Concerns with dog smell in house i'm about to rent...

owsaboutthatthen

....I'm in the middle of moving from one rented property to another. The house i'm moving into to (beginning of Oct) is lovely and in a reputable area. However the previous tenant had dogs and didn't care for them very well. My landlord has ripped out the carpets and between us are going to redecorate/paint etc. Having new wooden floor and carpets. It has a concrete floor not floorboards. I'm really hoping that the dog smell will go. I don't have any pets myself (unless you can class my two children as pets ). Anyway has anyone else experienced this situation and can anyone recommend anything else to disguise/get rid of the smell other than what i've said?

tbs624

You'll probably get a more "expert" reply over on the OS board - its amazing what the Flylady and her mates can do with some bicarb, a bit vinegar,a nd some stardrops.......;)

Gingernutmeg

Something I always take with me when I move into a new rented house is some good flea spray (from the vets, not the supermarket) and I give the house a good spray before I unpack anything. It sounds like I'm a bit obsessive but having been bitten once before (no pun intended) by a house that was absolutely infested with fleas I'm taking no chances, regardless of whether there have been pets there or not - the house that was infested hadn't had pets in it ... Don't even want to think about how it got so bad. Personally I'd definitely do this in any house that had a 'pet smell'.

The smell should fade though over time with cleaning, usually it's worst in carpets so if they've gone then that's the battle won, really. If you're meaning a pee smell rather than a wet-dog smell, then the best thing to do is find the source of it (usually you can see stains on floorboards) and try either a solution of biological washing powder (the enzymes break down the odour causing molecules) or you can get stuff that's specifically designed to get rid of pee smells, there's something called 'Urine Off' that you can get from pet shops and that's very good. If it's really bad and it's really soaked into the floorboards then really the only option is to replace them.

owsaboutthatthen

Well the floor is concrete so I suppose its just a case of cleaning up the floor. It doesn't really smell of pee more like damp dog! The carpets have come up. However it still smells of dog. The smell isn't upstairs, just downstairs. It's such a shame and how can anyone let the smell get so bad? A lovely house and would hate to think we're having work done to it and what if the smell doesn't go?! That's my main concern.

Loretta

I have a cleaning company and deal with this all the time.

First remove the source of the smell which you have done by removing the carpets. Sweep or hoover the floors, whether concrete or wood and wash with a solution of Jeyes Fluid which you can by in a hardware shop. One small tin will be plenty. The instructions on diluting are on the tin, just use a mop and bucket but you will have to throw away the mop and probably the bucket as well afterwards because they are stained and smelly afterwards so go to the pound shop of somewhere like that. The Jeyes Fluid will get rid of the smell but will also any deal with any 'livestock' or 'eggs' without being too graphic, you don't want anything hatching under the new carpets! Leave all the doors and windows open all the time you are there and you will be fine. Leave the new carpets or flooring for as long as possible. If you think the urine has soaked into the bottoms of the door frames use it on there and it may be worth removing the kick boards in the kitchen and cleaning under there and maybe replacing them depending on how bad it is. We did a house once where the dog's wee had soaked into the floor boards so badly that this was not good enough and all the floors in the house had to be replaced but yours does not sound as bad as that.

Bungarm2001

If it's wee that has gone into the floorboards, particularly !!!!!es wee, then you will never get rid of the smell, no matter what you use.

Trust me.

The only solution is to replace the flloorboards.