How do I de-smell the house we are buying?

[Almanzo]

I know we all have our own family smells!
The house we are buying has a very STRONG smell. Partly the 4 big old dogs and 3 cats I suppose and maybe some cooking smells on top. It is quite unpleasant. They have the heating on very high when we go round too and are quite elderly and there are old carpets everywhere and.... you get the picture.
We will rip up carpets as soon as possible. Anthing else?
The rented house we are in at the moment still smells of 'other people' after 9 months. Maybe it's the carpets.
Not fond of spray fresheners or plug ins but will go with whatever you think works!

Loads of fresh air. A good airing and getting rid of the carpets and curtains will make a huge difference.

The carpets will be responsible for a lot of the smell. If there is any wallpaper, that will hang onto the smell too.
A really good clean round everywhere with sugar soap on the painted surfaces, plughole cleaner, the lot will make a huge difference. And if that fails, Febreeze is amazing for destroying smells rather than covering up

Open windows

Ditch all soft furnishings

Consider having wooden floors re sanded

Sugar soap every surface - walls, ceilings, radiators, skirting boards, windows etc etc.

agree with sugar soap and throw the carpets away
problem solved

When moved here we had major problems with smell - I hadn't realised what a big problem it would be for me - it just doesn't feel like your house with other people's smells dominating.

The big problem we had to tackle was cigarettes - worst of all was in our bedroom....

Anyway, here's what we did:

1. wipe down walls, ceiling, skirting boards, doors
2. hire Rug Dr type carpet cleaner and do it several times
3. remove permanently anything you can (curtains/anything else remaining from previous owners)
4. wash windows several times
5. neutradol spray lots
6. burn neutradol candles each evening
7. windows open whenever possible (not great at this time of the year)

We were able to move into our room after a week or so and it was basically ok after 2 or 3 weeks. Every now and then though there would suddenly be a whiff though for a good 6 months.

One thing we didn't notice/think of was the air vents at the top of the windows. Don't know whether you have these but after a recent storm, we found dust had fallen out of these and the smell was back. Removed the dust and no trace again, so the smell must have lodged there too. Not sure how we'd have got into there without the wind though but cotton wool buds?

Hopefully what you're facing won't be as difficult to shift as we found. Time and your family living there are the two best things for getting rid of the smells.

The one thing you want to find out is if the dogs and cars have peed on the floor. In extreme instances where it isn't cleaned up it can penetrate into the floorboards/subfloor and be really difficult to get rid of.

I suspect you would notice that smell though :o

Definitely carpets.

And a fresh coat of paint works wonders too.

This sugar soaping the walls Iggy. do you just wash them with the solution, {cluelesss>

sorry, can I ask what's sugar soap?

great stuff for serious cleaning. mostly used by decorators to prep the surfaces.

you have to wash it down with water afterwards thouhg.

if you have a steam cleaner then use it where you can. Also make sure you clean behind radiators and between double ones. I can guarantee there will be shedloads of fur and dander trapped there which will honk when the heating is on.

Get rid of carpets and wallpaper if you can; steam along skirtings to kill flea larvae. Check floor boards for old dog/cat wee stains. You can get products from pet places that remove and totally neutralise smells from these.
Bleach and clean inside bog cistern

This is excellent fro removing smells ratwarehouse.co.uk/shop_detail.php?item=117&cat=5

ratwarehouse.co.uk/shop_detail.php?item=117&cat=5

Wow, loads of fantastic ideas. Sorry haven't been back to thread - have had a completion date emergency but that's a whole other thread
I hadn't thought about fleas , certainly it is likely, they have a lot of animals and have run a rescue at some point. I might do some of those flea bomb things.
I do love animals but not the smell!
They are moving by themselves (no removals people) to save money. Nice for them but it's in 10 days and looking at what they have to do I don't think they'll be doing ANY cleaning. I might have to throw some money at it and get some cleaners in.
Thanks again!

Animal pee smells can be got rid of with a double clean. Phase 1 is biological washing powder with hot water, then phase 2 is surgical spirit. The bio powder gets rid of proteins and the surgical spirit gets rid of fat cells. It makes the house smell of surgical spirit though.

notnowimreading - thanks for that tip - Ive stored it for future reference (have senile cat)

There is only one thing that causes a smell - dirt!

Remove every scrap of soft furnishings and any floor coverings and remove any wallpaper and check for damp entering the house from leaking gutters and check all sink/bath/toilet wate pipes blockages and leask inside and all foul pipes outside. Clean everything or throw it out.

Old people have poorly maintained houses and struggle to keep them clean.

OP Id agree with all the above - step one, flea bomb; step 2, open all the windows while you sugar soap walls. Step 3, after a couple of days, clean carpets. Then spray with febreeze. OTT maybe, but ultimately, until you can replace or rip out carpets, they are going to have a wet dog smell. You will get used to it though.

all of the above plus, if you have an extractor fan throw out the fleecy filter and chuck any loose parts in the dishwasher.

good luck.

The house passed the Homebuyer's fine, quite a surprise, so no damp etc - just dirt! It's a 1920s place but was completely remodernised about 9 years ago when the vendors bought it ( to have space for all their animals, they said they had nine dogs at one point!!!). So only 9 years of neglect.
I think all the carpets etc are what the developers put in then, we'll be getting rid of all but the stair carpets. They have to stay as it's so expensive to do stairs and too noisy to live without carpeted stairs with 3 noisy DC.

I will definitely follow your tips to kill the smell in that carpet.
All this talk of dander and hair has made me a bit queasy. We got a good price on the house but the downside is having to clean it. I like to think I have seen the potential shining through - possibly watched too many house makeover programmes!
It's big, it's cheap, it's in a good area. It just stinks!!
poppysocks, they don't smoke so we lucked out there. They have painted some ceilings beige of their own accord though. 'Cosier' apparently .
I feel catty now. They are lovely people, I just don't want to be breathing in their skin cells and pee for months.