I did an experiment to see what products removed plug-in air freshener fragrance residue from painted drywall and wood.
I applied a popular brand of plug-in air freshener oil to boards of painted drywall and samples of wood with a variety of finishes.
I came up with two possible remediation strategies that worked well to remove almost all of the fragrance odor.
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The results of my experiment led to two possible remediation strategies, based on which products you do better with.
Steps to Remediate Plug-In Fragrance
Step 1 Prep: We are going to be doing a lot of washing of the walls so we need to protect the area from water. Caulk around the trim, baseboards, and outlets with non-toxic caulking. Cover the outlets with tape and protect the floor with taped-down plastic.
Step 2 Wash: Go over the area with a non-toxic dish soap. It’s best if you can use one with natural citrus oils like this one.
Step 3 Degrease: TSP is a degreaser and it works particularly well to remove plug-in fragrance from painted surfaces. It also is a de-glosser of your paint so it will mar the surface of the paint. I used it in high concentrations.
Be prepared to paint after using high concentrations of TSP as it can mar and discolor the paint and could also affect most floor finishes. (I couldn’t actually tell that the eggshell paint had any damage from what I did, however).
Alternative: If you don’t want to risk damaging the paint you can use a lower concentration of TSP or use a non-toxic industrial strength degreaser instead like Simple Green Crystal, Benefect Atomic Degreaser (or other options here).
Step 4 Break Down Fragrance: There are two options for this step depending on what you do well with:
Option 1: D-Limonene: The option that worked the best (by far) on the drywall was to use grapefruit essential oil mixed in dish soap.
Of course, at first, it smelled strongly like grapefruit but when that faded it was obvious that this helped break down the plug-in odor.
Though it was not completely broken down. The test drywall that was treated with both TSP and orange oil was by far the best result.
The grapefruit oil odor did not fade 100% for quite a while, so if you are sensitive to that natural odor and you need to return to the house quickly this will not work.
(You can use other citrus oils high in d-limonene, as d-limonene is a hydrocarbon solvent that dissolves other hydrocarbons like petroleum products).
Exact ratios and instructions for TSP and the d-limonene are in Substack.
Option 2: If you can’t use D-limonene or anything scented, I also tried another option using a product that was scent-free and will work for most chemically sensitive folks. That is outlined in Substack.
Step 5: Buy new plastic outlet covers for all outlets where plug-ins were used.
Step 6 Paint/Seal: There are two options here.
The first is to paint with ECOS Air Purifying Paint which contains zeolite to absorb odors. This can certainly help quite a bit to noticeably reduce the plug-in odor.
The second strategy is to block the odor. For this, we would use AFM Transitional Primer or BIN Shellac Primer which are a better block of odors than a regular primer. Followed by AFM Safecoat Paint.
Note: this step should only be done when you have cleaned up or oxidized the odor as much as possible and it’s almost good enough for your standards. Once you paint you can’t go back to other strategies.
Wood Samples
I repeated the experiment on wood samples (wood flooring and stained and painted wood to simulate floors, baseboards/trim and doors).
For the wood samples, the mix of dish soap and essential oils did not work well enough.
And I did not use TSP because I did not want to damage the floors or trim that much because you can’t really touch up the floors or trim in the way that you can repaint the walls.
So I went a slightly different route with the wood samples, although with similar types of chemicals.
Those results are in Substack.
Alternative Strategies
If the above has not worked well enough you can also implement the following:
- Time – plug-in residue goes down with time without any intervention. My samples had an odor reduction of about 50% by leaving them sit for a few months. And some other samples were very faint by a year’s time (though the smell was not gone just by resting for a year).
- Heat and air – speed up the natural breakdown of the fragrance by heating the home and airing it out at intervals. This is called a “bake-out” and this article has more details.
- PCO and/or ozone – some remediation companies can come in with Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) machines or PCO and low ozone. You can accomplish this yourself on a smaller scale by using something like the Air Oasis Ionic Air which produces ozone and hydroxyl radicals (OH molecules from PCO) or a PCO-only air purifier like Molekule. You would want to move the machines around the room, moving them as close to the drywall as possible since OH molecules do not travel very far at all.
