How to rid top 3 household odours
Craig Connelly, the Odour Dude, has been in the odour removal business since 2002. He is the odour expert behind The Odour Dude.
I’ve treated thousands of different pongs over the years but the main three I deal with are as follows:
1. Urine odour in the floor of the toilet
If you have grandkids, then you may well relate to the fact that the little tinkle sound at night is not always the sound of your bank account gaining interest, but rather the misfire from the grandson as he miscalculates the weight of the gumboots and the head wind in the ablution block.The end result being, your handpicked Italian tiles are soaked with urine with a bouquet of a sniper's armpit the following day.
To complicate the situation, some cunning person thought it may be amusing to put grout between tiles just to make life more fun. Untreated grout soaks up urine and other nasties in deep and starts to produce the door one associates with an alley way rather than our beloved “Oval Office”. But never fear dear reader as I have a simple solution for you that is more cunning that the grout guys evil plan.
The solution using a simple household product
A simple solution is to grab a bucket and put 3 litres of warm water in it. Add to this one scoop of quality laundry powder and let it sit for five minutes. The laundry powder will start to produce oxygen and you will see bubbles in the mix. (If you don’t see bubbles then your laundry powder has no sodium percarbonate in the ingredients and you may need to consider another plan equally as cunning or buy one with sodium percarbonate in it). Sodium Percarbonate produces oxygen when mixed with warm water which is a brilliant recent urine neutraliser.
Method: Pour some of the solution onto the affected area and let it soak in deep. If you have a wet vacuum then tip a bit more on and start to suck it out straight away. Repeat and you will be jim-dandy before you can say “jim-dandy”. If you don’t have a wet vac then use towels to absorb the fluid.
2. Dog odour in the house
Dog odour is a very common issue and the most interesting thing about dog odour is the owners of the dog can never smell it. They say “Smell, what smell? I can’t smell a thing”. However, for someone walking into the house for the first time, it can be like being hit in the head with a piece of 4 x 2. Not an ideal way to greet your guests and once their nasal passages stop bleeding and the eyes are prised apart, they tend not to stay long even if you have a special pasta sauce recipe passed down from your mum. So in order to keep your guests in the house longer, here are some simple solutions. But first let’s look at the two most common causes of dog odour. Those with a weak stomach should now leave the room!
1. Dog bum odour
In most cases of strong dog smell, the odour typically comes from the dog’s rear end rubbing on carpet or furniture. This varies per dog breed (some dog breeds don’t have this issue whereas other are prone to it). So the solution if you have an offending rear end breed, is to spot clean the areas of the carpet that the dog tends to favour as a resting spot, using a good quality wet vac and a reliable carpet cleaner product with a small percentage of alkaline in (always spot test your carpet or furniture first in an inconspicuous area first to avoid colour damage or staining). In each dog owners house, there are normally three to four areas where the dog sits for long periods (near the dinner table or TV are good spots to start with) that should be spot cleaned. After spot cleaning and allowing the carpet to dry dust a bit of fragrant carpet deodoriser on and before long your friends will start to return and smile enthusiastically when they sample your homemade sauce.
2. Dog fur odour
The other odour from dogs comes from the oils in their fur. Once again this is determined a lot of the time by the breed of dog and the odour always seems to be more prominent in areas where they tend to chill, such as lounge suites, near the TV etc. A similar odour removal approach to dog bum odour is used, where a slightly alkaline based cleaner is required to help break down the oils in conjunction with a good quality wet vac with strong suction to assist in removing the residues. Once again if you do not have a wet vac then a folded towel will suffice.
3. Household cooking smells
So now we are entering tricky territory as there are many types of cooking smells and many different causes, so I will start with the common one first: fried food.
Frying foods produces two elements that odour removers like me despise. The dirty two that we don’t like to mention are steam and oil, which when combined are a formidable force to reckon with, particularly when they build up over many months or years. The steam and oil rise during the cooking process and embed themselves in the paintwork on the ceiling and walls, plus curtains, and carpet. Add to the mix some pungent spices and you have a difficult job on your hands.
Solution:
1. Buy a small container of Sugar Soap and mix with hot water to the recommended dosage written on the bottle using a 10 litre bucket. Wash the ceiling thoroughly using a soft cloth dipped into the sugar soap and hot water solution. (If the water ain't changing colour then you are doing it wrong). The sugar soap and heat from the hot water should start to break down some of the oil residues and they will transfer to the cloth. For bad cases, you may need to wash the ceiling area two to three times, changing the water each time.
2. Remove all curtains and have then dry cleaned. Be sure to tell your dry cleaner you are dealing with cooking odours so they do a good job.
3. Have your carpets cleaned professionally using an Alkaline Carpet Cleaner as a pre-spray (helps breaks down the oil). Ensure the carpet cleaner understands you are wanting to remove odours however do not use highly fragranced cleaning products as it will be more difficult to determine if the process has worked.
4. Once everything is dry, reassess the odour contamination. It should be considerably better, if not please see below for more options.
5. This should only be done if the smell persists. Try Ozone Gas for a minimum of 24 hours and reassess. If smell persists after an Ozone treatment you will need to paint the ceiling and walls using a sealer coat first then a top coat.
*Please note: Quite often the sugar soap can change the appearance of the ceiling due to the water being cleaner in certain areas versus an area where you cleaned just before changing the water.
Note: Always spot test your cleaning products on all surfaces you are about to treat first in an inconspicuous area. Not all fabrics and substrates react the same and although we use these techniques we take no responsibility for staining or damage to substrates you are treating. Consult an industry professional first if you have any doubts about the quality of your items prior to treating.
Here’s to an odour free house!
For more odour removal tips, visit Craig’s site The Odour Dude.
Related links:
How to remove mildew smell from towels
7 natural ways to make your home smell better
Is it possible for your house to be too clean?