How to get rid of turpentine smell?

[mavie]

Hi Cecil

I have a problem with a turpentine smell lingering around the door frame of my babies nursery.
My husband, for reasons only known to him, decided after we decorated last year that the best place to keep the old paint pots and 3lt bottle of turps was the attic, not the shed at the bottom of the garden!
About 3 weeks ago i started to notice a polish/paint like smell, which just got stronger. Having sniffed the whole of the upstairs, walls, floors, doors, ceiling. I got my husband to look in the attic and he found that the 3lt bottle of turps which was almost full a year ago to be empty.
I have been trying to air the house out, with windows fully open and a fan in place to try and blow the stink away.
He has removed the loft insulation from where the bottle was sat and thrown it away. We leave the hatch of the attic open and have washed the walls and ceiling. Nothing seems to get rid of this smell.
During the day it isn't so bad and hardly noticable, but my house is freezing all day.
As soon as the door is closed the smell traps in the room and it stinks.
On a night we left the windows open and the nursary door open but all that did was disturbe the babies so i ended up trying to settle 2 tired and upset babies.
I refused to allow the babies to sleep there, we then moved them in to our room and us in to their room.

Do you have any suggestions to get rid of this smell please?
It seems that the turps is in the brick work and wooden doorframe of the nursery which is located right under where the bottle sat.

Many thanks for your time and help with this

[randomface]

The only way to get rid of the smell is to remove the turpentine. Make sure that any area you can get to that has been exposed to the turpentine is mopped/wiped/rinsed, and for the areas you can't reach, a heating element that does not have an exposed flame heating that area up with a fan to blow the fumes away would be my best guess to quickly cut down on the VOC emissions from the turpentine. Heating the area will make the smell worse, at least for a while, but ventilating it and heating it should provide maximum removal of the turpentine.

[ZenBeam]

Is the ceiling drywall, and soaked with turpentine as well? If so, that might take forever to fully air out. If there's a stain, you may need to cut out the stained section, and replace it. Replacing a small section could be doable yourself.

If it's plaster, I'd guess that would be harder, and you might need to call someone.

ETA: Missed the "brickwork and wooden door frame" part. Is the brickwork exposed and something you want to keep, or can it be painted over with some kind of sealer? That, too, might take a long time to stop giving off fumes.

[chiroptera]

Some primers - eg original Kilz - will block odors very effectively.

Running a dehumidifier in the room will also help. I'd do both: prime with odor-blocking primer (and then paint over the primed areas with a good low- or zero-VOC paint) plus run the dehumidifier.

[mavie]

Thank you all for you replies, i really appreciate the time you have given to this.

I have 2 fan assisted heated now, 1 in the attic pointed at the floor and 1 in the nursery pointed at the ceiling.

The ceiling is plaster and the brick walls are also covered in plaster. All can be repainted with a primer first. I live in the UK and have googled Kilz, i will try and ship some over.

I will speak to my husband about cutting out the plaster and starting again, only problem with that is we live in Army accomodation and we're not allowed to make changes to the property. But i am on the brink of maddness he may just have to do it and suffer the cost later!

Many thanks to you all again