Sounds like he's gone defensive rather than cooperative, I believe he has a 'duty of care' though and should endeavour to correct the situation, also he is unlikely to be 'out of pocket'.
I can well understand the decorator thinking "It's Vaspar's bludy paint - I ain't sorting this..." but, as Facs, points out, I understand it is the decorator's legal responsibility to sort as the contract was with him, and he supplied the paint. However, the decorator should end up being fully compensated by Vaspar for materials and labour. I suspect that this decorator is a small or one-man outfit, a self-employed guy who takes on the jobs he wants, works at his own pace - and doesn't want (or know how to deal with!) any hassle. It's up to Lynne Hollis what to do about this. She has two choices - one is to 'force' her decorator to sort it by threatening to sue him or by contacting her local Trading Standards, and she will ultimately succeed. The other is to use her existing receipts for this job to launch a claim directly against Vaspar, adding extra for the wall sealers required. Once paid, she can then employ a different decorator (or Valspar might do this by accepting the claim in principle, she then gets a decorator out to redo the work and she claims for this amount - I don't know what approach Vaspar has).
I agree with Facs again (man, I hate this thread...) Any claim will be judged on what is considered 'reasonable'.
If you want to make this claim via your decorator, then please be reasonable and sympathetic to his situation - at the moment, he almost certainly thinks he's going to be dumped upon. So, if you haven't already done so, please explain to him that you do not 'blame' him at all, and that he should (will) end up being fully compensated by Vaspar for redoing the work - ergo he will have had another job out of this, so win-win Tell him you will help him as much as you can with the case, but that - legally - it is his responsibility to actually make the claim. But, it'll all end up good for you both - no-one is going to lose out. Except Vaspar...
So glad I have come across this post after seeing the daily mail article! We painted our son's room in Feb this year and as soon as the weather turned warmer I noticed the awful gas smell and I have been driving myself MAD searching for the source of it. I've been sniffing everything like a lunatic and thought maybe it was the smell of the wood from the new wardrobes and bunk bed. I've searched for old food, hoovered and aired everything 100 times! We used the valspar Matt emulsion v500 in "blue muse". So I shall now be writing to the addresses given to see what they will offer. It took me two days to paint the room and now it has semi fixed furniture so it's a real pain.... would people on here suggest that the sealant layer is really a job for a professional? Also, my son has been suffering with a severely blocked nose and sneezing since April. GP said the lining of his nose is severely inflamed and has been irritated by something, and he has been using a steroid spray on a daily basis as this was put down to hayfever/allergies, but he has never suffered with hayfever at all in the past (he is almost 10), and I'm now wondering if the paint could be the irritant? Has anyone established whether or not it could cause any health problems? Thanks
I also meant to add that we painted our kitchen grey with valspar paint and primer in "hinky punk" in Jan of 2016 and have had absolutely no problems in this room, if fact, we've been really pleased with the kitchen paint, so it's definitely a batch issue...
My first thought at your son's symptoms was 'hayfever' too! (My son is now 15, and developed severe hayfever for the first time last year. This year was also pretty bad a few months back). Of course his issues could (I guess) be caused by the (presumed) ammonia, but good luck trying to prove it. You shouldn't, tho', have any issues claiming for new materials including sealers, sandpapers, brushes etc etc - make sure you are fully covered. You could, I think, very likely also make a valid claim for having professionals redo the work since (a) it is now a more complex and tricky job and (b) you have concerns about your son's health so wish to be 100% certain it is sorted properly, and as a DIYer you don't wish to take that risk.
Oh my gosh I've so got this smell since painting my hallway with Valspar paint. I've been blaming the neighbour's cats lol. Well is the consensus to wash the walls with bleach? Domestos ok??
If you've read this thread - and you should if you haven't - the consensus is to report it to Valspar so that they'll at least compensate you for the materials, including sealers for use on the walls before repainting. Washing the walls ain't going to cure this - you'd have to either remove the existing paint (I wouldn't go there) or else seal it in permanently using whatever Valspar recommends (I think it's BIN products). Then repaint either using their more recent paints (now't wrong with Valspar paints as such - it was seemingly a batch that had a particular preservative/anti-bacterial additive removed, and this has by all accounts now been resolved), or else paints from a different manufacturer.
