Fiberglass Resin Fumes in the Workshop - Need Advice

[Eldritch Arts]

Hi all,
Not sure if this is the right section to post this in, but any thoughts would be helpful.
This summer I started making armour out of fiberglass resin and it was going quite well casting everything outside in my yard. However now that it's winter I've moved everything inside. I have use of a workshop in the basement of my Mom's house, where I have been spray painting my pieces, and also recently set up a sanding booth to sand the raw pieces. However I am being discouraged from actually casting any pieces inside because my Mom is very sensitive of the fumes from it that seem to rise up into the house (though I can barely smell them.)
I was thinking of having my husband finish off the workshop with moisture sealer, drywall, etc. And get a much better fan/ventillator. However I don't have a ton of money to put into this currently, but I really need to start casting again ASAP. If i can get away with just a good fan/ventillator to shoot the fumes out, that would be awesome. I'm also thinking of casting in the small sanding booth and having the fan run from there to the window, as opposed to casting in the open workshop.
If anyone has experience with resin fumes or anything similar in a workshop attached to a house or something like that, and could offer advice, that would be most appreciated! Thanks!

 

[The Mad Professor]

Place a brushless box fan (or explosion proof fan) at the top of the stairs to push air into the basement. Keeps the fumes from rising out and creates an airflow. Problem solved.

 

[Eldritch Arts]

ahh that is a good idea! i should mention that the workshop is a separate section of the basement and she is paranoid about fumes coming up through the floor (?) but that does seem like it would make a vast improvement!

 

[The Mad Professor]

Glad I could help.

 

[star-art]

After spending years in a house with no A/C, I found that "pushing" air into a space doesn't work very well. The quickest way to ventilate a space is to put fans in a window blowing OUT and then open another window on the opposite side of the room/house.

If you have a fan exhausting air from your basement, it will create a negative pressure that will draw air from the rest of the house down into the basement. This should prevent the fumes from getting into the rest of the house.

But, the downside is you will be wasting heat. And, you must always have a source of "make up" air. Each cubic foot of air that goes out must have the same amount coming in.

This air will find its way from some places you might not expect. For example, if you have a gas water heater in the basement, you can cause carbon monoxide to get into the house. Code requirements specify ducting that is designed to insure the combustion fumes make their way safely outside. If you have a fan running pulling air out of the basement, those fumes can stop going where they are supposed to and end up in your work space.

Ventilation is not nearly so simple a thing as it seems on the surface. . .

 

[johnfields]

I would strongly recommend you rig up some kind of ventilation AND you wear a respirator while you are in close proximity. Check the MSDS (material safety data sheet) on the specific product you are using -some give off carcinogens during the thermal curing phase.

 

[The Mad Professor]

After spending years in a house with no A/C, I found that "pushing" air into a space doesn't work very well. The quickest way to ventilate a space is to put fans in a window blowing OUT and then open another window on the opposite side of the room/house.

If you have a fan exhausting air from your basement, it will create a negative pressure that will draw air from the rest of the house down into the basement. This should prevent the fumes from getting into the rest of the house.

But, the downside is you will be wasting heat. And, you must always have a source of "make up" air. Each cubic foot of air that goes out must have the same amount coming in.

This air will find its way from some places you might not expect. For example, if you have a gas water heater in the basement, you can cause carbon monoxide to get into the house. Code requirements specify ducting that is designed to insure the combustion fumes make their way safely outside. If you have a fan running pulling air out of the basement, those fumes can stop going where they are supposed to and end up in your work space.

Ventilation is not nearly so simple a thing as it seems on the surface. . .

Well, the purpose of the fan at the top of the stairs is not really to create an airflow so much as shutting her mother up about imaginary fumes (Seriously, anyone worried about fumes seeping through the floor of a modern house is at least a little too paranoid, no offense to your mother, Eldritch Arts...). Besides, she' already got an exhaust fan downstairs, if I'm not mistaken, so any airflow being pushed into the room is merely complementing the exhaust fan.