# eye irritation when mudding?



## wolf123 (Mar 11, 2016)

I ran into an interesting problem that i've never had before and wondered if I anyone has seen this before and possible causes? 

I will start out by saying drywall insulation is not my full time job. I generally am doing a lot of general remodel stuff with small drywall patches coming up often. Every so often I will do a full room remodel or something of the sort like this job. 

I am in the process of hanging/finishing drywall in a approximately 18 ft by 16 ft room. All walls and ceiling. The room is very well insulated and sealed in from outside air. I have one exhaust fan in there but it wasn't running at the time of install. 

The problem I have run into is that as we got going on muding everything we started noticing our eyes were starting to burn. This was definitely not from sanding dust b/c air was very clear in the room and we hadn't sanded for a while. It was a very obvious something in the room was causing the irritation of our eyes while we were in there. You could be out for a while and walk back in and you just got hit with it. The room does have an powerful electric heater in it so they had that cranked up to help the mud set faster. We are using drywall (us manufactured, I checked) and pre-mixed sheetrock mud from Lowes (USG brand). 

I'm wondering if anyone has seen this before? I usually am not muding in such an enclosed space and don't have the heat option that they had in there. So i'm wondering if the combination of the high heat and a lot of mud all drying at the same time in an enclosed space would give off something that would burn your eyes? Or am I looking at something else? (I've heard of the Chinese drywall problems but wouldn't expect them in US manufactured boards) Also my Lowes guys said no one else has complained about that type of an issue. 

Thanks for your thoughts


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## Mudslinger (Mar 16, 2008)

We started having problems with USG compounds causing burning eyes earlier this winter. It wasn't just a little stinging, they burned like crazy when heavy amounts of mud were applied in a room. I was blaming the temporary furnaces for a while before figuring out it was the mud. My solution was to switch over to ProForm products, problem solved. Not willing to put up with that day after day.


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## endo_alley (Nov 2, 2013)

I get that from Wes Pac (Hamilton) topping compound when we use it for skip trowel texturing. It seems like a little ammonia is given off. Crack open a window.


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## Mudslinger (Mar 16, 2008)

LOL, the windows were wide open because of it. Didn't have a ammonia smell to it when we would come back from lunch. Doesn't really matter to me just not going to use it. :yes:


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## wolf123 (Mar 11, 2016)

Mudslinger said:


> We started having problems with USG compounds causing burning eyes earlier this winter. It wasn't just a little stinging, they burned like crazy when heavy amounts of mud were applied in a room. I was blaming the temporary furnaces for a while before figuring out it was the mud. My solution was to switch over to ProForm products, problem solved. Not willing to put up with that day after day.


This sounds like what I was facing. We let the room dry and air out over the weekend. It was a room with lots of wet mud on the walls drying, a good about of heat, and not much ventilation. I will be pulling another brand of mud and trying it out on our finish coat tomorrow. Also will be adding good amount of ventilation to help us out. 

Where do you get your ProForm compound from?


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## Shelwyn (Apr 10, 2015)

Just tell your supplier you need different brand material.


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