Products That Didn’t Work For Me
EnviroKlenze Everyday Odor Eliminator was applied in full strength and left on for 15 minutes. The initial comparison was that EnviroKlenze worked better than other options. But by the next day, the smell was back basically full force.
Murphey’s Orange Oil Soap. After this step, I was left with a fairly strong odor of the Murphey’s Oil. Murphy’s Oil soap claims to be 99% natural but the resulting odor did seem quite strong and to my nose it doesn’t register as all-natural (that could be just me). And this odor lingered, I wish I had skipped this step. It would be better to mix orange essential oil with dish soap for this application.
Earthworn Enzyme Spray was sprayed a few times on the board, each time letting it sit for a while. This did not seem to help at all. Then I tried concentrated lipase enzymes mixed into a paste (meant to break down fats), and left on the wallboard for an hour, I misted it a few times during that hour to keep it wet. This seemed to work somewhat, but not as well as the other options. I repeated the process but that second run didn’t seem to make any improvement.
12% Hydrogen Peroxide – I was a little too keen with trying such a high concentration of hydrogen peroxide. The 12% formula caused the paint to bubble up. Not good!
More items I tried are in the Substack article.
P.S. Details of how I conducted the experiment:
A popular brand plug-in was opened and the oil was dripped directly onto the pieces of painted drywall and spread out. Then each piece was then laid out in the sun to simulate the heating of the plug-in oil that would occur in the device when plugged in.
The drywall contained three coats of white latex paint in an eggshell finish before adding the oil.
The wood samples were a mix of wood with a hand applied water-based polyurethane, a water-based stain, a water-based paint, an oil-based paint, and a UV cured aluminum oxide polyurethane floor finish.
Corinne Segura is an InterNACHI-certified Healthy Homes Inspector with certifications in Building Biology, Healthier Materials and Sustainable Buildings, and more. She has 10 years of experience helping others create healthy homes. You can book a consult here.
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Becca B
Hi,
Thank you so much for this information!!!!
I want to do this, but have quite severe multiple chemical sensitivity.
How long did the Grapefruit oil smell last?
Thanks
Becca
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
youd have to do a test on a painted surface or drywall sample because I was not super sensitive to essential oils, to me it went down in reasonable amount of time
SP
Thanks for sharing such a clear test on plug-in fragrance residue! The results genuinely surprised me and helped me understand buildup issues better. This kind of practical content is super helpful for everyone.
Marci
3 years ago a plug- in was placed in my garage by a tenant to mask garbage odors. We painted the walls but now 3 years later the garage still smells of intense fragrance. My daughter with MCS has to move into that house. Is there anyway to safely remove the odor?
Thank you!
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
having painted over it makes it more complicated
Peggy
Hi, what do you use to pull odors and stinky plug in stuff out of finished furniture? I have bought several pieces of nice cherry furniture just to get them home and the smell was overwhelming. Vinegar didn’t do it, neither did a flaming hot garage for days help – any suggestions? Would the grapefruit oil/soap work for that or would it damage the finish? I LOVE your website and am so grateful for it! I used alot of your wisdom and knowledge as we built our home. I am extremely chemical sensitive and your website is a gift from God to us!! Thank you!!!
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
it would be the same as wood floors, though more vulnerable than some of the modern day wood floor coatings. Both TSP and the orange oil could damage the finish. TSP highly likely, orange oil I’m not as sure, esp if diluted more. Refinishing them is a good idea though.
Jen
I am about to have all
My stained wood trim and baseboards professionally primed and painted. I do not want the smell trapped and still releasing. Will the primer and stuff cover and rid us of the smell since it’s like some urethane trim enamel or do I need to try and get it out before they start the work?
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
there is no perfect liquid sealer for this purpose, so whether that will be good enough for you once you seal and paint it, is something no one can tell you for sure
Melanie E Van Wyhe
Hi Corrine,
I am chemically sensitive and I have gotten sick many times in the apartment I’m staying. However I’m in the process of seeing if I can buy a house. My lease is up here at the end of a July. I looked at another apartment and everything seems really good except the lady living there now has one of those candle plug in fragrance things going and it reeked in there.
