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Cabinets, Furniture, Woodworks/Bad smell new furniture

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Expert: - 5/30/2010


Question
Mr. Scholl, my husband and I purchased a Tradewins brand sleigh bed made out of what they say is cherry.  The sale price was $800.  We bought it in January.  It was not a floor model; it was boxed.  Roughly a month after it was delivered, I could smell an unpleasant odor sort of like super dirty socks. It's a different type of smell than what I'm used to with furniture.  

The store's customer service manager said it could take a year or two for odors to work their way out, after the wood has been through a few seasons of temperature/humidity change.  I live in northern New England.  Is this the way wood behaves?  Are there specific finishes that smell worse than others?  We've purchased other furniture, and had cherry bookcases built, and I've never smelled this kind of obnoxious odor.  I don't even like to enter the bedroom.

Thank you in advance for your help.
Shari

Answer
Hi Shan, certain woods can have an odor, as well as certain finishes....my guess is that this bed was not made of what we think of as American Cherry...but some foreign wood that can be made to look like Cherry, or real cherry veneer over a plywood consisting of a stinky secondary wood...I once ran into this with a kitchen that was constructed with some type of plywood that smelled like Horse pee....really bad- they ended up tearing it out and replacing it.....and some can have a VERY disagreeable odor....they're right that the odor will eventually dissipate, but it could take years...unfortunately there is no way to cure this, either, unless there are large areas of the bed that are unfinished, but the finish has little power to seal in a really bad odor. The box surely had the Country of origin on it, and my guess is that it isn't USA made.....the best place to do a smell test is the bottom of the legs...where it will likely be raw wood...and if that area smells strongly of the smell, then it will be almost impossible to cure this.......

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Greg Scholl

Expertise

Questions on Woodworking, wood finishing and refinishing of all kinds, repairing furniture and wooden objects, Architectural details, Woodturning, carving, tool usage, product usage, some chemistry as it applies to woodworking and related interests,cabinet making and furniture construction/design, etc. I have experience with all manners of colorants, finishes, paints, stains, dyes, glazes, and coatings, wood species recognition and usage,tool recommendations, blade types and recommendation,techniques and methods for many Woodworking related issues, etc.

Experience

Fine furniture restorer and cabinet maker for over 30 years,serving high end Antique dealers, Interior designers, Collectors in the CT area. Consulting for area Painting/Decorating and Building contractors on non painting issues..(staining, wood prep.,clear finishing, floor restoration and architectural detail restoration and repair, etc.) Sold, built, serviced, setup Home, Industrial, and Commercial stationary woodworking tools for a major tool retailer in CT. for three years, sold hand and power tools , provided knowledge, parts replacement, service, and on site service, Trade show Demo, and training as well.

Publications
Published in Fine Woodworking Magazine (12/97), included on Fine Woodworkings first "Best of Fine Woodworking" CD-ROM (2002) ...("27 year compilation of expert know-how")

Education/Credentials
Art School at Silvermine Guild in Norwalk, CT., 9 year apprenticeship in a European run Cabinet and Restoration shop in CT., various classes on subjects having to do with the field. Seminars from major Tool manufacturers, Skil/Bosch, Delta, Powermatic, Ritter, Porter cable, Milwaukee, Dewalt/B&Decker, Performax.

Past/Present Clients
Many varied clients including work on Martha Stewarts' Westport, CT. show house, many fine Antique dealers and private collectors in and around Fairfield County and in Woodbury, CT. (the Antiques capital of CT.), Golden Age of Trucking Museum, Wilton Historical Society.

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