Clean your walls with TSP before painting or prime first with KILZ. After you tear out the linoleum and carpeting spread Borax on all surfaces and let sit for a week to absorb odors then sweep it up. You can buy a huge box of Borax at a warehouse store like Costco/Sam’s Club. If urine has seeped in to the cement you need to use muratic acid. It’s a dangerous product to handle so you need to take full safety precautions. It scared me, anyway. Normally I would suggest an enzyme product called Natures Miracle for urine (found at pet stores) but because you had water damage I don’t think this would work. If you have a crawl space under the house, get someone under there to rake out feces and dead bodies. I have tried lots of other products and suggestions but the TSP, KILZ, Borax and muriatic acid are the only things that worked for me. Oh, and don’t paint until you have removed all the flooring odors or your paint will absorb the ordors. Been there!
p.s. My favorite restaurant in San Francisco is Hunans on Sansome Street. Before it was Chinese, it was a fish warehouse. To rid the building of the fish odor they brought in tons of potatoes that absorbed all the odors. Do you live in Idaho?
I’m in the process of cleaning out a house in the country that has been vacant for a year. Unfortunatley, there was quite of bit of “stuff” left in the house. During this period a number of critters took up residence (cats, racoons) and really trashed the place. On top of this, there was a waterline break last winter that soaked part of this mess down for a day until the water was shut off. Other than a little water damage, carpet, paint,etc. the house is in pretty good shape
Cleaning out the trash is a smelly job, but not difficult. Likewise for tearing up carpets. The problem I’m facing is completely getting rid of the smell. What products and/or techniques has anyone used? I plan on putting down new carpet and vinyl and painting the house before putting it on the market.
Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by m. garv (IL) on July 05, 2001 at 11:03:24:
I don’t know if there is a company called service master near you but if there is I would suggest you call them. They have a machine that takes out all unnatural oders in the house and it works great.(I think it s called an ozone machine). They us the machines mostly for fire and flood damaged houses. Alot of car dealers use them to get cigerette smells out of used cars.I cannot tell you how much it costs but my friend did it for me as a favor at my bar and it works great