Contact B & Q first. Valspar are incredibly unhelpful and resistant. for more detailed advice from those who have already had refunds for paint and decorating see Facebook page 'Valspar Paint Problems'.
Hello all, Im a Master Decorator by trade and served an apprenticeship in the craft . I hold full City and Guilds also and have been in the industry 40 years. I also worked as a Technical Consultant for one of Valspars competitors. I have come across this problem before. Emulsion paints especially budget branded types stored in a location where frost can get at it can have the same smell, it makes you feel sick as soon as you lift the lid. The binder which holds the pigmentation together basically falls apart giving the material the appearance of cottage cheese. After speaking to paint scientists about this we deduced that it is something to do with the biocides used. In your cases what I would suggest you do is get as much airflow into the area as possible to help facilitate the fully hardening up of the paint coating already applied. Once this is done sand the area down ( this promotes intercoat adhesion - helps further coatings stick basically.) What I would do then is overcoat the affected area totally with either alkali resistant primer or some type of primer sealer. Their purpose is to hold back stains etc and also bind together flaking and unstable surfaces. There are some very good ones on the market both water and solvent based. Once this is dry you will then be able to overcoat with a system that hope fully wont cause you any more grief. I hope you find this helpful and good luck with your claims.
Just had a look at some of the other possible solutions on here. Please please whatever you do dont try to wash the area down with domestos, bleach or anything else of that nature. These types of products are very strong and could destroy the paint coating totally and possibly get into the substrate and cause no end of problems, you will make matters a darn sight worse. The advice given in my last post is the quickest and easiest way to resolve this issue. I deal with paint systems and their application very working day so trust me I do know what Im talking about.
Well looks like we too are one of the unlucky 1 in 100,000...... 3 times over as three of the four rooms painted, with 5 different colour paints, in our house being affected. Have read this thread from start to finish and have just started enquiring as to how B&Q or Valspar are going to rectify this. I have found a similar issue raised in the US 6 years ago and although not Valspar directly they do get a mention. One thing everyone may want to note is that this thread reports that sealing and over painting was only a temporary fix and the only solution was to re-drywall/re-plaster the affected walls 3 years later. http://www.house-painting-info.com/question/paint-smells-like-cat-pee/#.WXMDO4XTWaM As previously mentioned here it may be worth having something in writing from B&Q or Valspar that if the issue returns that they will see that it is put right, whatever that entails. Added to that for those who haven't carried out any remedial work it may be worth pursuing costs to have it corrected by a qualified painter/decorator and keeping the invoice so they don't try to sidestep the fault by saying it wasn't fixed correctly/professionally. This is what we intend to do, also because we are right at the end of our full renovation and really don't want to have to go around repainting every room 3 times (2 layers of sealer, 1 topcoat) to correct the p1$$ poor quality of the paint we purchased (pun intended!)
The BIN products mentioned are made by a company called Zinsser, their products are used on a daily basis and are very good. Products such as this are based on shellac. They have what are known as "leafing" properties as does aluminium primer and knotting solution. Any contamination present on or in the substrate should not be able to leach through these types of coatings. There should not be any need to replaster or do anything else drastic. On your tins of defective material there will be a barcode or sticker on there with a number, this is the batch number. The makers will have a retained sample of that batch and can test it.This type of material is made in batches of about 10000 litres at a time, hence the amount of problems occuring. In 2010 environmental legislation changed regarding the making of paint.At that time there were all sorts of complaints made about paint products that were not up to scratch. I brought a deep orange gloss from a trade supplier the other day. It was like water due to the amount of colourants used. Fortunatly the colour was not that important so I thickened the material up by adding a British standard 4800 colour to it that was brought straight from the shelf. When I first started in the trade over 40 years ago if that material had been supplied like that We would have lost faith in the supplier and gone onto someone else.
I don't doubt that their products are very good and that the issue should not be able to leach through. My issue is what if it does, who then is liable? Zinsser because their product allowed the ammonia through, Valspar because of the initial problem or whoever made the topcoat painted over the Zinsser. Would not be surprised if Valspar said it is no longer their problem because other products had been used. We've not spent thousands renovating our property to gamble like that and face unnecessary cost to us, there needs to be some guarantee or written confirmation from Valspar that they will maintain ownership of the problem
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