Buying house- Smell!

[JadeFeather]

Hi
We have seen a house we quite like but it smells so bad! My husband thinks it's the two big dogs they have. I think it may be spilt milk/ vomit on the carpets (currently a family with two kids under about 3 living there). I'm not sure whether we should let this put us off? We would probably need to take into account the cost of changing carpets if that's where the smell is coming from?

[HereIAm20]

I suggest that you get them professionally cleaned first (at a frcation of the cost). When MIL was selling I subtley suggested to SIL that she had this done as hers smelled of cats pee(!) One professional clean later and the house sold next viewing!!!

[Sunnyshores]

If its years of dog wee then cleaning may not be enough, so I would budget for replacing them and any underlay underneath. Have you checked carefully they havent chewed the skirting boards and doors.

[SternlyVoice]

We considered buying a house that really smelt. Deep clean was quoted as being really good value but was warned that cleaning carpet may not be enough i.e. Wooden floors underneath might have needed some kind of biological treatment as well but even so, the price was good. We even got quotes for having whole house repainted. In the end, we didn't buy the house and a year later, it's still on the market!

[catsinthecraddle]

I would only consider it if I didn't have to move in straight away, and could have all the carpets removed, the walls deep cleaned and the windows open for a week.

I don't think you can really clean a carpet, they just need to be changed. It's horrendous to stay in a stinky house, and I wouldn't personally do it with young kids.

[SmellTheGlove]

Sometimes damp and mould can smell like cat wee, when we bought our current house it stank once when I visited and I assumed was cats but none to be seen! It was actually a bit damp, mostly just due to lack of central heating and ventilation though so sorted fairly easily.

[Lemonski]

We've recently moved into a house we had no idea had a dog smell. I love dogs but not in a position to have one right now, probably because of this, I didnt see the previous owners 2 dogs as any kind of issue. I do now!!

When we viewed the property it was sunny. Windows were open, coffee brewing etc. Not a whiff of dog.

The day we completed we entered the house and the smell just hit us like a sledgehammer around the head.

Its vile.

The house has wooden floors downstairs and carpets upstairs. After shampooing upstairs carpet 6 times in 2 weeks (twice with neat dettol and the rest of the time with different brands of pet carpet shampoo), using numerous bottles of neutrodol carpet deodrant and shake n vac, febreeze etc etc the smell wouldnt shift. We replaced the carpets.

We still have doggy smell (been in almost 3 months) in the hallway. It has wooden floors that we have steam cleaned, polished etc. We have even had the radiator off the wall (there was a whole dog in hair behind it) and washed and scrubbed every inch, yet all we can smell is bloody dog!!

We've washed walls and even repainted too. Still can smell dog.

We are having a few radiators changed in other rooms but have decided to change the hall way one in a last bid attempt before the only thing left - to lift and removed the solid oak hall flooring - one of the things I loved about the house!!

Sorry to waffle on but my advice is - assume the worst when thinking how easy/difficult it may be to shift the smell.

[QuiteLikely5]

This depends - is the smell dog pee? If yes and it's sunk through the Carpet I to the floor boards I just wouldn't do it but I have a sensitive nose!

If they were just unhygienic people and you had the cash to buy new carpets etc then I would go for it

[JadeFeather]

I'm not really sure what the smell is. When I smelt it I thought it's a mixture of vomit and dirty nappies. My husband was the one who told me he had a friend who had the same big dogs (Great Danes possibly?) these people have and they used to smell really bad.

[Glassesdontsuitme]

This is really good and smells really nice. We used it in the vets where I used to work. It's safe to spray on most things and can be diluted and mopped on hard floors. More than one application will be needed though if it is uber pongy.

[afromom]

The house we live in now smelt awful from the dogs and various other pets in the house before we bought it. We were lucky enough to have the rented property we lived in to stay in until the whole place had been deep cleaned, repainted and new carpets and floors throughout.
Without the time to do that prior to moving in there is no way I would have agreed to buy it!

[putputput]

When we brought our house it stunk of dog, a deep clean wouldn't have touched it. Got rid of all carpets and underlay, biological wash of floors, sugar soaped all walls and ceilings. There was hair and slobber engrained everywhere and I would say it took a good 4 weeks for the smell to go.

[Quodlibet]

When Great Danes wee it's about 5 litres a time... Could potentially be a lot of dog wee in those carpets...