I bought a house, the owners moved out, and their 13 dogs moved out three weeks later.Cant get the smell out?

Question

Ive already ripped out the carpet and the sub floors. I need a INDUSTRIAL smell remover. Perhaps something they use at a morgue. Any ideas would be appreciated. Also the feces has caused black mold under all the baseboards. Any ideas on that stuff as well would be appreciated. Financial stress makes it impossible to completely gut the house, so I'm looking for the elbow grease method of choice

Answer 1

Would it work to close up the empty house and crank up the heat in the summer and maybe it would be too hot and dry for the mold and kill it that way?

Answer 2

You just did everything I was going to tell you to do. I had 125 rentals, 75 condos and 25 homes. We've been through the mill on this. I had one family that raised fourteen dogs in two of the bedrooms. I won't go into details what I found.

I took out the sliding glass doors and hosed the rooms out, the two bedrooms and two bathrooms, the ceilings and all. The dogs ate through the walls.

The smell was overpowering. We scrubbed with Dawn, and Lysol, sprayed with Lysol, I hosed out, time after time. We had to replace a lot of wallboard, it was ruined with fecess.
Floor tile was replaced due to the dogs trying to eat it and the fece under it. Feces and urine under and just ingrained into everything. I used a special paint the Home Depot had for Mold that inhibits smells. It did help.
I don't know what the name of it is but there is a sealer on the market, ask at Home depot, since you've already got the carpet off. To spray down, it seals smells in, Ask around. Good luck.

Answer 3

We have recently bought a house that had 15 cats in it. The cats urinated on everything. The thing that people suggested we do was to totally remove the carpet/and or other flooring down to cement. Then use a sealer like Thompsons to seal the concrete. Concrete is pourous and if not sealed, will seep the foul smell into your air. Then they told us to primer and repaint the walls in the house. A lot of the smell gets absorbed into the drywall, and if it is not sealed off with a good primer (KilZ), then it too, will continue to emit the foul smell.We took these steps and they have worked great. I'm very allergic to cats and I have not had any problems with my allergies related to the cat smell since. Hope this helps!

Answer 4

You can try enzyme pet odor eradicators sold at larger pet stores. Enzyme cleaners actually eat the odors, not cover them up temporarily. Have to ask, was the smell there when you looked at the house originally? If this was done during the period between closing and you moving in, it should be covered by the previous owners. It would be no different that any other damages done after closing. Check with your Realtor.

Answer 5

My parents owned a carpet cleaning business while I was growing up. I sure wish that I had a dollar for every time that someone asked us about fixing pet damage. Best of luck. You have a tough job to tackle.

Sorry this isn't advice, but you do have my sympathy.

Answer 6

You may want to re-post this under the "pets" catagory - more people with experience with this there!

I personally would order a kennel cleaner from some pet supply place like http://www.drsfostersmith.com/ or use a lot of Pinesol on everything that can be cleaned that way.

Answer 7

For your mold problems, check out www.fosterproducts.com for mold removing solvents.