Ooooops my bad !!!!!!!!

[Horse'n Around 22]

Well here it goes......Today,I decided to flush to flush out the trans that I just got for my Raider with kerosene just to be safe and I learned a valuable lesson... Everything is in the garage/cave which is located under the house. It was built around 1900 and it appears that the floors and walls are pretty thin and uninsulated. Well I found out that smell travels thru the floors really well here. I swear,I didn't spill a drop, leave the container open or anything but my house ended up smelling like a jug of kerosene. With the fumes being like hot air, they rose up and kept going, right where the bedrooms are So here I am spraying glade air freshener all over and in walks Margo and before I could utter a word her nose wiggled and she made a funny face Whats that smell she asked I went on to tell her what happened and she was cool about it. She was surprised that the smell traveled so easy too. Now I know that I need to work on my kids outside if I need to use "fragrant" solvents. But that's not all, Phillip my cat wasn't happy at all, he got a whiff of it and started taking anything he can find trying to cover up the gap at the bottom of the basement door. It was funny, at first he smelled it and walked to the door and then he turned around and started to use his front paws trying to bury the kerosene smell like he would after doing his "thing" in the litter box. When all else failed he somehow dragged a light 3x4 rug 3 feet over to the door bottom and then he got into the dirty close hamper and grabbed 3 of my T shirts one at a time, brought them downstairs and put them at the base of the door.He did not however take my socks and underwear If I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes I would have never believed it. Phillip is one smart cat . It finally aired out, As soon as I noticed what was going on, I opened up the doors from the garage/basement leading outside to ventilate the smell and it cleared pretty fast, I did the same in the house. At its worst, it really didn't smell much all in the garage, but it sure did in the house... it all went upstairs

Lesson learned and Phillip has forgiven me

John

[rmaynard 14,926]

If you can smell kerosene that easily from the garage to the living space of the house, I would be concerned more about carbon monoxide which is odorless, but deadly.

[Horse'n Around 22]

Your absolutely right about the carbon monoxide. Ive also been worried about radon too. if were going to be here any length of time, Im going to buy a detector.I have to cut this place some slack, after all its over 1 hundred years old and all so I knew this place was not really well insulated or anything, heck the neighbor who worked in the coal mine a 1/4 mile from here remembers back when his Mom and Dad lived in this very house, there wasn't a toilet in these places, there was a outhouse in the back yard until 1945 or 46.There was a furnace in it, but it is not used so that eases my mind a bit. We use elect heaters.I have been very carefull about doing anything here but I have resigned myself to the fact that I can not start, run , paint or even keep a drop of fuel or anything in the garage. I can still wrench in there, but anything that has fumes is out. We are thinking about buying a house we looked at last weekend, were going with the agent to look at it again on saturday than were going to make a offer on it. it has a large 2 car garage with a lot of workspace in front and on the sides. Im crossing my fingers big time that its the house for us and that we can buy it.

John

[rmaynard 14,926]

If you are not going to be there long, I wouldn't worry about the radon. That takes a lot of time to kill you, but carbon monoxide doesn't. If you want to test for radon, get a Kidde kit from Lowes. It's only about $13.00, includes the lab results, and it is very accurate for a short term test. A carbon monoxide alarm would be a necessity on my part.

[Horse'n Around 22]

I agree Bob, I think ill run to Home Depot tomorrow and buy one. Its cheap insurance.

john

[rmaynard 14,926]

I agree Bob, I think ill run to Home Depot tomorrow and buy one. Its cheap insurance.

john

If you are buying a radon kit, Home Depot is deceptively cheaper. They sell for $9.99, but the small print says that you have to include $30.00 for the lab to test the canister. The kit from Lowes is $13.00 for everything.

However, carbon monoxide monitors will be about the same price at either store.

[mavfreak 11]

As a kid I had a dirt bike and we kept it in the garage under our house. Well I didn't shut the gas off one time and the tank leaked. I swear it took weeks to air out. MY bike went to the shed after that. I particularly don't care for attached garage for this very reason. With a tractor you can push that outside to start but a car not really. And never back a car in cause the exhaust is now in the house farther and not pointing out the door.

