We finally bought new furniture and wanted something to last this time. We got two leather (real top grain..not bonded) recling couches made by flexsteel.
When we got the couches I had horrible sinus pressure and headache that day. These couches are smelly.....definitely a leather smell but more. Our entire first floor had the aroma. We aired our the house for 2days. Smell got a bit better but I still got burning nose or throat and sometimes harder to breathe. Wiped down couch did nothing. Took couches outside in sun....made it worse for the next day. More airing out and put volcanic ash around rooms. Smell is better.
Did call store. They are awesome and said we can exchange or return. I went to store and sniffed the leather protectant and a new couch. I think it's the couch that is the issue.
I am conflicted. We all Love the couches....and I can tolerate the smell...but I honestly think something else is bothering me. When I get home I have burning throat, nose and/or eyes. Sometimes my asthma is worse. Sometimes headache or dizzy, but only slight. The symptoms are annoying but not extremely bad.
It is getting better but I only have 10 days from delivery to decide....must be by this weekend. I honestly don't know if airing it out will work enough.
Anyone had issues like this to furniture? Am I just really sensitive? Should I just deal with it? Or make my family mad by retuning them.
I went to the store to smell new couch...same smell. Everyone smells it...they don't have a reaction to it.
I do have many allergies and allergy induced asthma. Also fighting off bronchitis right now....
No dust...didn't have old furniture....couldn't fit our crappy couches in moving truck when we moved. Just air mattresses on hardwood for last 5 weeks.
Will see if I can get air purifier. Had one when we moved in from cleaning company. Even if smell is gone...worried about the off gassing still making problems. Came downstairs this morning and I couldn't smell it...but I could feel it.
Can you return them for the same couch? It sounds like if the smell is still there after everything you've done, that it's the couch with issues.
Does anyone else in the family smell what you smell?
How distressing, Stepanie. There are leather treatments and dyes that leave powerful chemical scents. I bought a tiny leather handbag that had a strong smell (I didn't realize how bad until I got it home to my "clean" environment). I put it in a pillowcase to keep it clean, and aired it outside – for over a year, finally, before it became safe for me to bring in.
Environmental illness is real, and alarming numbers of children are showing sensitivities to everyday products. I "crashed" with chemical sensitivities about 25 years ago, and it was bad. I had been noticing reactions to paints/thinners when I worked at a sign shop, but just coped with it, not realizing I was pushing myself closer to a threshhold of total illness. Things finally crystallized when I added in the stress of my grandmother's death, and I was suddenly unable to tolerate even small exposures to about a million common chemicals.
That was a total life-changing event. Suddenly I felt like I was dying (combined physical and mental symptoms) when I encountered perfumes, cigarette smoke, auto exhaust, and even many foods I had previously thought were fine for me. I had to retreat from the world for several years. That much change was beneficial in many ways, but also extremely hard and isolating.
I tell you my story not because you will necessarily become life-changingly ill from this exposure, but to let you know that the more/stronger exposures you get, the greater the possibility that your sensitivities will get worse. And we don't know until we get there what our individual thresholds are, or how disastrous our symptoms will be.
The good news is that I have gradually improved over the past 2 decades through careful avoidance of most exposures. But we don't know until we get there whether we can ever get back to "normal." I still have to be careful, but can risk outings with friends and family once in awhile. And I still have to leave when someone comes into my space wearing perfume or fragrant cosmetics.
I can't tell you how to decide, just what I've learned. I hope that whatever you decide, it works for you.
If even a new couch of the same couch has the same odor I would go for a different style, to be honest. You don't know what's causing it and I find things like this to be little warning signs that tell us there's something we should be avoiding. Your nose and other symptoms around this couch are telling you that this particular couch and its sisters aren't the right couch. I'd go with that and not ignore it. It sounds toxic even if no one else can smell that odor.
EDIT: It it were formaldehyde, the odor would dissipate within a couple of days and it wouldn't spread into the rest of the house. Formaldehyde would have been used as a deterrent to bugs and vermin during the shipping (import/export) process from the manufacturer to the warehouse to the store (if formaldehyde was used). I worked in retail for a long time and am familiar with how it works, and also have very sensitive allergies.
It sounds like formaldehyde. It is sometimes used in furnishings. I learned all about this when we bought an RV. It is a carcinogen and is dangerous. Check the lable of the couch or check with the store or better yet the manufacturer. Getting a new couch won't help if this is the case. Shop a furniture store that doesn't allow the use of formaldehyde in their products.
Updated
Me again. I just noticed in your post that it is flexsteel. That's the company that makes all the RV furniture. They have warning signs inside rvs at the show rooms that talk about formaldehyde. I don't know if this is required in RVs because people live in them but not on couches because people just sit on them??? Anyway, get rid of the couch!!!
New carpet kills me for the first month then whatever it is goes away. If I were you I would mark on my calendar the last day you can return, if it doesn't get better by then then return them.
If you can find an air purifier that uses ozone, it will get rid of the smell. You will have to leave the house while it is on. Fire restoration businesses have them. If there is a Shaklee distributor in your area, I am sure they would loan you an AirSource at no charge. With that one, you would not have to leave the house.
I have sensitive smell and sometimes my family does not understand. Example,, yesterday hubby cleaned his hands outside with gasoline to get something off and I was almost sick to my stomach for 3 hours until the smell faded.
One good thing about a good sense of smell.. I have smelled gas 2 times in our house when no one smelled it. As it turned out, we had a leak both times and had to evacuate. They believe me when I say I smell something!
We have some custom made leather pieces and none of them had a smell.. I would have known it. I'd wait until your last day to return and then decide. The smell may very well fade but you don't know that.
Could it be the dust that got kicked up when you moved out the new furniture and brought the new stuff in?
