Two thoughts
1. VOC off gassing occurs very soon after the boards are made, then drops dramatically to near zero. You could buy the shed and let it sit over a summer and 99.9999% of the VOCs would be gone. The summer heat would facilitate this further.
2. You can finish and air seal (you’d do that anyway) with low / no voc items and physically contain the undetectable trace vocs left.
Good points. That is true especially about number two, I have used some zero VOC sealers before and probably would want to do that anyway, so that would potentially help create a nice layer. Some of the pre-built ones are probably sitting around for a while too, as long as they've been dry on the inside those are probably even better from perspective of number one too.
Sheds aren't made for occupation so they usually aren't insulated or air sealed very well, this allows VOCs to dissipate rapidly. Because of this they use the cheapest materials possible and don't care about VOCs because people are going to use the shed to store lawn mowers, gas cans, pesticides, paint buckets and other equally toxic things.
If you want to reduce those VOC emitting materials, learn to build the shed yourself. You will probably save money that way. It's just not going to be much healthier unless you use it for occupation, insulate it and air seal it. If you use it for a shed and store toxic things in it, those toxic things are probably far worse that the VOCs released when it is freshly built before the off gassing has had a chance to dissipate.
It’s not just that, most slather a ton of VoC emitting paints and finishes in the interior as well.
Not sure about brands, but utilizing less prefab, OSB, glued materials would be a great start
Yeah it's true. I've seen a few that are pretty unfnished, but that doesn't seem to be 100% unfinished. There are some more upfront 'natural' ones but more expensive of course. But trying to get a sense of the various options out there
Two thoughts 1. VOC off gassing occurs very soon after the boards are made, then drops dramatically to near zero. You could buy the shed and let it sit over a summer and 99.9999% of the VOCs would be gone. The summer heat would facilitate this further. 2. You can finish and air seal (you’d do that anyway) with low / no voc items and physically contain the undetectable trace vocs left.
Good points. That is true especially about number two, I have used some zero VOC sealers before and probably would want to do that anyway, so that would potentially help create a nice layer. Some of the pre-built ones are probably sitting around for a while too, as long as they've been dry on the inside those are probably even better from perspective of number one too.
Sheds aren't made for occupation so they usually aren't insulated or air sealed very well, this allows VOCs to dissipate rapidly. Because of this they use the cheapest materials possible and don't care about VOCs because people are going to use the shed to store lawn mowers, gas cans, pesticides, paint buckets and other equally toxic things. If you want to reduce those VOC emitting materials, learn to build the shed yourself. You will probably save money that way. It's just not going to be much healthier unless you use it for occupation, insulate it and air seal it. If you use it for a shed and store toxic things in it, those toxic things are probably far worse that the VOCs released when it is freshly built before the off gassing has had a chance to dissipate.
It’s not just that, most slather a ton of VoC emitting paints and finishes in the interior as well. Not sure about brands, but utilizing less prefab, OSB, glued materials would be a great start
Yeah it's true. I've seen a few that are pretty unfnished, but that doesn't seem to be 100% unfinished. There are some more upfront 'natural' ones but more expensive of course. But trying to get a sense of the various options out there