Good luck on your house bid!

Also don't wast your money on a radon kit. Your house has radon just like your neighbors and my house. Its everywhere you breathe it outside inside at the mall. I had a friend who worked for a radon company and He stated to me that the radon may be more concentrated in your home but no matter what its everywhere

[whfan74 2,015]

I agree that Radon is in most homes. We do have a radon mitigation system in our house. Radon stays low and doesn't rise as much as the other gasses. It is a slow killer and tends to hover around the basement floor.

[Redbirdman 7]

I don't want to chime in and badmouth anyone (anystore I mean)..but I would really shy away from the HD kits....in favor of some other brand.

(Home Depot contracts with some outside company to do these tests)

BUT do not trust the results, or the customer service, specially that 30 dollar ripoff.

When I was selling my house in NJ I sent in both a radon and a mold kit.....and was shocked that I had to pay the extra bucks but I was under the gun.

Both tests failed! which made me hold up the sale of the house.

I had a professional company redo the tests (for hundreds of bucks) and both tests passed with flying colors. (And nothing was different...no windows open nuttin!)

I went to HD and they said to deal with the test company and do the tests again (Of which I had to pay AGAIN! But if the first tests proved to be wrong they would refund the money.)

Yep, the first tests were wrong (They said they 'waited to long to do the test because of a holiday weekend).......and NO, they never refunded my money!

Just to be sure I bought a radon test from ACE for about 17 dollars with no 'fees'

And it came back with the same 'no significant' number as the professional test.

Don't get me wrong, I am not badmouthing HD......but BUYER BEWARE!

ED............scorpians yes, kerosene no :thumbs:

[6wheeler 586]

I know all about smells that haunt you. I come home from work and if I have one drop of diesel fuel on my boot, even though they go in the mud room closet, stays in the house for days. In the event you have to stay there awhile, check your cold air return on your furnace. See if there is one in the basement close to the garage. Or in the basement at all. These can pick up the slightest odor and pipe it thrugh the whole house. With your garage being at basement level, the furnace will pick it up and "voila", everyone gets to share in the joy. We have a litter box in the basement, if it isn't changed regularly, we ALL know it. Good luck on the "new house".

[mavfreak 11]

I don't want to chime in and badmouth anyone (anystore I mean)..but I would really shy away from the HD kits....in favor of some other brand.

(Home Depot contracts with some outside company to do these tests)

BUT do not trust the results, or the customer service, specially that 30 dollar ripoff.

When I was selling my house in NJ I sent in both a radon and a mold kit.....and was shocked that I had to pay the extra bucks but I was under the gun.

Both tests failed! which made me hold up the sale of the house.

I had a professional company redo the tests (for hundreds of bucks) and both tests passed with flying colors. (And nothing was different...no windows open nuttin!)

I went to HD and they said to deal with the test company and do the tests again (Of which I had to pay AGAIN! But if the first tests proved to be wrong they would refund the money.)

Yep, the first tests were wrong (They said they 'waited to long to do the test because of a holiday weekend).......and NO, they never refunded my money!

Just to be sure I bought a radon test from ACE for about 17 dollars with no 'fees'

And it came back with the same 'no significant' number as the professional test.

Don't get me wrong, I am not badmouthing HD......but BUYER BEWARE!

ED............scorpians yes, kerosene no

For that reason my friend quit his 65000 a year job place radon systems in houses.

He said it was a scam and had proof that the levels were no better after the systems were in place. But had to tell (lie) to the home owners who just spent thousands that the system was working just fine.

He always said to pay the money and have to firms test the radon and you'll even see a big difference between them.

[4xfourfun 30]

Glad it all worked out ok.

I've noticed the same when working on some gun stocks in the basement.....those chemicals travel upstairs fast!