They are putting in new carpet in the bedroom and painting which I can air out …but more worried about the chemical smell and how long it will take me to get it out
Thanks,
Melanie
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
This article goes over that but there is no getting it out 100% generally
Sheryl
I am going through the same thing. I looked at a place that’s perfect except for the smell of scented plug in or something like that. Did you ever get the smell out?
Melanie E Van Wyhe
Hi Sheryl, I decided to stay where I’m at for now. I signed another short lease and hoping to buy a little some. So sorry, it’s a hard decision!! They put them by our front door and I’m think of wearing a mask when I come in the door.
Sara
This post is a godsend! Thank you!
Questions:
1. How far will 4 drops of grapefruit essential oil in a tablespoon of dish soap go? Do you just slather it on the wall? I have a whole entryway (and maybe the entire apartment) whose walls need to be deodorized.
2. Can I use this same method on vinyl flooring?
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
it could damage the coating on a vinyl flooring, though not sure if that would happen with one use.
Sara
Well, I’m starting to think that perhaps my landlords painted over the smell without remediating it. I did this entire process with TSP (twice, though at a slightly lower concentration) and D-Limonene, and the scent is as powerful as ever (except mixed with the far more tolerable grapefruit essential oil).
Or I misdiagnosed the problem. I’ve sniffed around my apartment and was fairly sure it was the walls, but maybe it’s coming from somewhere else.
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
Ah yeah if it’s been painted over it is partially trapped.
Yannick
The 5 washes with chlorine dioxide…we’re they performed immediately back to back. or did you have to let the wall dry between each pass?
Meg
Hi, I’m curious if you could give a little more detail on how you washed the walls, applied the TSP, and applied the different products to break down the fragrance? (Like did you use spray bottles to apply, rags to wipe, etc?)
I’ve been trying for months to rid my partner’s house of plug-in smell and it’s better but still after I leave there I can smell it embedded in my clothes even though you can’t smell it in the air anymore. I’m super sensitive to scents and it’s overwhelming and I just want to exist in a scent free space Thanks!
Janel
I’m wondering how much of a distance from the plug in you needed to treat with the methods before the smell disappeared? I am buying a home that used them, one in a bathroom and one in the master bedroom. Are you cleaning the walls of the entire room? I can smell it throughout the house even though the plug in was just in those locations.
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
depends on your level of sensitivity, you might need to clean all the walls
Nan
We just bought a log cabin that was bombed with some kind of fragrance cleaner plus the previous owners used plug-ins. I don’t see anywhere here for a solution with wood paneling. We are choking to death on the smell and have tried everything from airing out in the middle of winter to vodka and tons and tons of baking soda everywhere. Help! We can’t stay in our new home.
Ginelle
This is one of the most helpful posts I’ve come across. Thank you!
MO
Any suggestions for removing Plug-in fragrance residue from HVAC systems. The vents have been professionally steam cleaned, but the smell still lingers. The plug-in had been in an outlet near the air return vent and blower motor.
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
if they are rigid ducts you can have the ducts cleaned, if they are flex ducts they cannot be officially cleaned.
DKI
I am so grateful you did this research. The previous owner of my Mom’s house used 2 of these in the house and I found one in the garage(!) and it still smells! Nauseating. Fortunately I already planned to clean the walls before repainting, and I will be using that Zinsser BIN shellac you recommended when it’s prime time. I also will likely repaint the baseboards & doors too as I heard the wood can trap odors. If it still smells too strongly I will try ozone treatment. Will report back with my results.
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
ok let us know how it goes!
DKI
I think I posted this in another article comment section — but Ecos air purifying primer worked really well. I do not even smell the glade plugin scent anymore. The primer has been on the walls and ceiling for 2-3 weeks now…holidays came up and I didn’t get around to painting again until this week and noticed that I dont even smell the air freshener in those rooms any more! It could also just be that time has passed and the smell naturally dissipated, but I wasnt actively airing out those rooms during the holidays.
