Paint thinner in the ground

[Cliff_Johns]

The guy I hired to stain my house cleaned his brushes behind my garage where, at some point, I plan to put in a small garden. I guess he chose that spot because my wife couldn't see him doing it. In any case, the question is, will paint thinner completely disipate over time? Will there be a hazardous residue which I should clean up some how?

Cliff

 

[daedong]

Cliff,
I would think that a once of occurrence like this would have no consequence.

 

[sneaky_pete]

It will dissipate over time; how fast depends on what kind of soil you have and how much it rains. Sandy soil drains much faster than soil with a lot of clay in it. I'm a geologist not a soil scientist, but he would have to have used a lot of thinner to really hurt anything.

Find out what kind of paint he was using. If it was a Latex-based paint, they clean up with water. If he was using Turpentine or some other petroleum solvent paint thinner, I'd be more worried about it eventually getting in my water well than the garden, but again it would have to be a significant amount - not just a half-pint to clean brushes. Even a small amount of petroleum solvents will kill grass and weeds, just like diesel or gasoline. But it doesn't last, it washes away.

Pete

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( It will dissipate over time; how fast depends on what kind of soil you have and how much it rains. [)</font>

I was hoping that being a volatile liquid that it would disapate rather than leach.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Find out what kind of paint he was using. If it was a Latex-based paint, they clean up with water. )</font>

Oil based primer and metal paint around the basement windows was the problem.

Thanks,
Cliff

 

[Junkman]

I am of the belief that it is better to dig it out now and dispose of it in the trash, than to let it lie to become a potential problem at some time in the future. If it hasn't rained since he cleaned the brushes, it can't be much more than a small area about 6 inches deep. Why have to be thinking about something when you have the ability to alleviate it now?

 

[Cliff_Johns]

As you suggested, Junkman, I went ahead and dug it up. Two weeks after they washed their brushes (no rain) and the ground still had a very strong oder.

Cliff

 

[Currmudgeon]

Back bill him for your labor. When he doesn't pay, complain to the BBB. You may be able to take him to small claims court.

 

[rcmike]

How much did he dump? If you could smell it after 2 weeks it must have been a lot. Most stuff like that evaporates. I have accidentally left a top off of some paint thinner and it was gone in a couple of days. It depends on what they used though.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( How much did he dump? If you could smell it after 2 weeks it must have been a lot. Most stuff like that evaporates. )</font>

That's what I thought too. The spots weren't very big, and I didn;t have to dig but a few inches to get it all -- clay there.

Anyway, It's not that big a deal, but I feel like they should have asked about where to dump out the can they cleaned their brushes in rather than just dumping at the corner of the garage. I admit there is no grass there, but that's because I just built the garage!

Oh, well. It's done with now, but I was surprised that the stink stayed that long.

Cliff

 

[frank_f15]

if it was a one time thing , i would not worry about it. they could not have dumped that much. althogh not good, but not a major problem

 

[Currmudgeon]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I was surprised that the stink stayed that long. )</font>

I once found an old refuse dump that dated back to the 1940s. It contained some rusted out 55 gallon drums of what turned out to be paint waste. The contents had spilled and hardened into stuff the consistency of rocks. When I broke some of the "rocks" they still smelled of solvent, even though they were solid clear through.

 

[TexasGardener]

The guy I hired to stain my house cleaned his brushes behind my garage where, at some point, I plan to put in a small garden. I guess he chose that spot because my wife couldn't see him doing it. In any case, the question is, will paint thinner completely disipate over time? Will there be a hazardous residue which I should clean up some how?

Cliff

I realise this is an old post, but I am still sorry to hear what happened to you, Cliff. That is truly irresponsible behaviour, but in my experience, there are more workmen with this mindset than not. I hope everything worked out for you. I found this post after googling "paint thinner in grass."

You will not believe what my idiot neighbour did. We share an enclosed courtyard/yard. A couple of ant piles developed out there on the lawn a few days ago. Told him I had a bag of Andro somewhere in the garage and would look for it.

In the meantime, he covered the ant piles with 20 Mule Team Borax, or at least that is what he said it was. It smelt MUCH WORSE than a laundry additive, though, and I do not believe that it was borax he put on the ant piles. Whatever it was, it was much more toxic smelling.

Of course it did not work to kill the ants, and before I could say or do anything else, early yesterday morning he SATURATED the ant piles with Paint Thinner!!! The smell is HORRIBLE. Worse than that, it has killed the grass, and I am sure the soil is poisoned. We have few, if any, beneficial organisms in our soil, but I am sure whatever we may have had in those spots are dead now. If it killed the ants, you know it killed everything else down there, including earthworms.

Please tell me if I am over reacting, but I am VERY upset and have no idea what to do to help the grass and soil, especially this late in the season. I told him we could have lived with the ants for a few days until I either found the Andro or we bought another bag of Andro. I cannot believe he did this to our lawn!!!

Summer before last we had some workmen here who disposed of some sort of chemical on our lawn, and it ended up killing a long, wide swath of grass. It took us the entire spring and summer of 2014 to get the grass to grow back.

I am so upset. The smell is so bad, so headache inducing that I cannot stand to sit outside---the odour is THAT noxious and strong---it could probably kill a bird if came too close---, and I am worried that those chemicals could get onto my dog's paws and damage them. Worse, if she licked her paws it could make her VERY sick at the very least and possibly kill her at the worst.

Please, if you know anything that would help, please let me know! I am not even sure how serious this is. How could ANYONE be this stupid?!! The man is 74 years old, not a kid of 9 or 10. I am so disgusted right now.