I painted my daughters room over a two months ago with Behr “gem turquoise” color paint. It stinks like strong ammonia (or cat pee). I paid a painter to prime it with Kilz Max (a new latex primer suggested and supplied by a Behr Representative). After 2 coats of the Kilz Max and 2 coats of new paint (not Behr) the smell is still there. Does anyone have a permanent solution to this problem. I’ve heard of people priming with Zinsser BIN, but the smell comes back!! Do you think I could file an insurance claim and just get new drywall?? That will be a gigantic mess as well, but at least it won’t smell anymore! Please help! Thanks!
The Practical House Painting Guide
4 Responses
First, contact Behr. They will want information from the cans of paint.
Unfortunately, the only solution I know is 2 coats of BIN primer and new no VOC paint. If this doesn't work then contacting your insurance company might be an option.
I have noticed that this problem has been happening for quite some time now with Behr and Valspar. These are the main paints offered at Home Depot and Lowes.
Thanks for your quick response. I have contacted a company specializing in disasters (floods, fires, etc.) and they suggested BIN as well. I'm waiting for a painter experienced with applying BIN to call me back. Hopefully that will work. I'm hoping people will read this post and smell their paint before they apply it. If it smells like really strong ammonia (almost hurts your eyes and nose) please think twice before you put it on your walls. I had my windows open and didn't really notice a really bad smell while painting. After the room dried and still smelled bad I decided to smell the paint in the can. Sure enough it smelled like really strong ammonia. This is becoming a very long and expensive ordeal.
I had the same problem and Home Depot blame me for mixing the paint with some kind of solvent (not true), because that never happened before. It is a recurrent problem, a painter told me it was a bad batch from the factory and recommended to file a claim because it may not be fixed at a reasonable price.
Carlos, we got new walls! It was crazy expensive, but we documented everything and Behr reimbursed us. Luckily we were able to pay up front at the time. We even had environmental specialists test the paint. We provided receipts for everything!!!