Ecos primer is smelly when wet, but doesnt smell once it’s dry. I find the primer smell stronger than their flat and eggshell paint smell. Ventilation, fans blowing the air out the window, and an air purifier over night help dissipate the smell faster. Wearing a mask during painting helps (I just used a KN95, did not feel like the smell was strong enough for respirator, but I had pretty decent ventilation)
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
thanks for sharing yes i agree with that, primers almost always have a stronger smell then a wall paint
Amelia
Hi Corinne, I worked in functional medicine before I developed a mold illness a number of years ago, which led to MCAS/MCS and this blog has helped more than any other resource with regard to VOC remediation and mitigation strategies, so thank you. I recently moved into an apt that was occupied by someone who used f—e plugins in the kitchen and bath, and the appliances/tile/walls/light fixtures have been for the most part remediated with limonene dish soap (which I’m allergic to) and vodka. What remains in 3 locations none of the mentioned strategies have helped at all: the porcelain (?) light sockets in light fixtures, the laminated parts and the interior wood of two wood cupboards and the wall light sockets where the plugins were used. It seems the air freshener gets into the sockets and every time we plug something in it releases more gas. Any clues about what strategies to use – it seems any amount of heat, electricity or moisture triggers release in these spots still. We are reluctant to use ozone because it’s a multi-unit apt house. We don’t want to close it up and turn the heat on because we haven’t tackled the furnace/hvac yet. Any suggestions welcome. Thank you! Amelia
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
porcelain would not hold on to smells, laminate/melamine of cabinets probably cant be remediated, raw wood – spray alcohol on it, and then spray orange oil, replace the socket covers
Amelia
Thank you and good to know re unfinished porcelain on fixtures. The cover plates we’ve remediated, it’s the actual sockets that are releasing fragrance? Sunlight seemed to get the smell out of the melamine cupboard shelves but onions are just putting a dent in the cupboard itself. Is there a point where you think there’s a residual smell vs residual chemicals that continue to stick to materials? Do these chems have a half life?
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
the smell can linger for a very long time, I wouldn’t worry about it if it’s not bothering you. You could also paint melamine cabinets with shellac as the primer/block.
Amelia
Thank you re shellac, that makes sense. It does bother me, and it’s a small kitchen so I’d love to put things in the cupboard and not have them come out smelling like air freshener. The microwave is also saturated inside…
Susan
Light sockets can be replaced fairly easily by an electrician.
Kate
This is so helpful!! Do you have any suggestions for wood furniture? I bought a piece at an estate sale and got
it home and it has permeated throughout my home. I’m at a loss…the piece is a perfect fit for our needs except for the smell. I saw the plug ins at the home but thought it was just for the showings of the house since it was on the market and the smell wasn’t awful – but I’m guessing it’s years of it on this furniture and it stinks!
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
you can adjust the steps for furniture. also spray alcohol onto the unfinished wood parts
Irina Rivkin
Thanks so much for this informative article. If there were no plugins, and no formal “air fresheners” but a house was previously occupied by fragranced people, and someone had a box of bounce on a desk to make it “smell nice”, would hydrogen peroxide work, and would it be more effective with baking soda or less? Would mixing the hydrogen peroxide with a bit of planet dish soap make it more effective?
Another question: if a house is cleaned with hydrogen peroxide with or without baking soda and dish-soap, and then a week or two later the walls are cleaned with phosphate-free TSP-alternative in prep for painting (TS-PF), would there be a bad reaction (if there’s at least a week between the two)?
Would doing one cleaning with hydrogen peroxide, and, for walls, a second pre-Ecos-Air-Purifying-Paint cleaning with the phosphate-free TSP-alternative, be more effective than using the TSP alternative twice? Thanks!
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
i havent tested those different combinations, so i would test each combo of HP, with baking soda or without, with dish soap and without on different walls to see which works best.
I would use both products, TSP go with regular version not phosphate free. Make sure HP has fully dissipated/ broken down before using TSP.
Morgan
What is your opinion of the effectiveness of this for the extremely sensitive?
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
if you need perfection unfortunately that might not be achievable. if you need it to be 80%-90% better than this is the best I could figure out. i would not skip out on the TSP, orange oil and re-sealing to get the best possible outcome. ozone is too big a risk for me to ever use again.
