I did an experiment to see what products removed plug-in air freshener fragrance residue from painted drywall. I applied a popular brand of plug-in air freshener oil to boards of painted drywall. 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, 1 part TSP to 3 parts water. I went over the area twice and then rinsed it off with water. 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). You can also use vinegar in this step.
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) was to use 4 drops of grapefruit essential oil in a tablespoon of dish soap. Mix it together and then let it sit on the wall, trim, and floor for an hour. Then wash off with water. 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. 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-linonene, as d-limonene is a hydrocarbon solvent that dissolves other hydrocarbons like petroleum products). This did not leave oil marks.
Option 2: Oxidize: We can use various products to oxidize the fragrance residue – 3% hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide, or sodium carbonate peroxide. I used Closys Mouth Wash (unflavored) which contains chlorine dioxide on the painted drywall that had already been treated with TSP to see if I could get the scent down completely. I did 5 passes which seems to help (maybe 30-50% of an improvement). (More than 5 passes did not seem to help). In second place was sodium carbonate which worked quite well though it did scratch the paint since I didn’t dissolve it well (plus it can damage paint even if you do dissolve it). In third place came 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Note: Do not use both essential oils and an oxidizer since oxidizing essential oils leads to a very weird smell.
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.
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.
- 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 Air Oasis Ionic Air which produces ozone and hydroxyl radicals (OH molecules from PCO) or a PCO-only air purifier like Molekule. You could 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. I reader said I need to leave it on longer so I’m going to go back and do this.
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!
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.
Corinne Segura holds certificates in Building Biology, Healthier Materials and Sustainable Buildings, and more. She has 10 years of experience helping others create healthy homes.
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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.
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.