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TimP writes:
I have a small business client that has a "smelly wood" problem.
(That's how they term it.)
In the fall of 1999, the client remodeled existing space in a two year old building
and built three partition walls to separate the lobby from the work area.
The partition walls run from floor to ceiling and are framed with steel studs
to form a rough curve. Over the steel studs the contractor applied bendable
1/4" luan plywood as a substrate for mahogany veneer paneling.
The bendable plywood STUNK when it was delivered and when it was going up.
The smell was described as something like a cross between
old garbage, vomit and skunk.
When asked about the smell during installation, my client was assured
that once the mahogany veneer paneling was applied and finished on-site,
the smell would go away.
Mahogany veneer panels (1/4" thick) were put on with nails and construction adhesive
onto the stinky bendable plywood substrate. Painters stained the mahogany paneling
and then applied Minwax Polyurethane with a roller. Over the horizontal joints in the
paneling, 3" x 3/4" mahogany battens were nailed to the paneling and painted black.
The vertical joints on the paneling were butt joints and were not covered.
After four years, the stink ebbs and flows. It is worse on humid days
(we have a lot of them in Indiana) and better on days when the humidity is low.
Other possible sources for the smell have been investigated and
it always comes back to the wall.
It is assumed that the adhesives in the bendable luan plywood
are still outgassing after all this time.
My question for the Groop is:
Has anyone encountered this apparent outgassing problem
and is there anyway to solve it?
The client has tried increasing ventilation in the space and other "fixes"
proposed by the contractor who installed the wall but nothing seems to work.
Is the only solution to tear out the wall and start over again?
Tim Puro
Bloomington, Indiana
