home renovation (small scale), is it safe?

[emilymeow]

My house had serious water leakage from the ceiling recently, we think that it is necessary to do the maintenance before I deliver. We did:

part of the store room ceiling
feature door's wallpaper
sitting room (small scale) wall paper, and,
'fake ceiling' installation in the toilet.

I felt unwell this afternoon during renovation, but feel better after getting into bedroom whole day.

I am afraid the wallpaper glue/ paints/ or other construction material would affect my baby's health. Toilet has the strongest smell. Anyone can help?

Thanks

 

[Anna_HK]

I am in the midst of a renovation for my nursery and also my corridor and I feel your concerns. The paint solvent smells is rather giving me a headache. Although we used low VOC water based paints for the walls, some parts of the room we have to use normal solvent based paints. Unfortunately the fumes stays on for weeks.

What we did:
For our bedroom, we switched on the air purifier and sealed off all door frames with tape to prevent dust and volatile compound seeping in.
We keep other windows wide open and ventilation fans on - creating a draft of fresh air.
We moved out during the entire period. And I only come back to the apartment to check on the progress work.

Re-decorating during your pregnancy is really a pain in the behind, just simply because renovation always has hiccups, problems, crap workmen, money spent and never getting what you want, etc. so if I had to choose again, I would rather look at ugly old walls than going through this again. For your circumstance, due to water leakage, it left you no other options.

Wall paper glue and VOC paints are not so good for yourself nor the baby, try to stay away as much as possible! If you cannot, invest in iQair which is a fortune, but it effectively removes the smell for us. When the whole renovation is done, ask someone professionally to clean the house.