Farrow & Ball Paint- OMG the fumes!

[Anonymous]

Your painters didn't use low-VOC paint. No such paint should smell like that, and if your kid's eyes are stinging, that means she's been exposed to harmful levels of toxic chemicals. I would be furious. I would interrogate the painters, and double check the paint they actually used. They need to scrape it off and redo the work for free, with the appropriate containment and with the correct stuff, if they pulled a fast one.

[Anonymous]

never had that problem with F and B. We recently painted several rooms in our house

[Anonymous]

You must have sham F&B paint.

[Anonymous]

I painted my son’s room — only one wall actually — with F&B Cook’s Blue in Estate Eggshell four days ago and it still STINKS of paint fumes. I just can’t figure it out as their paints are meant to be low VOC. I’ve left the windows open most of the day and it hasn’t helped with the odor at all... What, if anything, can I do?

[Anonymous]

It’s genuine Farrow & Ball paint and I painted it myself, btw. All I can think is it’s the emulsion I used? So irritating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just painted a bedroom with a lovely F&B paint. But the fumes are not abating! We've got fans going, purifiers going, it's been 6 days and the smell is still really strong. Has anyone else experienced this? I find with BM paints after 12-24 hours the smell is gone, even when not using the low-fume paints.

Was there a primer used? I’ve never had this issue and used F&B in living room, nursery and master bedroom.

[Anonymous]

Per their website all F&B paints are low VOC or minimal VOC and have been since 2010.

https://www.farrow-ball.com/en-us/our-story/eco-friendly-paint

[Anonymous]

OP, I worked in the paint biz for 15 years.

I would suspect some kind of formula or production or raw ingredient issue.

Each can of paint should have a "batch number". Make note of the batch number. This is different than the paint code.
Each production batch of paint will have a unique batch number.

Go to the paint store with the batch number off of the can and tell them you are getting very strong fumes.

When we manufactured paint we kept a batch of each run that was produced. Ask them to have their chemist pull the batch sample from the production run for your batch
and review the product in the lab for vocs.

If the fumes are that strong also take a leftover can to the store and open the can to demo the fumes to the staff there.

[Anonymous]

OP, it may cure faster with some heat on in the room. I'd check with the store to see what they recommend.

On a damp day with windows open it may slow the cure rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of the fumes, you must stick with Farrow & Ball, as the colour is unparalleled and the labour to repaint would be very expensive.

that reminded me of a recent SNL sketch on F&B and the "colour"

Loved that sketch! I have not used F&B paint and now not sure if I could without thinking of that sketch.

Not trying to derail the thread but funny story- when we moved and had some rooms painted the painters were surprised that we weren’t picky about paint brand because “this is a Farrow and Ball neighborhood”. Guess we failed to live up to expectations from the beginning!

[Anonymous]

Could it be oil based by accident?

[Anonymous]

Considering OP's post is from February, I"m pretty sure the walls have stopped smelling by now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of the fumes, you must stick with Farrow & Ball, as the colour is unparalleled and the labour to repaint would be very expensive.

But what about the odour?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of the fumes, you must stick with Farrow & Ball, as the colour is unparalleled and the labour to repaint would be very expensive.

But what about the odour?

It is ever so much more suitable than other odours.

(We had one room painted in F&B. Now it's in Ben Moore. Spank my suburbanite ass and call me Jennifer, I don't care. I am not F&B material.)

[Anonymous]

I am sitting in my office right now after having painted with F&B over the past week. I cannot STAND the smell. It's terrible. I know this sounds dramatic, but if I stay too long in this room, it's hard to breathe and my heart starts racing. The color is beautiful but the paint is a PITA to work with. Coupled with the smell, I will probably never use it again.