How would you get rid of a “chemical smell” in an old building (used to be a paint shop)?
After a few hours my throat and lungs hurt. There’s hundreds of cans of solvents and chemicals in there. One area was a paint booth. It hasn’t been very active for some time. Looks like the owner slowly wound the business down over the last few years. 

All the paint and solvents will be disposed of before we close. Would a fresh coat of paint on everything seal in the smells? Do I need to worry about cancer or something else? We haven’t done the Phase 1 yet. Just inspections.
[{"id": "ichwjjo", "text": "Well...clearly a subsurface investigation (Phase II) would be warranted IMO. There's no other way to tell if solvents/VOCs are present in the soil and or groundwater. All the Phase I does is look at what is visibly obvious, and the public record. Perhaps the Phase I will say there's no public spill record, and no obvious staining, so no further investigation is required. Seems risky to me.\n\nPresumably it is hot in the building right now so all those old leaky cans are off-gassing. Once they're gone, just open the building up and air it out as much as possible for a week. Rent some big fans to move air through it if ventilation is poor. Hot power wash obvious stains. If the underside of the roof deck is nasty, hot power wash the whole building. \n\nThat should take care of most of it. If the walls are something porous like CMU block, then yes hit it with block filler paint to seal it in after you've done the above.", "replies": [{"id": "icifpe0", "text": "This is a terrific answer", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "icjja9r", "text": "The walls are indeed cinder block and I\u2019m in the pacific northwest where we are wearing jackets in mid June (makes me miss Florida a little bit). So heat is not a factor in this case. Thanks for the advice. I plan on coating everything in paint after I get the keys.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iciwrzc", "text": "Ozone machine?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ick7z4g", "text": "Insurance policy\u2026", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]