[Joseph3l]

Hi all, this probably wont be your average post. I am from the UK, and severely struggling to get my head around this issue that has arised in my home.

My plumber decided to seal my walls for my wet room renovation with a Bitumen liquid to keep damp away from the external brick wall coming in. The funny thing is, i never suffered from damp. He used a product designed for roofing inside my home. Safely to say, he has now left and no longer doing anymore work in my home.

Consequently the product he has used contains Bitumen and is white spirit based. The ingredients are BITUMEN (WHEN IN SOLVENT SOLUTION) (95% carbon and hydrogen (± 87% carbon and ± 8% hydrogen) 50-70% EINECS: 265-196-4 CAS: 64742-93-4 [Xn] R40; [-] R10 • WHITE SPIRITS, NAPTHA (PETROLEUM) containing NAPTHA (gasoline (octane) and (kerosene, (Paraffin).


Most of the chemical structures of this product is odorless to my understanding, except from the Gasoline Octane. My home smells of solvent/petrol and i am trying everything i can to stop this smell. It has been 4 days, i have tried baking soda bowels around the home, white distilled vinegar, coal, and opened windows to air the room.

The only thing that kinda works is sealing off the room with plastic, but that only contains the smell in that room. I am at a loss on what to do as this stuff is stuck to my wall. To the touch it is dry. I also contacted the chemist of the company who creates the product they were shocked this was used indoors but only advised that the room needs to be heated up using sealed portable radiator without open flame, and use a extractor or fan to blow out the odour through the open window in that room.

I have done that but found this has not helped as much, i understand that heating the room may evaporate the solvent to stop the smell, but then having a fan on at the same time blows the heat away reducing the effects of evaporation.  I don't really know guys and I'm at a loss on what to do, is there anything i could spray to neutralize/destroy the solvent octane compound or apply a vapor or plastic sheeting sealed, which will contain the odor from releasing?

I don't know, hoping anyone could help me, i know this is technically a DIY issue, but i need the science here to help me eradicate this odor issue caused by this NAPTHA (PETROLEUM)

picture of the room is below and the ingredients of the product and link :

https://www.everbuild.co.uk/product/902-bitumen-flashing-primer/





Thank you to all.

[rolnor]

I dont think there is any other solution then to isolate the room and ventilate. A fan-filter with activated carbon such as those used as kitchen-fan reduce smell in the rest if the building. Or you remove the bitumen.

https://www.amazon.com/carbon-filter-fan/s?k=carbon+filter+fan

[Joseph3l]

I dont think there is any other solution then to isolate the room and ventilate. A fan-filter with activated carbon such as those used as kitchen-fan reduce smell in the rest if the building. Or you remove the bitumen.

https://www.amazon.com/carbon-filter-fan/s?k=carbon+filter+fan

Thanks for your response, My only concern to remove the bitumen, is that the chemical to remove the bitumen is also a solvent and using that clean off the bitumen on a porus brick wouldnt that just add to the problem ? unless there is a non solvent based solution that you know off? I actually received the following advice below, please let me know your thoughts on this :

create a negative pressure environment to help move larger volumes of air through the area. Conceptually, it’s like having a vent hood in a chemistry lab.

Open a window on one side of the room and place a strong fan on high speed facing outward. On the other side of the room from this, slightly crack open another window or a door (just a bit) to replace the air being evacuated by the fan.

If you’re warming the area with a non flame heater, just place that heating device closer to the affected area. The blowing fan at the window won’t change the focus of the heat in any meaningful way so long as it’s far enough away

Thats the advice i recieved, what are your thoughts on this please? and also i was thinking of of possible mixing baking soda and distilled white vinegar using hot water, and wipe this mixture on walls, leaving it on ? your thoughts on that as i read these can be oil eating microbes to remove the odor? and maybe water based oven degreaser. Your thoughts ? Thank you so much for your response.

[rolnor]

Yes, negative pressure is good, then the rest of the house will be odourless. Here in sweden we have temp below 0°C now so I did not think of venting with open window. I dont think you can wash the smell away with baking soda. I think this is a real mess and there is no quick good solution. Microbes, if they can be used at all, are not going to be a fast solution. The big question is what boiling point the smelly stuff has, it can be high and the smell will be there a long time. Heating the bitumen will speed up the process yes.

[Joseph3l]

Yes, negative pressure is good, then the rest of the house will be odourless. Here in sweden we have temp below 0°C now so I did not think of venting with open window. I dont think you can wash the smell away with baking soda. I think this is a real mess and there is no quick good solution. Microbes, if they can be used at all, are not going to be a fast solution. The big question is what boiling point the smelly stuff has, it can be high and the smell will be there a long time. Heating the bitumen will speed up the process yes.

@rolnor The smell has gone my friend ! top advice by you, i circulated the room with a fan, and heater, sealed the room and opened the window in that room, in addition to opening the sealed plastic door slightly to allow for a negative pressure, that dissipated the smell a little bit, Followed it, by washing the wall down with a fatty acid degreaser cleaner, left that on over night. Sealed the room up. Then washed the walls down with distilled vinegar and water. The smell was gone, but continue with ventilating the room and now no smell at all. Brilliant work thanks so much.

[rolnor]

Great!