My house stinks. Help! - Page 2

[zebu]

Sometimes you can fix carpet odor issues by changing the padding underneath. We had to do this with cat pee odor when NOTHING else worked.

Also, regarding steam cleaners, if it were me, I wouldn't waste my money again. Sure, it was handy to have around if I was in a pinch, but they are not nearly as strong as the rentals and they are smaller, so it takes twice as long. Plus, it didn't last long before it fell apart and ended up being just another piece of junk

[PatienceAndLove]

Originally Posted by nmbutts

Sometimes you can fix carpet odor issues by changing the padding underneath. We had to do this with cat pee odor when NOTHING else worked.

Also, regarding steam cleaners, if it were me, I wouldn't waste my money again. Sure, it was handy to have around if I was in a pinch, but they are not nearly as strong as the rentals and they are smaller, so it takes twice as long. Plus, it didn't last long before it fell apart and ended up being just another piece of junk

We have a carpet cleaner, and I find that it is better than the rentable rug doctors. We have the Bissell Power Brush Select Deep Cleaner, and it works fabulously.

[PinkCedar]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy

Then, speaking of the kitchen, there is this rotten smell emanating from our tupperware drawer. I've looked in there & pulled the drawer out and looked behind it but can't find anything rotten!! Though now that I think of it -- it's right near the stove... I probably should pull the stove out too & check.

We had a wayward potato that ended up melting itself behind a cabinet. It was the most horrid smell I've ever had to deal with. And SO hard to find! Yuck. :/

[Ellien C]

Originally Posted by ASusan

This. Or you might try BacOut. Or removing the floorboards...



So. Here's a weird question. Are you sure it is cat pee? Does your DH confirm that it is cat pee? Seriously, not such a weird question. When I was pregnant, my mother's laundry room smelled like cat pee. I was super-concerned because they did have a cat box in there, and the cat was older. And they were planning to put the house on the market...so, YUK. BUT, when I went to visit my aunt, her laundry room smelled like cat pee, but they did not have a cat. (and my aunt's laundry room usually smells GREAT, even though it is a half-bath, too) Turns out, SOMEthing about the laundry detergent smelled like cat pee to me when I was pregnant! How strange is that? (I began to notice it in other areas, too. Ugh. Clean laundry that smells like cat urine.)

Second this! I kept smelling cat pee in our new house entryway. It turned out that it was these shrubs (box elders, maybe) that smelled like cat piss to me.

Do you have a cat? Have you eliminated the source of cat pee? It's really, really hard to get rid of the smell and the cats tend to keep marking over it. The enzyme cleaners are the only thing that supposed to work for cat pee. REALLY hard to get rid of - ripping up wood flooring is NOT too drastic a step to take if you are sure it's cat pee and you've eliminated new peeing.

[plantnerd]

Cats will pee on walls and doors. Try a good layer of kilz primer and new paint on both. If there is tons of pee you may have to consider replacing drywall and baseboards up to about 3 feet from the floor.

[kellybelly]

Seconding the suggestion to consider the doors/walls area of your entryway. We've had neighborhood cats "communicating" with my indoor cat through the front door, and they would spray the outside of the doors. I could smell that tomcat odor through the closed doors. Wipe down the bottom of the door, threshhold, and the outside bottom of the door too.

I also really love Bac-Out for all odor related problems (bathroom around the toilet, cat odors, kid odors, etc.)

Do you have a blacklight that you can use to directly search for stains? That might help you zero in on them.

[Minky]

I've got the same problem going on right now--too many nasty smells in the house. I think the OP might be looking for something that hasn't been touched on here, because I've been scouring the boards for it and haven't found it.

A lot of these odors are ongoing. Maybe there's a way to get the cat urine smell out of the front room or the yucky smell out of the drawers, but what about the ongoing smell from the compost pile or the bathroom? Is there some way to neutralize the odors when you can't open the windows? We live in a dangerous area and aren't able to open the windows EVER. Right now, we're using a lot of different air fresheners and I'm wanting to get away from that.

[Jane]

Nature's Miracle has worked on old cat pee stains for me. It doesn't work until it's fully saturated and fully dry. Here in Washington, that takes a looooooong time, like weeks, to fully dry.
I've also had great luck with a shop vac. Soak with water, vacuum up, soak, suck, soak, suck, soak, suck until the smell is gone. Then walk around on towels to dry a bit more. It's gotten some nasty stuff out of carpets and floorboards.