Thanks for trying to gas us to death!

The BBQ Pit
1

At first, we thought maybe we had a gas leak. But pulling the oven out and checking the gas line yielded nothing. Plus, the smell actually seemed to diminish as we went into the kitchen, and didn’t increase at all when we opened the door.

It seemed to die down, so we just left the apartment windows up and stayed alert to see if we smelled it again. Sure enough, we did. By pulling a Toucan Sam and following our noses, we traced the smell to the front door and into the hallway, discovering that it was coming from . . . the laundry room.

Now, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you did not see the bright yellow sign hanging right above the mailboxes for the last four days that reads, “ATTENTION RESIDENTS: On Monday, July 15th and Tuesday, July 16th, the laundry room will be closed so that it can be painted.” Maybe English isn’t your first language. Maybe you’re just a fucking moron.

In any case, when you walked into the laundry room and say the walls half covered with fresh paint, maybe it would have occurred to you then. “Maybe I should wait to do this load of clothes. Didn’t I see a sign about this? No? OK, in it goes!”

Yes, our apartment, the hallway, and probably the other three apartments on our floor were filling up with hot paint fumes. Foul-smelling, headache-inducing, nausea-causing hot paint fumes. If we hadn’t noticed it when we did, or if we had gone out after work, our cats might have gotten seriously ill. If anyone in a neighboring apartment was asleep or had small children, they could have passed out or gotten seriously ill. As it was, my wife had to take a couple extra hits of asthma medication, and both of us had splitting headaches this morning.

As soon as we tracked the source of the smell, I opened the laundry room door, walked down, and yanked the plug of the dryer that was operating. Walking into that room was walking into a Zyklon-B chamber. The air was not just humid, but moist, and the fumes were so thick they were nearly visible. We also made sure to let the management know, so they can at least padlock the damned door today after painting, and maybe evict your sorry, stupid ass, too. If I was a more confrontational person, I would have gone door-to-door in the building to find out who you were, and read you the freaking riot act. Lucky for both of us I was a little more concerned with breathing.

Next time you decide to be a selfish, stupid, drooling asshole, please do so in a way that does not result in my potential death by asphyxiation.

2

Hm. Your building should have anticipated the idiot factor and shut the breaker for the laundry room. But I guess that’s stating the obvious, huh? And so was that. And that. And…oh, never mind.

3

Here I was, all excited about a highbrow fart rant from one of my favorite posters, and it turns out just to be another laundry room story.

4

Gotta say I had the same expectations as Scylla. Perhaps you could have farted in the dryer, Phil?

More on point, I’m curious just what the fuck they painted that laundry room with. Seem a nice water-based latex, while still a bit smelly, wouldn’t create such noxious fumes. The management didn’t by chance use some nasty oil-based paint did they?

5

Well, PLD, if the DC news media carry a story about a laundry room explosion somewhere around Courthouse Metro, I’ll have a beer (an Erdinger Hefeweizen) in your honor.

6

You guys and your scat fetishes . . .

Well, if it helps, I let one rip in the shower this morning that scared the cat. It’s great when you let 'em go in the shower, because you get the echo chamber effect, plus any funny noises that result from the water running past your crack.

7

peeing in the dryer would have been cool…

8

To answer your question, yep, nasty, all-purpose, sticky for 48-hours oil-based paint. They like to use the same paint for floor, walls, ceiling, and most notably metal railings. They’ve been using it on the metal railings all over the building – inside and out – as well as on all the mental doors and door frames.

With regards to the numbnuts laundry doer, I’m reluctant to give the neighbor too much benefit of the doubt since they knew enough to prop open the laundry room door, which given the angle of that door directed the fumes straight to our apartment. Not to mention the fact that the laundry dryer ducts vent to our patio as well. Lucky us.

I seem to recall last time they painted in there, they locked the door with a lockbox (since apt keys open the door lock). Sad that asking isn’t enough. Of course, I doubt the management will do anything differently today. Maybe (yeah, right!) the note I posted on the laundry room door which diplomatically but sternly explained that using the machines in the confined space with fresh paint causes off-gassing that chokes and poisons your neighbors will deter them. That is, of course, if the painters don’t remove the sign to post a “wet paint” sign. :rolleyes:

9

Glad to see the cats are okay.

Lovely. That stuff isn’t generally recommended for use in enclosed areas—even without forcibly accelerating the evaporation of the VOC’s with the dryer heat. Bad stuff.

10

So–keep us updated.

PS–what color paint?