Carpet cleaning questions and stagnat water smell?

Question

ok to make a long story short i recently moved out of my apartment into my new home. when leaving the apartment we had to have the carpets professionally cleaned which we did by a local mom and pop operation that the apartment management had recommended. we lived in a pet friendly community and had 2 dogs and i also owned my own carpet cleaner which we used on the apartment once every 2 months. i also carpet cleaned the whole apartment before i left. now after the mom and pop operation did their carpet cleaning as was required by the lease i signed the apartment smells like stagnant water really bad. the landlord is trying to blame us for the smell but i did the whole apartment before i left and there was no smell and now its rancid as for when we did the walkthough. does anyone know if its possible to have that stagnant water smell from in carpet from anything other than stagnant water? the landlord wants to blame it on the pets but its not possible as did the cleaning 1 week prior.

Answer 1

Keep the receipt for the cleaning as required by the lease. Ask another reputable carpet cleaner for a bid. They should grant you access if they expect you to fix it. When the guy comes to give the bid. Explain the situation and ask him/her what the smell is from and if it could be from a bad cleaning job. If they say it is from a bad cleaning job, ask them to notate that on the written bid they give you.

Then make a copy of the bid with the notation on it and send it to the Landlord (Scan and send if you are working with e-mail and save all e-mail correspondence with Landlord (LL). Tell them you used Contractor that they required under the lease and that contractor cause the stagnant smell that was not there prior to their cleaning of the carpet. You can tell them as a courtesy you will request the same company to re-do the job but that you have carried out the terms of the lease.

Any contact with the landlord should be in writing. Asking them for access to get bid for another cleaning job, or any other correspondence. You can do this via e-mail too as long as it is in writing. Try to stay away from phone calls but if you are cornered into one, take notes about both sides of conversation and date and time of call.

Keep everything in a folder.

Carpets are considered an item that normal wear and tear requires replacement every 6-9 years in a rental. Many LL try to blame the tenant for this but if they try to take you to court they will lose. Make sure you read and re-read the lease (If possible have an attorney look at it. Pre-Paid legal advice is good for young people. Then you can ask an attorney these questions whenever they come up!

See:
[e-mail]
www. prepaidlegal.com/go/janellemacleod

Hope this all helps!

Answer 2

Well first of Pets don't leave a stagnant smell in carpets, but however carpet cleaners who are negligent in changing the water frequently in the carpet cleaning tank could be at fault and also they did not do a thorough job of removing all the moisture which caused this water to stagnate in the carpet the problem to me sounds like it all boils down to the carpet cleaners, or it is somewhat possible that when you cleaned the carpet with your machine you failed to remove all the water from the carpet and did not allow it to dry thoroughly therefore some of the water was left behind in the carpet to stagnate, it is possible the reason you did not smell it before is because you was use to the smell but when you moved out then you was able to pick up the smell I would suggest that either this carpet be cleaned professionally once more or you can simply do it yourself with White Vinegar and hot water in a rental steam machine thats all there is to it, this will clean and deodorize and disinfect the carpet and remove the odors left behind,

Here is some solutions that can help you Vinegar Carpet Solution

I've used just about every kind of carpet cleaner solution in my steam cleaner. None of them compare to one simple cheap solution, which is vinegar mixed with water. I use a solution of about 1 to 10 and am amazed at the results every time. It gets rid of spots that come back to the surface and cleans my steam cleaner at the same time. The vinegar smell does stay around until the carpet is completely dry.
This Recipe Kills Odors

I have used grocery store rental carpet machines before and have come up with my own "recipe." Use one scoop of OxiClean, one cup of generic Fabreeze or one cup of vinegar, and the recommended hot water. The outcome is not only clean, but it also kills all odors. I used this formula on a very used couch that smelled of dirty dogs so bad that I would not even bring it into my home and the outcome was wonderful. Do not worry about using vinegar. Once the vinegar dries, the smell is gone


Plain Old White VinegarJust mix it as you would the regular cleaning solution, and when the carpet dries, there will be no more smell from the vinegar. This works great on most stains.

Good Luck !

Answer 3

some carpet cleaners use a shampoo which leaves a residue that cloaks the odour.. if after using such a product the mom/pop people used a steam cleaner then that would have opened up the residue and allowed the odour to escape.. the problem with this is they did not clean it long enough,, did not totally remove all the residue. so they would need to finish. it is also very important to remove as much water as possible from the carpet.
and if it did not dry within about 6 - 8 hours or so they may / should need to use a mildew inhibitor..
.

Answer 4

I would contact the MOM/POP operation and tell them that they left too much water behind and it couldn't dry fast enough... They should re-clean the carpets for free.. You may want to get some fans going to circulater air in the apt.. Since the weather has been so humid, it will take longer for the carpet to dry on it's own... Or if the carpet is dry.. Try sprinkling baking soda on it and leaving it on overnight or even acouple days if the apt. is unoccupied and vacuum it up.. That will also take care of the smell... Good luck

Answer 5

The water was probably dirty when they done the job.Why not go spray some vinegar in the apartment and ask if you can leave the fan on to dry it.Then the smell will be gone.Sounds like the water was not extracted up as well.Vinegar will kill the bacteria and smell once it dries...

Answer 6

Use Febreze Antimicrobial, and use it again in a few days. This worked great when a toilet line leaked under the wall into our bedroom carpet. We pulled up the mat & new carpet and sprayed it good. Worked like a charm.