We have a nice 2 bedroom, 2 bath mobile home that is vacant. After the previous residents moved, we did some repairs and shampooed the carpets. The previous residents had a couple of large dogs who did not always do their business outside. Now when someone looks at the home, they get turned off by the urine smell. It would be nice not to incur the expense of taking up the existing carpet, kiltzing the floors and then put down new floor covering. Does anyone know of a low cost fix for dog odors? Are there techniques that can mask the odor? Would spreading baking soda everywhere, waiting a day or two, and then vacuuming fix the issue?
This was recently discussed in the topic “Odor in house” which you can find using the search function.
That thread “Odor in House” has some great information on getting rid of odors, and we have done the “remove carpet and pads, paint floor, etc” option a few times in the past to fix odors. Yet, my question at this time is: does anyone have a low cost fix rather than the carpet/pad removal and paint option. Thanks !!
http://www.odorfreemachines.comOzone treatment is the best method to eliminate all odors. The catch is whether there is a company in your area that performes the service.
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Has anyone ever tried the following?1. Evenly put down lots of baking soda (NOT baking powder) all over the smelling carpet areas; use the baking soda liberally. 2. Immediately lightly “rake” the baking soda into the carpet area.3. Wait 24 hours. Vacuum up the baking soda. 4. Every day, open a couple of windows allowing air (i.e., oxygen) into the soiled rooms; this step is important to allow the natural degradation of the organics causing the smells.5. Peal back the carpet and pad to Kilz the floor.6. If needed, repeat Steps 1 to 4.
We deal with this problem all the time and have ultimately decided to just bite the bullet and replace the carpets and padding whenever a regular carpet steam cleaning won’t remove the odor. Sometimes an ozone generator will help (you can get one on Ebay for under $200), but often it doesn’t. If you don’t completely eliminate the odor, then you end up having the home vacant longer than normal, and the loss in rent can be more than the cost of carpet replacement. The pain of replacement is reduced slightly now that we have a local installer that will do it for $1/sq.ft. as long as we don’t care what type/color carpets are installed.Earlier this year we raised our nonrefundable pet fee to partially compensate for the likelihood that every time a tenant moves our we will have to replace some or all of the carpets.If your inexpensive solution that you’ve listed above actually words to remove (not mask) the odors, please share with the rest of us!
John, I totally understand your desire to NOT have to replace the carpet.We hope that you are able to find a solution that resolves your odor problem without replacing the carpet.I found the following link that provides advice concerning pet odors:http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/removing_pet_stains_odors.htmlThe Humane Society actually advises not to use a Steam Cleaner. They state the following:"Avoid using steam cleaners to clean urine odors from carpet or upholstery. The heat will permanently set the stain and the odor by bonding the protein into any man-made fibers."I agree with Suburban:"If you don’t completely eliminate the oder, then you end up having the home vacant longer than normal, and the loss in rent can be more than the cost of carpet replacement."Unfortunately, some of the time the urine will leak all the way through the carpet, pad and flooring.It is at this point that you will just need to remove the carpet and pad from the home entirely. You will then need to paint the subfloor to remove the odor. I understand that you are totally aware of this but are just trying to avoid the extra expense (which is totally understandable).We had a rental that smelled like pet urine. We then removed the carpet and pad and painted the subfloor and the smell disappeared.We wish you the very best!
You can buy ozone machines for $100-$300 online.
We use those and sometimes replace the pad and just clean the carpet. That usually works. The carpet cleaning company will remove the pad and stretch the carpet back after new pad and cleaning. With wood floors, you might have to Killz it to seal the bottom.
New paint also usually hides any last small lingering smell.
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For my home carpet cleaning, i have used wet vac carpet cleaner and i have got great results after using it.
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Many of us face problems with unclean and stinky carpets. Then cleaning of the carpets becomes important and we should keep in mind that the products that we use for car clean must be organic and eco-friendly or we should hire carpet cleaning services.
Try drying carpets and other items to get rid of the smell. It may help.