The Hole in the Wall

OK here's the deal. Behind one of bedroom's storage board when i moved there was a hole about as big as i could stuck my hand in it. About 5 feet from the floor level. I fixed it pouring gypsum 3 or 4 times so far.  First time when i painted again the bedroom i think. Last week i introduced the camera through it and took a picture around the corner to see how i put the foam (by touch only with a tiny 1/4 inch one foot long transparent flexible vinyl tube hooked to a foam can (Great Stuff brand). I couldn't have bend the exhaust with it, it's a bit stronger). Exactly where the two pieces of flexible exhaust coming from the ground level apartment are held together by a piece of duct tape that is too small, with too few turns and it probably leaks. It was also strangulated by the tape after it was bent. At the time i thought the smell was coming from the 1 inch space between the panels that i filled with foam. Today i took a better look at the pictures and saw the tape. Normally one would tape the joint for more than two width of tape.

(At times ever since i moved here the bedroom was filled with smoke. I remembered when i was falling asleep in the living room at the TV in the morning when i went in there were my wife was sleeping you could barely breath in there.)

I fixed the hole again a week ago. Monday there where these two guys with a big diesel powered truck that got lost around here and where asking probably directions on the phone for about 15 minutes. The sound was so annoying it prompted me to grab the camera and film them, twice. Actually they took off when i started filming them the second time.  I think it might have cracked again when they did that. Or afterwards from other vibrations from other cars and planes that pass and fly too frequently around here. I think i saw them one more time during the week after that. Lost again or maybe this time delivering. Only this time the crack was on the side with the plywood, near the exhaust housing. And was still wet.

But it is not possible for the gypsum to be wet after a week. Even if it is near a board that could have gotten wet (the housing board) The board from the storage does not touch it, it's about 5 mm apart. Enough for air to circulate and let it dry in a week. Last few days i've been very sick and there was smoke in the bedroom. I was waking up in the morning very tired and with my nose congested after few hours of sleep. I slept alone in the bedroom. I felt like i was drunk. Friday @noon i was almost fainting after hyperventilating for hours and then i took a look and felt the smell and opened the windows. Exactly when another neighbor (with the Jeep) parked under the window and opened two doors looking for something in the car for a minute or two.

It took me hours after if fixed it while hyperventilating until i got better.

When i fixed it again yesterday it was smelling like some weird animal urine. By the way, i didn't put the storage board back and it's completely dried after i repainted today. 24 hours but with a fan.

 

Here below is barely visible in this before picture taken from the attic (i wouldn't see if i didn't know it's there) the taped joint and i think you can see how it is strangulated. On the left you can see one of the thin pieces of plywood i used keeping it in place by pulling two nails while pouring gypsum then extracting them and letting it fall. Last time when i fixed i saw the pouring was very well formed, almost like continuing the drywall without noticing, except it cracked again exactly in the corner.

By the way even right now as i am editing this there is a little bit of smoke inside, my nose is congested and i feel like it' very hard to concentrate.

9-5 05 PM. OK, there's one more exhaust... The one coming from the apartment below that is vacant for a year and i don't know why... Some might... It goes under the bathtub then into the housing that is part of the apartment next to mine... Nothing to do there... Except open the kitchen window when the wind blows from West or the bedroom when the wind blows from the East so i equalize the pressure so the un/idendified smells from the wall don't come inside... Like it happened today when i forgot... Got to fill this one with foam as well...Cause the smell goes under the kitchen hardwood-floor and into the bathroom... I discovered this one because of a leak coming from the tub somewhere...

They always have to do it in pairs... For back-up...

But for that i'd have to go to Home Depot or Lowe's to buy more foam... And raise more eyebrows... Just finished removing the foam and the hairs from my hands...

Formaldehyde, among us

For a better view please click on the pictures then on the little icons below.

For better understand of what's to follow, here a couple of links. No, better three:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formaldehyde

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea_formaldehyde_resin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiberboard

Formaldehide as a resin has been long used before today's plastics, to make everyday objects. One of its commercial names was bakelite. Even today you can find in old electrical boxes things made of bakelite like relays and stuff.

Fiberboard is a very convenient way to use wood. You mill the wood down to fiber then mix it with formaldehyde resin and voila... Very cheap and regular boards that you can make wonders with it.

The problem with these is that they are slowly decaying with the result of formaldehyde gas.

That is very easy to understand if you have a floor made of fiberboard. In time, it looses its hardness and becomes soft and molds over all the irregularities of what's underneath. It doesn't break anymore but it bends. And that's because the resin turns to gas and all it's left is the wood fiber. In time, you will walk on something like sand, like on the beach...

To make a long story short, i had some dolomite, a mixture of minerals to treat soil for gardening that i bought from the store a while ago for a different reason. I accidentally mixed it with water and saw that on top in a few hours it accumulates some brownish stuff that smells sweet, very similar with the cabinets and the floor. And i looked onto the label of that sac and it says it has besides lime as main ingredient (CaCO3) 11% and magnesium (MgCO3) in different forms. I did a google search and indeed, some people are researching the possibility of fixing formaldehyde with different magnesium formulas.

I put some pans on the fridge and i saw over the last few weeks that the amount of brown stuff on top is decreasing to maybe 1/4 of what if was in the first day. I add daily water and refresh it if it gets too brown.

I think i got myself a cheap, reusable, visible, quantifiable, formaldehyde trap!