Sarah
Corrine, you are in a whole new level of research, testing, collaboration, website design, and overall awesomeness. THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO!
Regarding the drywall remediation test, very interesting. One challenge (and I think you’ve addresses this somewhere in your expanding neighborhood of information) are situations where plug-ins (and/or other fragrance offenders) were used long-term and have penetrated the drywall and infused the materials behind it. Have had that situation in my home and it’s overwhelming to deal with.
Echota
I just wanted to let you know that zeolite is like asbestos in the body and can have detrimental effects. I know I wouldn’t use anything with it. most cat litters use it for clumping too.
Corinne Segura
zeolite in powdered form can be harmful to breath in, though not on the same level as asbestos. It’s not harmful when solid form in the paint.
Lucy Elam
This is one of the most helpful sites I have ever found. A cleaning crew used a floor cleaner in my house that had a fragrance. I suspect the woman who used is nose blind. When she came to the house, she reeked of it. Originally I thought she was wearing a really aggressive perfume. She had mopped the entire upstairs, including my bedroom, with it before I realized what she was doing. She clearly was using excessive amounts of the product because the house just stank to high heaven with it. My guess is she can’t smell it unless she uses excess product. I mopped the floors with Mr. Clean twice and Dawn once. Nothing was working. I finally used hydrogen peroxide in water as suggested on your site. After multiple treatments, it finally worked. I realized the fragrance was on the walls. The hydrogen peroxide solution took care of that. Now I’m washing bed clothes. It’s one of the worst exposures I’ve ever had. Thanks for the tip on hydrogen peroxide.
Corinne Segura
that’s good im glad it worked.
Eve Nunes
Hello! I just found your website. Thank you for the very valuable information here. My 13 year-old daughter and her dad went to the paint store and bought the paint and a packet of paint scent additive. She says she added 3/4 of the scent to the gallon. I helped her paint one very large wall in her bedroom. We are all over powered by the smell and she can’t even sleep in there. It is rainy tonight and the forecast is cold for us over the next few days. We have a fan going and I had the window open with the heat off to the house. I told her we can’t use the rest of that gallon. I don’t know what my first step should be to manage this overpowering scent. My other daughter almost fainted and almost threw up. We have little pets that I’m concerned about—a bearded dragon and two guinea pigs. They are in the next room. What would you suggest? Thank you!
Corinne Segura
heat up, ventilation up. im not sure if mixing the scent into the paint means that it cant be removed but it’s possible that it can’t. im not sure if any of the tricks to remove fragrance from walls will work. you could try some. next steps would be to let it fully cure than go over with on of the sealing options in the article.
lisa bach
we just bought a car and they had it full of air fresheners and I don’t know how to get the smell out.
Corinne
that’s trickier. I would use/adapt some of the same methods here as well as some of the methods in the article on “how to get rid of that new car smell”
Barbara
Lisa next time you buy a car – I would select one very carefully. Either work with a dealership to let you test drive/buy a used car without them detailing it first or buy from a private seller you have carefully screened by phone before visiting. I ask, “I’m calling about THE car for sale?” (that rules out people who are dealing cars but presenting themselves as a private seller if they respond, “which car?”) Then ask, “What kind of fragrances have been used such as air fresheners, Febreeze,etc? Anyone who uses cologne been driving the car?”
Kristin
I think the best way to get smell out of a car is to leave it in full sun with windows down. Sometimes keep the windows closed to let it heat up before rolling down the windows. It can take a long time.
DKI
If you have exhausted everything, ozone treatment. My friend has done this several times (and even uses his own generator now) and it works. I have heard ozone treatment can damage some parts or materials of cars, but this has not been his experience. Exposure to ozone can be extremely dangerous, so find a qualified professional to do it if you need it done
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
I used to use ozone but have had very bad experiences with it, it ruined everything I owned in the last house I was in. I would never risk it again.
E
Enviroklenz needs to be left on for a day minimum, a few days at best, to have any impact. 15 minutes did not give it an adequate testing.