How To Remove Formaldehyde After Renovation (3 Easy Methods)

If you’re wondering how to remove formaldehyde after a renovation then this post is for you. 

Although you may not realize it, formaldehyde can be found in many homes.

If there is a smoker in your house, you can rest assured that you have formaldehyde.

Why?

Because formaldehyde is one of the main ingredients in tobacco.

When you’re renovating, you bring a lot of building materials into the home and they could have formaldehyde in them as well.

If you’re done renovating and you notice a bad smell, it could be formaldehyde.

The thing is that it’s easier than you think to get rid of formaldehyde. All you have to do is learn a few simple techniques and that’s it.

How To Remove Formaldehyde After Renovation

By Following these three easy methods below you can quickly remove formaldehyde.

1. Air Purifiers

If you’re going to look for the perfect air purifier to clean formaldehyde out of your home, make sure that it has an activated carbon filter in addition to a HEPA filter.

A true HEPA filter gets rid of pollutants such as bacteria, dust, pollen, and cigarette smoke, which are the usual causes of the formaldehyde; and an activated carbon filter gets rid of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde, which gets rid of the smell.

If the air purifier you’re researching has both of these filters, you should consider buying it.

There are numerous air purifiers that remove formaldehyde, and one of the best is the BlueAir Classic 605 air purifier. It can accommodate rooms up to around 775 square feet in size.

It has dual filters and gets rid of 99.97% of pollutants as small as 0.1 microns. This includes dust, pollen, cigarette smoke, pet dander, and so much more.

BlueAir also makes smaller air purifiers in case your home is not quite as big.

It also removes gases, chemicals, VOCs and people loved that it is super quiet at no more than 62 decibels.

This is about as loud as a fan that you turn on high to give you some white noise as you sleep.

The unit is also compatible with Alexa and can be used remotely once you install the app on your smartphone or tablet.

2. Opening A Window

Studies have shown that roughly 90% of the world’s population is exposed to indoor air that is substandard. In practical terms, this means we all need our indoor air cleaned!

The odd thing is that formaldehyde is normally not found in high concentrations outdoors.

This means that our indoor air is worse than our outdoor air. If you have a central air conditioning system, this can actually help you clean the air because these units bring in outdoor air and then filter it.

If you have no central air conditioning system, you can open the windows awhile and let the formaldehyde drift out of your home and into the atmosphere.

Of course, if you live in a huge city that has pollution, this won’t work.

So, it’s either a central AC unit, which is expensive to install, or opening the windows if you can. If neither of these is a possibility for you, you’ll have to stick with number one above or the following option.

3. A Formaldehyde Home Cookout

This is a simple method but keep in mind that it usually doesn’t get rid of all formaldehyde in your home.

To do this, set your heat to high, turn a humidifier on, then leave your home for a while. Formaldehyde off-gasses much faster when the temperature is high.

When you choose the home “cookout” method, the heat helps to release formaldehyde from paint, new furniture, etc. Remember that there are many building materials that contain formaldehyde.

When you return, you can use an air purifier to grab hold of the formaldehyde molecules and get rid of them.

As you can tell with these three methods, buying a good air purifier is the easiest and most-effective method of getting rid of formaldehyde in your home.

And while good air purifiers can cost a lot of money, there are hundreds more that come at reasonable prices.

In fact, if you have a small home or room, you can often buy an air purifier for under $100. Regardless of which one you buy, they are always worth it!

Remove Formaldehyde From Your Home FAQs

There’s a lot to learn about removing formaldehyde from a home or office.

Below are some frequently asked questions to help you.

Can Formaldehyde Be Removed?

In reality, it is not normally possible to eliminate 100% of the formaldehyde in your home.

That being said, you can certainly remove a good portion of it if you know what to do.

Once again, air purifiers can be true miracle workers when removing formaldehyde.

Just make sure that the activated charcoal filter is a top-of-the-line filter and that it comes with a true HEPA filter as well.

Where Does Formaldehyde Come From?

Formaldehyde can come from just about anywhere, but here are some of the main ways that it can get into your home:

• Tobacco smoke
• New manufactured wood products, including furniture and flooring
• Some fabrics
• Plywood, cabinets, and particleboard
• Drapes and curtains
• Certain household products, including detergents, glue, caulk, paint, pesticide, and even cosmetics
• Houses built after 1990; newer homes are well insulated so there is less air moving into and out of them, which causes formaldehyde to stay in the air longer
• Gas stoves and open fireplaces

Does Opening Windows Reduce Formaldehyde?

Opening windows to reduce formaldehyde does work, but only if the air outside is not too polluted.

Formaldehyde needs air circulation to be eliminated. So the more you open your windows, the quicker the formaldehyde will disappear from your home.

How Long Does It Take for Formaldehyde To Evaporate?

If you have a new home or have recently renovated and now have formaldehyde in your home, don’t worry.

The good news is that there are measures you can take to get rid of it, such as those mentioned above. But don’t expect it to happen quickly.

On average, it takes up to two years to get rid of the formaldehyde in your home.

If the temperatures and humidity are higher, it will take less than that. With a good air purifier, it also takes less than two years.

What Is A Safe Level Of Formaldehyde In The Home?

In the past, the EPA and other organizations have recommended that a “safe” level of formaldehyde is 0.3 ppm, or 300 ppb.

Now, however, that number has gone down to 0.1 ppm or 100 ppb. If you keep your home at or below this number, the amount of formaldehyde shouldn’t be harmful.

There are also devices that can help you test the level of formaldehyde in your home, and they are usually cheap.

Bottom Line: Formaldehyde Removal Solution

Removing formaldehyde isn’t as complicated as you might think. It’s good to remember that after a renovation, formaldehyde can build up in your home.

Getting rid of it is therefore crucial if you want your indoor air to be healthy.

Opening a window and conducting a “cookout” are effective, but air purifiers are even better.

Central AC units and air purifiers help as well, but the more effective the method is, the faster your indoor air will get back to where it should be.