Painted cabinet smell

[Jim Beaver]

My house was built this year. I have several medicine/linen/towel cabinets in and around the bathroom. All of them constructed at the same time, presumably from the same wood. All of them painted at the same time, coat for coat. All but one are normal. The abnormal one smells, from day one till now, 12 months later, as though the paint isn't quite dry or something. It's an unpleasant smell that has not faded much in a year. The cabinet directly below it has no smell, despite being done exactly simultaneously with the same materials. There's nothing in these cabinets. They're empty. Except for the smell in one. What the hey?

Jim Beaver

[Norminn]

Hmmmmm......got me stumped. I would leave it open, run a fan to circulate air best you can. Make sure house humidity is reasonably low. The paint should cure....the fumes can't last forever unless contained inside the cabinet. If it still remains, lay a tray of plain charcoal inside the cab. If that fails, strip the stinky paint, repaint with latex. I'm willing to bet it is just a matter of inadequate ventillation.

[3rd eye]

Since you are trollin (or maybe notr) I'll bite Assuming this is a medicie cab, Take ir out. I'll bet you find a surprise in the wall.

[effi]

assuming you mean 2005 (see below)

sure your house wasn't built last year (2004)?

solution: remove smelly cabinet, wait a few days (or weeks) and see if smell abates, then replace with nonsmelly cabinet if cabinet is indeed source of smell

[nospambob]

[Jim Beaver]

House was built in 2003-2004, cabinetry installed and painted in 2004. This is not a unit medicine cabinet like you'd install in a hole in your drywall, it's a built-in cabinet, really more of a linen closet. I only called it a cabinet because it is not floor-to-ceiling in height. It's 4 feet high, 17 inches deep, 27 inches across. There's another one roughly the same size directly beneath it, built and painted at the same time, but which doesn't smell. Removing either would involve ripping it out down to the studs, removing casing, etc. -- in other words a task equivalent more or less to removing a small closet from any room. Not very practical.

I'm just trying to figure out if anyone has an explanation for one closet/cabinet smelling bad and the one below it not smelling, when built and constructed identically and simultaneously.

Jim Beaver

[Jim Beaver]

Why on earth would you presume I'm trolling? I'm trying to figure something out here that doesn't make sense to me. I thought maybe someone on this ng had the expertise I lack to decipher the situation.

It's not a medicine cabinet. It's a 4' by 2 1/2' closet, 17" deep. Built into the walls like any other closet. An identical (but non-smelly) one is directly below it. Smells bad like paint, not like a dead rat.

Jim Beaver

[DanG]

Jim,

I don't think I have any solutions, but answers to the following may help someone diagnose the problem.

What is the basic material? MDF, ply, unknown, or other.

Primed? with what Painted? with what

Is the smell like oil based paint, latex, raw wood, other?

There must be some variable in the pile. Sunlight, bleach, and baking soda come to mind as the most gentle first attempts at dealing with odor/mold/smell. Scuff sanding and fresh primer and finish sound like the next step.

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]