How do I keep granite sealer odor out of the rest of the house?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We are going to have a granite sealer applied to newly installed granite, and I want to try to keep that very strong odor out of the rest of our house.

How would you recommend we do that?

Here are some of my ideas.

  • Hang plastic over the entryway to the master bath (where most of the granite is).
  • Turn on the HVAC fan to “On”, not “Auto”. But will this be effective? We have 2 air intakes in the house, neither in the master bath. I assume the HVAC will suck in air from the intakes and blow it out the registers, and that this will not just spread the odor throught out the house.
  • Open the window.
  • Turn on the bathroom exhaust fan.
  • Put a portable fan about 5 feet from the open window, blowing air out. (I hear this way is much more effective than mounting the fan on the window sill, blowing out.)

Do you have any comments on my ideas? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks,
J.

2

Close the bathroom door, open the window, and leave the bathroom exhaust fan on. If you think it’s so bad that won’t be sufficient then seal the bathroom door with plastic. You need the window open for the fan to get the job done. If this is a life threatening problem for someone you should get them out of the house until the odor is cleared. A portable fan will increase air circulation in the bathroom. Aiming it toward the window from several feet away may allow air to enter and leave the bathroom through the window at the same time but without some other opening for air to come in it may not work well. Your bathroom fan is probably better at it.

3

I’ve only used granite sealer once, but it didn’t smell bad. It was water-based. Did you look into other types of sealers?

4

Don’t do that, it’ll just push the smell into the rest of the house.
Close the door and put a box fan in the window. It’ll draw air in from the gap under the door and the hvac vents (pulling air in from other parts of the house, through the vents) and push it out through the window.
You could turn on the exhaust fan as well, but if you have a box fan in the window, I’m not sure how much of a difference that would make.

I’ve never heard that, but I think the mistake a lot of people make is trying to seal the room. Back in college when people put box fans in their windows so they could smoke in their dorm rooms, the people that got caught were the ones that would put a towel under the door rendering the fan useless. As soon as you could convince them to get rid of the towel, the fan would pull all the smoke out with no problem.

Just remember, in order for air to exit the bathroom, make-up air has to be allowed to enter the room.

5

Don’t use it in the wintertime. Use it when you can open up all windows and ventalate the house, windows open, spend a weekend away from home doing something else.

6

Unfortunately, waiting until summer is not an option. This is brand new granite that hasn’t been sealed.

J.

7

The stuff we used when we did new stone surfaces in the kitchen and bathrooms a couple of years ago was not objectionable at all. It did have a little odor, but it was really only noticeable in the moments I was actually working with the product. In no way was it a problem in the house.

8

OP is using an oil based sealer. While it does offgas more than a water based it is orders of magnitude more effective as a sealer.

The key is air movement. A fan over the surface and vents that exchange the air are what you need.

9

I’m very grossed out by heavy odor from anything.

The sealer they applied to my granite top island wasn’t that bad. It smelt. I ventilated and it went away pretty quickly.

Ventilation is the only way, IMO.