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Odor removal from shed

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ChinaVoodoo

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I used western red cedar on the floor of my curing shed. It gave a lot of the tobacco a scent of cedar. When I kiln the tobacco, a big bag of charcoal removes the aroma, nicely. I removed the cedar. It has become apparent to me that the foam insulation on the walls and floor, especially the floor of the shed also smells like cedar even though I bleached it. The hanging mesh bag of charcoal doesn't seem to help because it's a larger space than my kiln.

There's a leftover, I don't know, 20lb bag of dolomitic lime in my garage from the previous tenant. I think I can use this to remove the scent. Should I just toss it on the floor, a big bowl, or put it in a hanging bag, in a fan, should I soak it in water, spray it, or put it in my humidifier, etc? I don't know.

Saves me buying a ton of baking soda.
 

deluxestogie

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I would spread it over the floor, for max surface area exposure, then eventually sweep it all up and re-bag it for garden use.

Bob
 

Alpine

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Isn't cedar used to make costly cigar boxes? I thought that a cedar hint would be much appreciated by cigar smokers... ah, my limited knowledge is embarrassing....

pier
 

deluxestogie

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Humidors are made from "Cuban" cedar or "Spanish" cedar (Cedrela odorata). Western red cedar is a completely different species (Thuja plicata), as is the "red cedar" used for cedar chests and repelling moths (Juniperus virginiana).

Bob
 

Jitterbugdude

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Keep us updated on this. I'm curious as to how this little experiment will work as I see spreading lime as doing nothing to help eliminate the odor. Time and air circulation are probably your best bet. How big is the area you are trying to "clean"

An ozonator might do the trick.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Keep us updated on this. I'm curious as to how this little experiment will work as I see spreading lime as doing nothing to help eliminate the odor. Time and air circulation are probably your best bet. How big is the area you are trying to "clean"

An ozonator might do the trick.
Time and air does seem to be working. I did pull the wood out before I hung my deer last fall. The deer didn't pick up any flavor from it, so the residual probably isn't that bad by comparison.

I done read online that dolomite lime works like baking soda for odor removal. It was on the internet so it must be true.

I don't have tobacco curing yet. I've got the last two crops and some WLT in there rehydrating before I change my packaging. It would be nice to eliminate the smell now before I repackage last year's crop which has that smell, and before I throw new leaf in.

It's 8'x8'x4'.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Here is what I learned about odor removal with lime. It doesn't work. After two weeks, there was a slight difference in the aroma. It morphed a little from the western red cedar aroma to the dry cured venison aroma, but overall, not great. I swept it up yesterday. I spread one entire box of baking soda and left an open box. After 30 hours, both aromas are undetectable.

Maybe lime works for removing urine aroma from barn stalls due to a neutralizing chemical reaction, but it doesn't clean the air like baking soda does.
 
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