Avoiding Lingering Paint Odors After Interior Painting
A fresh coat of paint makes the interior of your store look nice, but odors from the paint can drive customers away. When you redo the walls and other painted fixtures in your store, you have to be careful about the paint you get. Discussing the odor problem ahead of time with the painting company you hire is essential. Be sure to ask about specific odor-reducing features to ensure you get the right paint for your business.
Use High-Quality Paint and Research the Brands
Ask the paint company which brands of paint they use, and look for complaints or comments about that brand. The paint should be of high quality so that the painters can use less of it to achieve the look you want. Bad-quality paints could be tempting if they are cheaper and save you money up front, but the painters may need to use more of it to cover the walls. That allows odors to build simply because there is so much more paint. Better-quality paints that require less to cover a wall automatically reduce the amount of odor you have to deal with.
Avoid Oil-Based and Look for 0-VOC
Oil-based paints were notorious for noxious, long-lasting fumes that never seemed to go away. Luckily, over the past several years more stringent requirements have been put in place to reduce volatile organic compounds in paints, and you can even find zero-VOC paints. Ask that the painters use zero-VOC if possible and to definitely avoid oil-based paints.
Look Into Heat for Help
Sometimes heating up the place can help the paint cure. Run this past the painters first to ensure you're not going to affect the look of the paint. If they give their OK, keep the heat on overnight in the store. Not excessive heat, but don't turn the heater down into the 50s to save money. Again, this can vary by paint type, so talk to the painters before attempting this.
Don't Forget to Cover Up
It also doesn't hurt to give the air a little boost in the days after painting. A store may be too big to effectively use bowls of vinegar and boxes of baking soda to absorb odors, but in smaller spaces, like offices and restrooms, you can leave vinegar and baking soda out while the store is closed up (don't mix them together!). Remove those when the store opens again in the morning. While the store is open, leave doors and windows open and use mild, natural air fresheners with scents like lemon.
Good-quality paint for commercial spaces should have less of an odor that can affect workers and customers. You want everyone in the store to feel good -- not nauseous -- so approach your new painting project with the goal of minimizing odors as much as possible. Contact a company, like Decorators Service Co., Inc., for more help.