The new floor is down, the work is finished, but the room smells conspicuously. The company points to a low-emission product. You wonder whether that already explains your perception. For an objective clarification, product information, the actual installation and the situation in the room must be brought together.
This article concerns a technical follow-up question after renovation work in Germany. It is not a guide for acute emergency situations and not a medical assessment. Use is neither declared safe for health here nor broadly declared dangerous on the basis of a description of odour.
The nose is not a general pollutant measurement
The Umweltbundesamt explains that construction and furnishing products can be sources of emissions and odours. Not all emissions are detectable by smell; likewise not all odours can simply be aired away. The German product assessment according to the AgBB scheme and the labelling of low-emission products concern a technically defined evaluation of products. [GERUCH]
From this follows for your own classification: odour, lack of odour and a product proof are different pieces of information. None of them should, without a suitable technical classification, become a self-issued diagnosis of the entire room. Particularly unhelpful is a mutual contest about who subjectively perceives the air as stronger or weaker.
The installation often consists of more than the visible covering
In our fictional case the floor, adhesive and primer were newly installed. A few days later new furniture was added. In the discussion only the label of the covering is being circulated. That still does not establish which cause lies behind the reported odour.
The editorially sensible resolution is not a hasty attribution of blame to the adhesive or the furniture. First it must be made comprehensible what was installed, processed or put in place and when. That creates a basis for a targeted technical follow-up question instead of a conjecture that sounds more certain with each forwarding.
Describe the course of observations usefully
Record in which room and at what times you perceive the odour, since when it has existed and which works took place before. Describe changes in the usual routine, without deliberately creating an exposure situation for a self-experiment. Such a note is not a measurement protocol.
Collect alongside this the products actually used and the available execution documents. Ask for clear product designations and the associated documentation. A general brochure for a product family should not tacitly be used as proof for every processed variant.
The technical brief can then read: “Please assess the reported room situation taking into account the work performed and the materials used and explain which further investigation, if any, is required.” Which samples, measurement conditions or evaluation criteria are appropriate is decided by the body qualified for that purpose. The article does not specify its own thresholds or waiting times.
Bring product testing and concrete clarification together
An existing certificate remains important. It should neither be ignored nor reinterpreted as a comprehensive confirmation that excludes every other fact. Therefore ask which material and which statement it refers to and how it will be taken into account when assessing the actual installation.
Health complaints belong separately in medical clarification; a trade discussion does not replace these. Likewise the guide does not decide on a tenancy or contract-for-work entitlement. Such questions require the specific documents and individual examination.
The result should be a comprehensible technical answer with a stated basis and, where appropriate, further need for investigation. A blanket answer “new things just smell” and a blanket counter-diagnosis “so it’s poisonous” equally fail to solve the actual task.