Floor Varnish And Pregnancy

Refinishing furniture can expose you to solvents that may have risks for your baby.

Floor varnish and pregnancy.

The simplest and safest option if you re pregnant is to get someone else do the varnishing or save it until after your baby s born. I just had my hardwood floors refinished with an oil based polyurethane finish. At the moment it s not known exactly how the chemicals and solvents used to strip and varnish wood may affect your unborn baby. Research that has looked at paint exposure during pregnancy has not shown consistent results.

If you are pregnant consider talking to your employers to avoid these duties during pregnancy and breastfeeding. I am 3 months pregnant and am very concerned about exposure to. The house still smells like fumes. Chemical exposure can occur in a variety of ways.

The floors were finished on a wednesday and we returned to the house 6 days later on a tuesday. Pregnancy is not the time to refinish furniture. Martinez tells webmd that if a woman takes the drug during pregnancy there is a 30 to 35 risk for major birth defects including complete absence of the thymus gland. It s best to limit your exposure to paint and paint fumes while you re pregnant.

Leaving the house for a week isn t really an option so i guess we ll look for an alternative to a polyurethane based finish. It s probably best that you don t varnish wood when you re pregnant just in case. Ask someone else to mix them for you. Increase ventilation as much as possible.

Ok so staying in the house with polyurethane fumes is definitely out. Avoid directly mixing resins if at all possible. You can do it but the best advice is to pack up your pregnant self and go to a hotel while the work is being completed by someone else like a licensed contractor. If avoidance during pregnancy and breastfeeding is not possible.

We had the floors done while on vacation to avoid the fumes. The dust created by sanding existing floors and the fumes emitted by the high potency chemicals used on flooring are unsafe to inhale. Most paint contains solvents petroleum based chemicals that can cause health problems if you inhale too much of them. Dreaming of new hardwood floors before baby comes.

To be safe let someone else do that job or wait to do the work yourself after your baby is born.