As far as the testing kits and CO detectors, I must say you get what you pay for. We are seeing a lot of the cheap CO detectors fail. We still go out and check the home with our meters to make sure though. When it comes to CO don't mess around, it's a silent/odorless killer. How many gas appliances do you have?

[Horse'n Around 22]

Glad it all worked out ok.

I've noticed the same when working on some gun stocks in the basement.....those chemicals travel upstairs fast!

As far as the testing kits and CO detectors, I must say you get what you pay for. We are seeing a lot of the cheap CO detectors fail. We still go out and check the home with our meters to make sure though. When it comes to CO don't mess around, it's a silent/odorless killer. How many gas appliances do you have?

Thankfully all of the appliances are electric here so there are no pilot lights just burning and the vehicles are parked outside so those sources for toxic fumes are not a problem. I just need to remember as long as were here to make sure that anything that will result in unhealthy/dangerous fumes needs to be stored and/or done outside.Honestly, Im glad that all this happened because Im now aware that this is a problem with this house so now I can take the needed measures to avoid/correct it. The fumes (potential safety issues)and space issues aside,Im very thankful to just have a place to live for now. It was scary knowing that we were moving across the country in a month and not have a place to move into , it was very hard to find one from 2000 miles away in Az, but it worked out. We moved into this house knowing it was temporary so now its time for us to finally own a home of our own which will be a first for us and were looking forward to it

Im really crossing my fingers that this house were looking at buying works out. It sure would be nice to own.It would be just the right size for us and its roomy. I have to be sure to keep my desire to not only find a house but also for the "perfect" man cave in check... even tho having a work area and garage are important to me, as long as I have a indoor place of some sort with some room that can be closed and locked for my tools and stuff and to tinker in Id be satisfied. I can always expand or something later. This house does have a awesome garage but Im not getting my hopes up.If this isn't the right place and doesn't pan out, there is another somewhere that will.We got preapproved by the mortgage company for a more expensive house than we feel comfortable with or can realistically afford but we know how much we can safely afford a month so were looking for houses that the monthly payments fall within that range, which are basically half of what were preapproved for. We are not going to get ourselves into a situation where we cant afford to do anything except pay the bills. Its important for us to live well within our means so we can still have a life and not have to worry (any more than usual that is)

John

[rmaynard 14,926]

I know the original intent of this thread was to advise others not to use kerosene indoors if you don't want the smell to permeate the entire house, but it evolved into a Radon discussion also.

I do radon mitigations as part of my home improvement services. I have used $800.00 test meters to monitor levels of radon, and I have used $8.00 activated charcoal canisters to do the same. My experience shows that both systems give me the same readings.

There are many schools of thought on radon and whether or not it is harmful. I tend to err on the side of caution. I don't always agree with what the EPA tells us about pollutants. However, radon, like cigarettes and asbestos, can cause cancer in some people, and not others.

In this litigious society we live in, if you don't check for radon and mitigate it before the sale of a house, there is going to be some attorney right around the corner waiting to sue you.

[varosd 1,185]

my 2 cents, (as a medico) Radon is the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer, tobacco is, of course(by a great margin) , #1.

here in PA, we have a lot of radon in the earth, even the fancy granite countertops can emit this radioactive gas. obviously every second..we are also being bombarded with cosmic rays as background radiation . Radon is real..it just depends on ventilation,concentration, exsposure time etc so we don't breath it in all the time. of course, just like smoking, not everyone will develop lung CA. when we bought a house here recently with a finished walkout basement..we had it tested, plus with a VA..think it was a requirement? We also had the septic tank pumped out and checked...of course if you smell sewage or have drains backing up, at least we have objective, tangible feedback to tell us somethings wrong...but when something is colorless, ordorless...how would you know something was possibly killing you? As in all business, there are ripoff artists and legit folks. I like to think that most folks are honest.

Az Trooper...We rented for a year or so and looked and looked for a house. we wanted some land and not in a subdivision. our kids are done with public school, so really look at school district taxes in addition to possible municpal or township taxes and county tax, sometimes occupancy and work tax and state tax. :thumbs: