Newly painted room smells of cat pee

treadsoftly

Has anybody had a newly painted room smell of cat pee? (I don't have a cat!). Used Dulux light and space paint over wallpapered (and previously painted) bedroom. Within days the room started to smell of cat pee. Its worse when the heat is on and the windows are opened. It was painted in August. It is now October and Dulux advised I get the painter to pain another coat over it and that should stop it......it hasn't.

Was also advised to wash every stitch of fabric in the room, ten machine loads later, the room is emptied, am at my wits end . I have asthmaand cant sleep in it.

Any ideas folks?

Doctors room ghost

Cut couple of onions in half and leave them in there they absorb smells

Lumen

Sounds like the paint was gone off.

Painting over wallpaper and old paint isn't a great idea either.

Simplest solution is to paint over with a different fresh acrylic paint. Acrylic paints aren't breathable so the smell shouldn't come through.

Since you're asthmatic, in future you might consider a clay paint as there are fewer (or no) irritating emissions, so you can sleep in the room immediately. There's a place in Dublin that does them, I can dig out the details if you're interested. They're also hygroscopic so might such enough moisture out of the paint you have to kill the smell.

But TBH I have no idea whether an acrylic or clay paint is more likely to kill the smell.

treadsoftly

THank you but half cut potatoes, lemon, Fabreze, etc. havnt worked. Its not a lingering just painted smell. Paint smell well gone (normal paint smell) what I get, inconsistently, could be ok for 2 days then back, is a pungent cat pee like smell.

whizbang

Most likely bad paint..

but I came across an old light fitting that smelled exactly like pee, particularly noticeable after turning on the light.(fitting got warm)
wasn't noticeable during the summer because the light wasn't on, eventually realised it was happening when it got dark !!

my3cents

I've definitely had old electrical fittings that smelt of cat pee probably due to them being made from a urea based plastic.

looksee

That smell from light fittings I would describe more as 'fishy' but yes, could be a culprit.

treadsoftly

Thanks all for your replies. The room was ok for a fortnight and the smell started up again yesterday after a few hours of windows wide open and light breeze blowing in and later closed and sun on windows and later still when heating came on the smell was back. Its so inconsistent. May try acrylic paint but meanwhile am appealing to the manufacturer for help. Ironically I used this paint range before successfully and found it fantastic.

Googled the problem and it was widespread in the UK, there was a lot of publicity about it - not for the Dulux brand which I have used for over 20 years successfully. In fact I always insist on Dulux as its great for coverage etc.. People are recommending a BIN Shellac sealant. Probably I was just unlucky with a bad batch. Its been very stressful. Will see what comes back - dread the though of possibly having to get the walls stripped and plastered!

treadsoftly

Hi thanks for the light fitting suggestions all. I am familiar with that smell, had come across it before but thats more a fishy smell.

larko

I remember seeing a program this year on Watchdog about this exact issue. It was something to do with the paint and they had to recall in UK, some people got money to redecorate due to the horrible smell. Obv that paint still being sold in Ireland. Don't think there are any remedies for it. Even if you paint over it it's hard to get rid of.

my3cents

Just google this now plenty of interesting results all seem to be Valspar paint from B&Q

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/20/bq-customers-compensated-complaining-paint-smells-like-cat-urine/

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40655163

https://metro.co.uk/2018/07/25/heatwave-is-causing-paint-to-smell-like-urine-and-rotten-eggs-7753568/

Plus a couple of Podcasts from the BBC Radio 4 You and Yours program but you'll have to dig around in the 45 minutes of programming to find the section on Valspar paint.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b0lzn9 Edit> About 15 minutes 30 seconds in.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08xxdl7 Edit> About 13 minutes 45 seconds in.

martinmcdonnell

Happened us last year. Painted our sitting room and after a few hours started to smell like cat pee. The paint didn't smell when wet, only when it dried so I put some paint on an A4 pice of paper and brought it to B&Q as they didn't believe me. It stunk more and more as it dried.
Anyway, had to bypass B&Q as they only wanted to swap for a new tub of paint. So the manufacturer gave us a sealent to paint over first to stop the smell coming through the new coat and replaced the paint. The lady who we dealt was nice and wasn't surprised with what happened and told us that we weren't the first that had this problem. We put on the sealent and painted over with the replacement paint and no smell since.
Hope this helps!

treadsoftly

Thanks so much for your response. I'll contact the manufacturer. Room was painted in August...going on too long now.