Foul smell from polyurethane

Aug 01, 2008 5 Replies

I have a gallon of Polyurethane that has a rather strong foul smell. It smells like rancid oil. If I apply it to something, it appears to work very well and has no residual odor (so far). Is this normal for polyurethane?


No. How long has this stuff been sitting on the shelf in your garage? ;-)

Not that long. Doesn't mean that it didn't sit on the shelf at Home Labyrinth for the last 5 years before we bought it..

Amen to that! I recently went in search of a can of contact cement, after discovering that the can I had in the shop was more than a year past its shelf life -- found several cans on the shelves at Lowe's that were more than a year older than the one I already had!

It is for bargain basement oil/solvent based polyurethanes. A couple of reasons are: the cheap urethane resins can be rather odoriferous and coupled with a non odor modified solvent, the total is likely best used outdoors in breezy conditions. Sometimes the stinky stuff performs better, as on floors, so the brave folks wanting that quality do the application on days when all the windows and doors can be open. Occasionally,, solvents are found to go bad, like old gasoline developing that yucky PineSol smell. HTH

Joe

Lessee- what was that they said back in warehousing school?

FIFO- first in, first out FILO-first in, last out FISH- first in, still here

-- aem sends...

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