Help me unravel this mystery before I burn the contents of this room down

[NotAgainWilson]

As the title says, I am feeling like purifying this room through fire after a week of cleaning. washing and replacing stuff has proved unsuccessful to remove the stench a short term lodger left behind.

The room was spring cleaned before his arrival. He was around for 3 weeks. He had massively smelly feet (I said that as the mother of a sporty smelly child that I could barely stand at times, but this is in a different league, more than ten times worse and resistant), after a week around I asked him if he could do something about the smell stench, he apologised (he was lovely and polite otherwise) and said he would get odour eaters to sort it.

It didn’t make a difference so, as I had told him when I rent the room that I would be going in to open the window to ventilate the room every morning, I got the super strength version of Odor Eaters and sprayed all his shoes every morning and left the window open the whole day. This helped the smell not to extend to other rooms as before.

The last of his 3 weeks, he had a cold so stayed at home, therefore I was unable to spray shoes if open the window. He left the room tidy but the stench is still there. It smells as if you have crossed bad smelly feet with buttery toffee and is of such strength you feel like vomiting.

The room was also left covered in some white fluff, very similar to the fluff you may find under the bed if you don’t clean for years, but it was EVERYWHERE, all around the floor, walls, furniture, picture frame and a lot of it has gone into the radiator. I cannot imagine such amount of fluff being produced in three weeks, much less so by a single person no matter how dirty they could be.

I have removed more than bucket load of fluff, vacuum cleaned and washed the walls, floors, furniture and the inside out of the radiator, used a whole can of Odor Eaters, Oust and a full bottle of Ecover as well as leaving the window open every day, one week later the stench is now a smell but is still unbearable.

I have bought a new duvet and pillows. But I am convinced that this situation can be due to either an endocrinology related issue or bacteria, and therefore not safe. Shall I burn all the bed linen? the whole room? I am at the end of my tether, have spent a week cleaning and again every day over the last week and the smell is still there.🤮🤮🤮🤮

Strip bed clear, run a dehumidifier in there for a few days just make sure the room is warm enough for it to be effective.
I'd then suggest even a fresh coat of paint in there, oh and yes ditch linen duvet, pillows etc, goodluck.

DH's first job post Uni he house shared with someone who had the most horrifically smaelly feet ever, the smell pervaded the whole house. It was some sort of inbalance and a secondary bacterial infection apparently.
DH moved out ASAP but probably not an option for you OP.
I second (third) the suggestion of something for removing pet smells, was the only thing that sorted out my car after milk spilt in the boot of my car and we didnt realise for a week

This is a long shot but we had a terrible smell when we bought our house (dog urine in the floorboards). We sponged paint thinners over the area then spread cat litter across the floor and left it for a few days and it helped to draw the smell out. Obviously you won’t want to do paint thinners as it would damage your varnish but there’s an outside chance leaving a load of cat litter in there for a week or two might help?? Maybe in trays to protect your floor.

I'd borrow a steam cleaner and steam everywhere but yes, there might be something dead under the floor that you are blaming lodger for.

You need an Ozone Machine. We use them for cars that come in that have been smoked in. Need to leave it on and running with windows and doors shut for 24/48 hours. The smell will be gone.

I was also wondering if it could be bad Athlete's Foot and the white fluff was bits of dead skin from that. While googling about it I also came across Pitted Keratolysis and I've now seen some photos I can never unsee. I wasn't a big fan of feet as it was. (Do NOT google that if you have trypophobia!)

Spraying vodka on soft furnishings is so much better than Febreze btw, I use it on costumes in wardrobe at theatre. Just buy the cheapest stuff (Lidl's cheapest is my go-to) and a spray bottle. It doesn't smell of vodka at all once it evaporates but definitely works better than anything scented. I don't know if it works on hard surfaces but I'd be tempted to try it (although maybe not on the floors in case it damaged the varnish).

Ecover is crap. You need that stuff cleaners use... that's really strong smelling and comes in a little bottle and you dilute it.
ACK - can't remember the name!

I would clean the mattress with a carpet cleaner using the upholstery attachment. You can hire Rug Doctor.

An ozone generator will help but they are not cheap.

Activated charcoal or bicarb will help to absorb it - leave in saucers/bowls in the room for a couple of days.

Oh. My. God. 😫

I had a lodger with smelly feet, had to dispose of the mattress in the end.

He had a form of trench foot!

There must be something under the floorboards OP. I don’t think any smell could linger that long.

Could the fluff was some kind of fleece/faux fur rug or something?

Hi @NotAgainWilson It does sound like you've tried everything.

Is it possible that the smell is not down to you smelly foot lodger at all?? Is there any possibility that a rat has got under your floorboards and died? (could if even got in via one of your neighbours you may not even be aware of them. They cause a terrible stink

Hibiscrub (you can buy in boots) is really good for smelly feet. My partner uses it and it’s been incredible!

you could try this on the floor if it’s not carpeted? I don’t know how it would react with flooring as it’s supposed to be used in the shower as a soap but maybe test a small area you won’t see first, behind the door or something. Might take the smell away since it works on feet.

I rented a room on a regular basis to the grandson of one of DM's friends (family friend) and I rented another room to friend of DB who came down to London a lot filming. First man was here a year, second person here same year but on and off in months but fairly regular for about a year. After both rooms were vacated there was a smell. It turned out one of them had been bringing things home to eat (sausage rolls, mini sausages, crisps) even though I said, please don't do this as this attracts mice (thank god I had/have a good cat).

After they both left (all above board), it was similar, lots of strange smells, dust/lint and I had to completely deep clean both rooms (I was having no lodgers), got Airwick ball with odor eating gel in it and replaced both mattresses and actually replaced carpets (they needed it anyway as they were both old).

Rats/mice - same smell when rotting rodent.

Either you're exaggerating or you have some kind of smell-related hallucination going on because it's very extreme for a smell to be around a week when the source has been removed. And you don't have carpets so it can't be in that. If you've changed the bedding it literally can't be possible.

The only similar thing I can think of is when we moved into a house with a weird smell and it turned out to be the curtains because the previous owners had smoked weed in there on a regular basis, but even that wasn't a strong smell (especially considering how strong and nasty the smell of weed is even in passing), and he can't have been rubbing his feet on the curtains.

Invested now… @NotAgainWilson I need to know if you’ve taken the radiator off?!

I'm afraid I would have to throw the bed out, along with any other soft furnishings.

Maybe you will have to bin everything and redecorate. There's definitely something strange responsible.

The fluff everywhere - do you think a bird could have got in and flapped about? Or a squirrel - they can be really stinky.

Sorry @NotAgainWilson but the "burnt sugarfeet stench" made me snort and scared my cat!

Throw out all the bedding and the armchair, as well as the roller blind.

Spray pet urine enzyme spray all over the mattress and let it soak in.

Get the floorboards redone. Get the walls and ceiling repainted, also the radiator, and the door.

I don't think that's true. We had a horrible smell in our kitchen coming from the brickwork. Husband removed a few and found a decomposing mouse. The stench was truly horrendous🤮🤮🤮