15 weeks pregnant, stayed in separate area of house while hardwoods were refinished

[kmlcu]

Hi ladies,
My husband and I just had someone come and refinish our upstairs hardwood floors (we have a raised ranch).

DH sealed off the stairway and also the living area downstairs with heavy duty (very thick) plastic and tape and then kept the door to the room we'd be sleeping shut so that smells couldn't get in.

My (extremely) sensitive nose could smell the refinishing if I was outside (because the windows were all open), but could not once I was in the room we planned to sleep in, so every night I'd come in and sniff before deciding to stay there. (And then go out again and double check, just in case my nose had adjusted to the smell...if I'd smelled anything I would have gone to a neighbor's... I just smelled earth (since the downstairs is so close to the ground))

(We also kept all the windows in the bedroom downstairs open to keep the air circulating.)

So I have three questions...
1. can anyone offer reassurance? My hope is that since I couldn't smell it and was trying to be VERY aware (since I can smell EVERYTHING right now) that this should be fine.
2. anyone know how long this lasts? The floors are done now and I'd like to move back to a comfortable bed, but the upstairs smells too much for me to feel OK about that. We refinished floors in the last house, but I can't remember how long it took for the smell to dissipate.
3. is there anything I can do to make the smell go away faster other than have all the windows open?

Thank you... please don't yell at me... I'm trying very hard to be careful, but we have three dogs and it wasn't ideal to leave the house the whole time.

Sincerely!
Karen

[HeatherB]

In my opinion, once you can no long smell it, you're fine to go back. And, you should be fine as long as you haven't spent a lot of time in an area where you COULD smell it.

We're going to have to have a small area of hardwoods refinished in our house, and I'm not looking forward to having to move out!

[tngirl11]

My Dh happens to have his own hardwood flooring business, so I'm definitely familiar with the smell you're talking about! I would say that it sounds like you have nothing to worry about. He refinished our floors when I was pg with my twins. I think I slept at my mom's house the first night but moved back in after that. A little bit of smell will linger for a good while. You'll only notice it when you first walk in the door, but it won't be strong after a couple of days. Did they by any chance use a water-based finish? It used to all be oil-based, but now there is the option, and the water-based smell is milder and goes away faster.
Oh, and just be careful about opening the windows if it's humid outside. That might slow down the drying process and actually make the smell last longer!