Unfortunately, we often get called for odor removal AFTER people have tried to remove or cover up the odor during a remodel.  A lot of people buy smelly homes with pet or tobacco odor, and think that by painting over the smell and putting in new flooring, the odor will go away.

When this doesn’t work, they call us.  Let’s start with why you can’t just cover up the odor.  Tobacco odors are caused by tar residue throughout the home.  As cigarette or cigar smoke spreads to every inch of the home, it carries tobacco tar with it, and this tar gets deposited all over the walls, ceilings, flooring and into the air conditioning duct work.  By Pet urine will soak into sheet rock and through flooring into the concrete.  Pet urine and dander includes bacteria that continue to live and generate odors.  When you try to paint over tobacco tar, and put new flooring over concrete embedded with odor causing deposits, you are just covering up these sources with porous materials.  In other words, the odors will just seep right through the paint and new flooring causing your home to continue to stink.

Ideally, you would remove the flooring to expose the bare concrete.  Then clean all of the walls and flooring with a strong detergent.  Some people advise against bleach or ammonia based products.  There are enzyme based products that are designed to kill odor causing bacteria.  These are good options.

An ozone shock treatment would be the next step.  We would go in after flooring is removed and a good cleaning throughout, but before new paint and flooring.  This way, all of the odor causing sources are fully exposed to our ozone gas.  This gives us an uninhibited path to kill and neutralize the problem.

Before you paint with your favorite colors, a good sealing primer such as Kilz is a good idea to seal in any possible remaining residues.

What if I’ve already painted and installed new flooring?

No problem.  Ideally, we would treat a home before the new paint and flooring are installed.  However, we have successfully treated a number of homes AFTER remodel.  Because our treatment is in the form of a gas, we will reach every square inch of a  home to kill and neutralize odor causing sources.  The ozone gas will penetrate the new paint and flooring.  So don’t be discouraged, and give us a call today if you have a smelly problem.