Final rush to move in!
Gavin12
| Posted in General Questions on
My flooring sub has been doing a great job. Things look fantastic and sanding is next. When it comes to stains and sealers. What is the best in terms of Low VOCs? He prefers to use Duraseal but the SDS seems horrible and am a bit concerned after building this home with toxicity in mind.
Any thoughts?
Thank you in advance!
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Search and download construction details
Replies
Gavin,
It's important to distinguish between products that give off VOCs during installation, which affect those doing the work, and those that may off-gas over time, affecting the occupants. My experience has been that once cured water-based polyurethanes are pretty benign. Some penetrating oils less so. With water-based polyurethane you should continue to ventilate the spaces for several weeks after installation.
I would argue that an oil-based poly is more durable and has lower lifetime emissions because you don't have to recoat it as often. They also seem benign once cured. But I'm just speculating.
All the SDS sheets look horible for anything that is fluid applied. The big concern though isn't what happens at the time of application -- that's just a relatively short period. What you need to be concerned with, as Malcolm mentioned, is off gassing over time. Urethanes and epoxies are very stable materials over the long term, they're only nasty when first applied (and not really all that nasty). A few days with good crossflow ventiallation is usually sufficient to deal with any nastiness from the initial installation of these materials.
Bill