How Soon After Painting Can You Sleep In A Guest Room?
Posted on January 24, 2022
Many homeowners tend to tackle home improvement jobs at the start of a new year. We often try to tackle painting projects quickly in anticipation of a guest’s arrival or holiday. However, the goal is to provide a pleasant stay for our guests, not subject them to paint fumes. Today, we will discuss how long to wait after painting a guest room to avoid the fumes, sometimes referred to as Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs.
Why Should I Wait to Sleep in a Freshly Painted Guest Room?
In most instances, the VOCs will dissipate in about a day, but this will vary with the conditions. For example, when the weather is pleasant and windows can be opened to allow the VOCs to escape, the drying time will be shortened. In winter, however, opening windows can be an uncomfortable task, so many turn to low-VOC or even zero VOC paint to avoid this problem.
Low VOC paint includes a large number of latex paints that emit lower levels of VOCs as they dry. Zero VOC paints take this a step further and essentially remove these compounds in any quantity that could be harmful to humans. Zero VOC paint does not emit toxic chemicals, making zero VOC paints very popular with growing families.
In most situations, guest rooms painted with low-VOC paint can be slept on the same day, although some light odors may still be noticeable. For particularly sensitive guests, however, these odors can result in dizziness, nausea, and headaches. If this is a potential problem, zero VOC paint should be used.
Is Zero VOC Paint Safe to Use in a Guest Bedroom?
Yes. Most zero VOC paint is completely odorless and completely safe to use in any bedroom, even a nursery. However, this does not necessarily mean the paint is VOC-free. Zero VOC paint may still contain trace amounts of these potentially harmful chemicals, but at such low levels as to be considered no danger to humans.
Is Zero VOC Paint Available in All Colors?
Generally speaking, yes. Although not every shade of every paint will be available in a zero VOC version, the vast majority will. Because low VOC and zero VOC paints are so popular, most paint manufacturers make a low VOC version available. In fact, both Zero and Low VOC paints are infinitely tintable and both are available in flat, eggshell, satin, and semi-gloss sheens, making them an endlessly tweakable paint.
