How long does it take for the paint smell to air out?

We're having the house painted and it should be done sometime next week. DH went by the check on the work this morning. I doubt that the contractors have opened any windows yet to air out the fumes since there's still a lot of painting that needs to be done. Once the work is finished, I guess we'll open the windows to try and air everything out.

I'd love to go over and see what has been done, but I'm 8 months pregnant and don't really want to breathe in paint fumes. The entire house is being painted. How long do you think we need to keep the windows open before the smell is gone?

Re: How long does it take for the paint smell to air out?

If it's water based paint, I would say maybe 2 days and I would feel comfy about it being air out. But that's JMO.

Re: How long does it take for the paint smell to air out?

Re: How long does it take for the paint smell to air out?

Posted by MrsS2005

Posted by Goobster

If it's water based paint, I would say maybe 2 days and I would feel comfy about it being air out. But that's JMO.

We're using BM paint for everything. I have no idea whether it's water based.

Re: How long does it take for the paint smell to air out?

I've read that paint fumes last for months, but I would say that in a few days the biggest smells would be gone. But with the wet weather we are going to have, it takes paint a lot longer to dry, so it might be a few extra days before you don't smell the paint fumes.

Re: How long does it take for the paint smell to air out?

Traditional paint smells really bad for a few days, but off-gasses for up to a year.

The paint that we are using: http://www.mythicpaint.com/ NEVER smells. You can stick your nose in the can, and barely smell anything. Once it's on the walls, there is no smell. The spackle smelled stronger than the paint.

I went this route because I was concerned about all the VOCs in the air, especially since we are painting DC's bedrooms. I wasn't comfortable putting them into a closed room that was full of formaldehyde gasses....

Re: How long does it take for the paint smell to air out?

We just finished painting our bedroom and used a water based paint. It smelled for no less than 24 hours, and the smell was very tolerable. It must have been because we slept in the same room a few hours after painting was complete.

Re: How long does it take for the paint smell to air out?

We actually went to the house for about 30 minutes this weekend to drop some stuff off. I was surprised that the smell was tolerable. I didn't stay in there for very long, but I don't think it will take too long to air out. Before we went over, I found out the painters used latex based paint. So far, I'm really happy with the way everything turned out.