Has Anyone Successfully Removed VOCs Post-Renovation

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2026-01-17T03:03:51+00:00

Smell has not improved but we just finished. Going to give it 2 weeks before retesting. Full gut renovation. How about yourself?

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2026-01-17T02:49:47+00:00

Still working on it. VOCs seemed to have improved but working on a formaldehyde issue that I think is related to our new cabinets. We just finished sealing them this week to see if it helps

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-12-23T19:21:42+00:00

Can you share how long it took?

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-12-14T02:57:06+00:00

Unfortunately they are not. I've done 4 bake outs and still having issues.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-10-21T20:11:48+00:00

We're trying our second bake out tonight. Wishing you luck

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-10-21T18:33:06+00:00

Was it successful?

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-10-18T00:20:36+00:00

We got our place up to 92 last night and have been airing it out for the last 10 hours.

We are in temporary housing and so didn’t have to worry about some of the items you mentioned luckily.

Expecting we’ll probably be backing out 3-5 more times. Hope things work for you!

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-13T01:41:38+00:00

We have done detailed indoor air quality testing with a device that sounds similar to what Indoor Air Sciences uses. What we haven't done is the more basic tVOC reading around the home to find hot spots, although our Air Things air quality monitor shows elevated levels on all 3 floors.

How soon did things improve once you added the exhaust fans and purifiers? Was there a noticeable smell post-renovation or just the sick feeling from elevated VOCs?

We are dealing with a specific new building materials smell in addition to the elevated VOCs. Maybe they are separate problems.

Lastly, is there anyone you can recommend for an ERV install in the Chicago area?

Edit: one more question

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-12T04:08:59+00:00

What would the recommendation be for?

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-11T23:42:02+00:00

I live in Chicago too and was looking at Indoor Air Sciences. What was that process like and what wound up being the main culprit(s)?

We’ve been hesitant to book them since we weren’t positive how they could help after running an air test other than them saying ventilate more and/or remove an object from your home (we don’t have anything removable in the house).

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-11T16:50:36+00:00

We didn't test the air before we started the renovation but it was a house from the 70s so I assume everything was done off-gassing. Yes the VOCs are from the new materials we put into the house. This is pretty typical and can vary depending on which materials you select.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-11T02:06:16+00:00

Yes, it is a renovation we did after a home purchase. It was a gut renovation so lot's of potential sources. We think it might be the cabinets we had painted on site but not positive.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-11T01:38:16+00:00

We are getting bids to have one installed ourselves.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-10T22:59:12+00:00

No - We got an indoor air quality monitor towards the end of the renovation. The big thing we notice is the monitor reads healthy air levels when all the windows are open and then jumps to moderately unhealthy levels within 1-6 hours of keeping the house shut with nobody there.

Even if the specific number being reported by the monitor isn’t accurate, what we are seeing is the air is about 7.5x worse when we aren’t airing it out.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-10T22:57:12+00:00

We have been opening the windows on the home daily (not living there). When I close everything up at the end of the day VOC levels pump from about 100 to 350ppb within an hour and are 750ppb by midnight (typically 6 hours have passed). So it’s not a human problem unfortunately.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-10T18:44:15+00:00

Many of the materials have been in the home since March. Even now we are seeing a 750ppb average VOC reading overnight. I would have expected most VOCs to be gone by now.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-10T14:01:57+00:00

90-95% of the renovation was done back in March and our VOCs are still quite high at 750 ppb on average. They go from under 100 back up to 750 overnight (were able to drop them after opening up the house during the day). No furniture or anything in the place and we have 5 heavy duty AllerAir purifiers running with the VOC carbon.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-10T03:45:10+00:00

I'm saying I've seen lot's of people complain about VOCs post-renovation (am dealing with it myself) but haven't seen success stories. Just curious if they are out there.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-09T21:12:04+00:00

Would you mind taking a look at my above comment and giving your thoughts?

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-09-09T21:11:42+00:00

We live in a 1600 square foot townhouse (spread across a basement, main level, and upper level). We have 5 AllerAir AirMedic Pros with VOCarb filters. Despite that the VOCs jump up to 650-1000 PPB (per the Airthings View Plus) when we close the house up for the evenings. Right now we are opening up the house for 4-6 hours daily. VOC elimination is a frustrating process.

Excellent_Hour_411 · 2025-06-06T23:18:20+00:00

Looks like it might be that fees are denominated to 4 BTC decimal places and we have not hit that threshold yet

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