Question About Linoleum Flooring and Birds

[FeatherHarp]

We will be putting in a new linoleum floor next week and I am aware that linoleum and the glues associated with putting it down are toxic for birds.

I do plan to put my birds in a closed of bedroom but I can't seem to find any information on just how long it will take before I could safely return my birds to their living area. Does anybody have info regarding the timeframe on this...or at least a general timeline?

Thanks for any help!

[kouma]

Not sure about the time frame, but by adding ventilation you can speed it up. Try leaving the windows open and running air conditioning.

[CandoAviary]

If you can smell it then it is not cured. Once you can not smell it it should be safe. There is many noglue linoleums out there now. I did 3 rooms in the crazy bird house with the floating/no glue floor. It worked great and no fumes...except for the smell of new linoleum....this aired out with the windows opened in a few days.

[cindy]

We just went through how and what to put down in our main front living roon/dining room and master bedroom. I was concerned about glues and fumes. We decided on laminate wood flooring. We had about 55 boxes to put down and they had to be brought to room temperature first for a few days. The outside of the boxes were sprayed at the plant to keep insects from invading the wood during shipment. It had a bit of an odor.

We put my bird in another room away from the room the boxes were stacked in and put a fan blowing outwards from the room they were in, another fan blowing the fumes across the boxes out an open window.

We also had carpeting replaced in two rooms, a fan blowing across the room towards an opened window helps a lot.

I agree with Candace, if you can smell it is not cured. Also look into water based glues and low VOC. We floated our flooring also since we were afraid of the glue and fumes.

[FeatherHarp]

Thanks for the advice. I will make sure we ventilate the house well and when I don't smell fumes I will know it should be safe to move the birds back again. We are having unusually warm weather right now for MN so we should be able to air out the house pretty well.

We did look at those floating floors but hubby decided to go with the self stick square tiles to install....as they were a little easier on the budget. Will be nice to get a new floor after 26 years...yay!

[CandoAviary]

Enjoy your new floors, It can make a room feel brand new
I have used the self stick and it shouldn't take long to air out... The kind of linoleum where you apply strong glue with the caulk gun makes me sick. I thought that was the kind you were using...
The self stick smell should disapate quickly and your birds will enjoy the new floor soon too