LESLIE: Sherry in Texas, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
SHERRY: We’ve lived in this house for six years and it was new construction at the time and in our pantry, we have a [white-faced] (ph) enamel paint.
LESLIE: OK.
SHERRY: And in our cabinet, we have like a stain with a lacquer base. But we are tasting lacquer or the way lacquer smells in our food.
TOM: What’s it taste like? (laughs)
SHERRY: The way lacquer smells. (laughs)
TOM: Not good, huh?
SHERRY: I didn’t realize it until I took, you know, some crackers – anything that’s stored in a box or a bag, like chips. And I took it to work and somebody said something about how funny it tastes and I didn’t realize it tasted bad.
TOM: Oh, no.
SHERRY: So I was wondering if there’s anything I could do in the cabinets to cover that smell. We’ve tried to keep the cabinet doors open but it’s not working.
LESLIE: Yeah, but you’ve been in there six years. I imagine, at this point, it should have off-gassed entirely at this point.
TOM: Yeah. Yeah.
SHERRY: Yes. It has a really bad taste to it.
LESLIE: And now you notice it in everything, I’m sure.
SHERRY: Yes; except for like canned stuff. But I just wondered if there was something we could paint over it or redo it or whatever.
TOM: Well, there’s no reason that you can’t prime the inside of the cabinets. If you wanted them to be dark in color, you could tint the primer. And if you used a good-quality primer, no matter what’s underneath it’s going to seal it in.
SHERRY: OK, OK. Well, I just was shocked. The builder said, “Oh, just leave the cabinet doors open.” Well, that didn’t work.
LESLIE: No, I would paint them.
TOM: And I think you bought cabinets that you didn’t have to keep open. (chuckles) Right.
SHERRY: Right, exactly.
LESLIE: Yeah, that’s what cabinets are for.
TOM: Yeah. Why don’t you do that to one or two of the cabinets and see if you like it better?
SHERRY: OK. Well, thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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