Remodel ready..and scared

In 3 weeks we are redoing a few rooms in my house... FINALLY. We are putting LVT, click together flooring, in 3 rooms and repainting 2 rooms.

My shower is also getting redone due to damage to the tile and replacing pipe/faucet.

With that being said....we are pulling the wall around the shower down, and hopefully we wont find anything back there. But we will be ripping the drywall/cement board down with the old tile. Then we need to put up new board and tiles.

I was told by a few people as long as the room to the bird rooms is closed and the windows open, the birds can stay home.

I'M TERRIFIED!!! The birds can get loud...especially with the noise, and I don't want my neighbors to complain. And if we find mold beyond the wall...which we shouldn't...we will have to bleach it and air dry before we can toss up the new wall and tile.

There is a vent in the bathroom to suck the smells out, but I don't know how safe I feel with them being home.

I have someone who can take my little guys but my macaw doesn't have a big enough travel cage to LIVE in for 5-6 days. And I have a detached garage but I don't trust it with fumes.

If I get LOW/NO VOC paint...and during the process of everything the doors stay closed and the rest of the house windows open with fans running.....will they really be safe?

I have someone who can board everyone...but a friend had her bird boarded there and it died. I'm stuck and terrified.

If we don't have to completely soak the walls for mold we can do the bathroom and other rooms in 3-4 days. Maybe faster.

Any ideas? No one in my area boards large birds and whole I have friends who can take my little guys...I won't see them as i'll be busy with remodeling.

And my macaw can't live in his crate for 5 days

Help help help!!

This is a very tough one, as there is no one that can definitely tell you that if you take those precautions your birds will be okay...you know very well how sensitive birds are to fumes, especially those emitted during home-renovations and all of the materials used to do them...There are too many to list here, between the paint, the caulking, the epoxy and glues that they will be using, etc...and that's not even taking any type of mold that they may find behind the walls and shower and under the flooring surrounding the tub/shower in the bathroom...and under the floors they will ripping-up before putting down the new flooring...The risks are many and cannot accurately be predicted, as there's no way to know exactly what they are going to find once they get in there, and that's forgetting all of the materials that emit fumes that will be used to put everything back together...

And even asking the company/workers for a list of every single material they will be using isn't full-proof...There is famously a tale of the couple who simply had new carpeting put down in their home by a very reputable flooring company, and this couple took every precaution possible to protect their parrot (I forget what species it was, they only had one parrot, it was a large species such as a Macaw, Grey, or Cockatoo though), including telling the company that they had a parrot, educating them about the dangers that fumes risk to all birds, and asking them for a list of chemicals/materials that they would be using during their work, and they were assured that there was nothing to worry about...Unfortunately the workers used some type of "iron" or similar machine to flatten-out the new carpeting, and this released fumes from the new carpeting, which killed their bird...

I can only tell you what I would do personally, and actually have always done personally under similar circumstances, and that was totally removing all of my birds from my home during the entire renovation and then for a good day or two afterwards, just to allow enough time for the windows to be open and for the entire house and every room that was effected to completely air-out...My house is a split-level, and has a finished, walk-out basement into the garage, with 3 rooms and a foyer with a wood-stove and fireplace, and I had a pipe freeze and burst apart at a joint about 4 years ago, and flood my entire basement and garage. Had to have all of the flooring and the bottom foot and a half of drywall, along with all of the insulation ripped-up/out, replaced, and every room completely painted...and my Budgies at the time all went to my mom's house for a good 3 weeks (this happened during February in central PA, so little different situation, I couldn't open windows up or run fans upstairs, as it was below zero and in single digits)...but even had it been summer when that had happened, I would have gotten them out of there...I just always figure better safe than sorry when it comes to the birds, they're so sensitive, it's just not at all worth the risk...

I don't know anything better to tell you, as I don't feel it would be responsible for me to tell you that "it will probably be fine" and to just open up all the windows, keep doors shut, etc. There is also the very famous incident of a couple who were parrot breeders and who had dozens of pet parrots in their home, in-addition to their breeder birds, and they had purchased a space heater I believe, which they ran in their kitchen, where the Brooders were, housing baby African Greys, and they suddenly had all of their parrots dropping over dead, including their pet parrots that were in totally other rooms and on totally different floors of their house, behind closed doors, from the Teflon-coating that was inside the heater...They lost 40+ birds, including a 60 year-old pet Macaw who was downstairs in their finished basement, behind a latched door and no where near the kitchen or the space-heater...they lost pretty much their entire family, as fumes travel through every little crack and crevice...

I'm not trying to scare you, but just educate you and put it out there for you to make an informed-decision...I wouldn't risk it..

I have a finished basement that I could put them in. It has a back door that leads outside that I can keep open for the day. But the door that leads into the house is at the top of the cellar steps which is in the dining room. And one of the rooms we are painting is the dining room. If I keep that door closed and open the back door to outside can they live in the basement for a few days?

Again, same answer...It's a risk, it may be fine, and it may not...I mean, I don't know the vent/duct situation with your house, you probably don't even know all of the ways your upstairs is connected to your downstairs, I don't know my own either...But fumes/air creeps through every little crevice, regardless of doors and such...So it may be fine, but it also might not be...I know that's a crappy answer, but it's the best one I can responsibly give you based on what I've seen happen to other's birds in similar situations...

To be absolutely safe (given the potential of horror stories) the only reliable solution is to remove the birds from your house during construction and for a few "halo" days to allow for dissipation of any harmful fumes. Seems the primary issue is your macaw if the smaller birds have a safe temporary home.

Since there are no local professional facilities to board your macaw, might there be candidates a bit farther? Peace of mind may be worth the longer drive to remove any doubts.

Scott said:

To be absolutely safe (given the potential of horror stories) the only reliable solution is to remove the birds from your house during construction and for a few "halo" days to allow for dissipation of any harmful fumes. Seems the primary issue is your macaw if the smaller birds have a safe temporary home.

Since there are no local professional facilities to board your macaw, might there be candidates a bit farther? Peace of mind may be worth the longer drive to remove any doubts.

Click to expand...

That's an excellent way to put it Scott..."Peace of mind may be worth the longer drive to remove any doubts"...So true. Peace of mind in this case is also worth the temporary-inconvenience of relocating them all. It sucks, but not nearly as much as the potential risk does...

THANK YOU EVERYONE!! We found a place to go for Rhage, my macaw A close friend has a spare cage he had his old umbrella cockatoo in before he recovered her. He said if I come to his place, about 15 minutes away, and put it up and clean it...he will take care of Rhage!! He has a CAG, a jenday, and a Severe Macaw. So he knows the rules with birds.

And my other friend, 2 blocks away, is taking my little guys! So I can stop and check in on everyone each day.

We have the prison who is doing the remodel coming next week to get an idea of game plan and time frame. We are hoping to have this done in about 5 days.

We are now painting 4.5 rooms, doing 3 floors, and re-tiling the shower.

We will be busy busy beavers lol.

Great to hear success! You're busy enough without needing to unduly worry about the safety of your fids.

That'a awesome! Better safe than sorry in this situation...

I need to do exactly what you are doing, I bought my house in the end of 2010 and have nothing but the walk-out floor (3 floors), and the birds/dogs are part of the reason I haven't!!! That and I'm lazy, lol...so I'm jealous!