For many of us, the garage becomes a place to store things we don’t want to keep in the house. We store tools, trash/recycling, gas, oil, paint, lawn mowers, lawn tools, and more. In reality, many things are stored in garages that shouldn’t be and can cause unpleasant odors that can be hard to pinpoint.
If your garage smells like paint, it is likely that the bottom of an old paint can has rusted out and leaked paint creating a strong smell. It is important to check any other solutions that you keep in the garage as well. Lastly, if you have any appliances or other electrical equipment, check all cords and mechanical parts to make sure that nothing is melting and malfunctioning.
Please be aware that storing paint in the garage is not a good idea. Check out our article on this topic here: Can you store paint in the garage?
What is causing the paint smell in the garage?
Check for paint cans. Recently, a friend reported that they all of the sudden started smelling a strong paint smell in their garage. She did not think that she had any paint stored in the garage or even any paint thinner. There were some cleaning supplies stored in the cabinets, but all bottles were intact and not cracked or broken.
Check for other liquids/chemicals. Be sure to also check for any other solutions that might be in the garage including gas, oil, cleaning supplies, drinks, or anything else that could have spilled or leaked out of its container.
Check appliances. Next, she checked the back of her refrigerator in the garage to be sure that no cords had melted or that there was no smell coming from the fridge itself. She then decided to do a little more investigating and cleaned out all of the cabinets. Sure enough, at the back of one of the cabinets was an old rusty paint can left by the previous owner and the bottom had completely rusted out allowing all the paint to leak out!
After cleaning up the paint mess, the issue became the strong paint smell that continued to hang around. Now she was tasked with figuring out how to get rid of the very strong fumes in her garage so that she could park her car in there again.
Steps to get rid of paint smell in the garage
- Open the doors: The first thing you need to do is increase ventilation in the garage. You can also use fans to increase circulation and speed up the process.
- Use an air purifier: It can be helpful to use an air purifier if you have one to help dissipate the smell. It will pull in the air and filter out the unwanted particles from the air.
- Clean thoroughly: Be sure to clean the entire area where the paint spill occurred and remove all the cleaning rags and other supplies from the garage.
- Place baking soda in the area: What worked the best for ridding the paint smell from my friend’s garage was the combination of having the doors open for ventilation and also sprinkling baking soda all over the area where the spilled.
Cannot locate the source of the paint smell in your garage?
If you have not been able to locate the source of the smell, it is best to stay out of the area and keep it well ventilated. You can call your local fire department to come out and inspect the area to make sure there are no immediate fire hazards or hazards to your health. They will be able to rule out things like a natural gas leak, sewer gas, or even carbon monoxide.
Continue your cleaning efforts when you know that the space is safe, keep ventilation high, and continue to use air purifiers and baking soda in the space to absorb the smell. Likely within a few days, the smell will have dissipated and any harmful particles in the air will be gone as well.