Help with a smelly carpet, please!

beeza

Another smelly carpet tale of woe but this time it's a rug, so no underlay/floorboard issues.

It had some organic stains but also got a little wet whilst being stored to sort it out. There was a little mildew on the hessian backing:eek:

Cleaned it up as best I could, have had it machine shampoo'd and use tons of shake and vac to no avail.

Is bi-carb better than shake n vac? I thought shake n vac was mostly bi carb.

In which case maybe I should try the bio powder to wash it and the vodka if that doesn't work. Any other ideas?

squeaky

In the bath with bio washing powder... then start grape treading. You may still need to use a scrubbing brush on the worst bits although it's surprising how well a long soak and then a second grape treading session works.

Rinse thoroughly and then hang outside to dry.


(If you don't fancy grape treading... turn the stereo up high and dance! )

beeza

That's not going to be easy (it's rather large) but I shall give it a go.

Nothing to lose now, my wife says to throw it

Mumof2_2

My 4 year old in all his wisdom decided it would be great fun to tip a bucket of water all over the living room floor :mad::mad:. I soaked up what I could with towels and rubbed it but now, 3 days later, it's starting to smell. What can I do? It's really stinky .

Thanks.

Mumof2_2

Thanks very much. It's carpet - sorry, forgot to say that!

Sunnyday

I`ll second savers advice above, even if the carpet has started to dry the underlay (if you have it) will still be wet through. The floorboards may even starts to soften and smell nasty too.

In my carpet cleaner i use stardrops too but if the carpet is really bad then i do a final quick clean or rinse using vinegar in the machine, whiffs a little faintly for a day or two but is antibacterial and having two muddy doggies i find that it works a treat.

I`ve even been known to shampoo a rug using biological soap powder dissolved into the water and fabric softner in the final rinse

If you do decide to hire/buy/borrow a machine use it first on the carpet to suck out any water and then clean/rinse it afterwards.

HTH

SD

Austin_Allegro

I used to live in a basement flat where the carpet smelled really musty due to the floor being a bit damp. I fixed the problem by:

1. Steam cleaning the carpet to get rid of existing smells.
2. Hoovering regulary with shake and vac or bicarb, then spraying with febreze

I then kept the problem at bay by keeping the room well ventilated and using a dehumidifier.

DollyDabbler

I use biological washing liquid in my carpet cleaner (only a small amount though), great for keeping the carpet clean and smelling great. If you hire a machine, give both the clean and dirty water containers a rinse through first as sometimes they smell awful after being stored.

pineapple

I have a large rug on top of ceramic tiles.
In cases of flooding/water spill I have put spare towels underneath the rug and changed as they became damp. The water gets blotted up eventually.

zippychick

ive merged this with our smelly carpet thread which has loads of ideas

ZIP