How to Seal in New Wood Odor

Wood gives off natural odorants including terpenes and formaldehyde (the full chemical breakdown can be found here) and some people are very sensitive to these odorants.

It often does vary based on the species of wood; this article on low-odor woods looks at that. But some people are sensitive to all wood species.

The age also affects the level of odor, as newly cut wood certainly has a stronger odor than older wood. However, waiting and airing it out and heating it up isn’t really a strategy that works to reduce wood odor quickly in a home if you are sensitive to it.

Sealing it is going to be the best strategy. What sealer is best depends mostly on what the wood item is so I’ve divided it into three categories.

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Wood Framing in a Home

Those who are extremely sensitive to wood often worry about wood used in the framing of a house, will that still bother me after the drywall is in and the wood is encased? It’s not likely to.

If you are able to go into homes that have wood framing after everything else is in then you can likely build with wood framing.

I would not put any sealer on wood used in structural parts of the home, as wood needs to be able to take on moisture and let go of that naturally. It’s something wood does very well on its own. Blocking moisture could be a problem.

For those that are still sensitive to wood in the structure, see this article on alternative wall systems.

Sealing Wooden Floors

If you are selecting new wooden floors, the best way to seal in the odor is to select a brand that uses aluminum oxide-infused UV-cured polyurethane. Look for one that is many layers thick. The thicker it is the more it blocks the odor of the wood.

If you don’t want to go with that finish, or your flooring is already installed, there are a few other options.

A durable polyurethane finish applied in-house will block some of the odor (but not all, and not as much as the factory finish or shellac will). AFM Poly BP or Earthpaint Nanotech are good options to consider.

Paint is also a consideration if you want a painted floor look. It’s about as good as polyurethane. Non-toxic floor paint like ECOS Paints Floor Paint would be a good choice.

Next up from that would be to use shellac. An uncommon floor finish these days, shellac is an excellent block of wood odor. It can be used alone or on top of any other finish that you already have.

What you don’t want to use is natural oil finishes as those are very breathable and don’t block odors, they also have their own natural odorants.

Sealing Furniture, Doors, and Beams

For most people, an acrylic primer and a couple of coats of regular zero-VOC acrylic paint like ECOS will be enough to seal in the odor of wood. Of course that assumes you are going for a painted look.

Use a primer like ECOS, followed by ECOS Paint or Safecoat Transitional Primer (low VOC, not always tolerated), followed by Safefcoat paint. (Don’t mix those two brands).

Higher gloss paints provide more sealing (for example pearl in most brands or eggshell in AFM). Breathable paints like Keim, chalk/ed paint, linseed oil paint, and most Farrow and Ball lines do not provide much blocking at all.

If you are sealing pine, be sure to use the tannin blocking primer so you don’t bleed through splotches. Shellac is another option for tannin blocking.

You can also use clear coatings, both polyurethane and acrylic can be used here to block wood odors. AFM Acrylacq is good at blocking most of the smell. AFM Acriglaze, AFM Hardseal, AFM Poly BP, or Earthpaint Nanotech can also be used.

Shellac is still the best bet overall for blocking odors.

You can either use a shellac-based primer like BIN Shellac (either the alcohol-based version or water-based version) and then coat it with your paint of choice or you can use pure shellac which is transparent, a bit amber, and shiny.

The purest version is to buy your own flakes and mix them with Everclear alcohol.

Pure shellac just needs the alcohol to flash off for it to be 0-VOC. BIN Shellac is not 0-VOC and may require some time to off-gas, if you are chemically sensitive.

You don’t need to coat over clear shellac generally with anything else to block odors but AFM Poly BP can go over dewaxed shellac.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Allbäck natural linseed oil paint (which don’t contain the ability to block themselves) can go over any type of shellac.

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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