the poly vapors until something burns the vapors, then boom the smell is terrible.