Renovation project, concerned about getting rid of dog smell-any advice

[IndigoSkye]

Good morning. We are thinking of taking on a renovation project. We have not been able to find a property where we want to buy and the only thing available is a house that is currently occupied by a number of large and hairy dogs. When we looked round the property the smell was awful and the house needs some major work. We are torn between seeing this as an opportunity to completely strip the house back to its bare bones and renovate it just as we want it, which seems appealing. But we are concerned that we will never be able to get rid of the dog smell. Does anyone have any experience of doing anything similar? Would love to get some thoughts from anyone that has renovated a property which has previously housed multiple dogs?

Dog wee or just a dog smell?

You will be able to. not one to worry about

Our renovation had a distinct 'cat smell' when we moved in. After 18 months of replacing walls/windows/floors it's no longer an issue. It's not like cigarette smoke.

The smell will be the least of your worries once the building dust arrives!!

Thanks so much, that’s very reassuring! It didn’t smell of wee especially but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was dog wee stains, having said that it was largely tiled throughout downstairs. I wasn’t sure how far into the fabric of the building it would have permeated! I had this worry in my mind that we could spend thousands of pounds and it might still smell!!

It’s fine. As someone else said, cigarette smoke is far, far worse.
The dog smell will go once the carpets are replaced and the walls painted.

Depends if it is just dog smell or if it is also dog pee.
A mum at the school bought a house where an elderly dog had lived. They had to strip the plaster off the walls to get it back to brick and remove and replaced all the floorboards as they couldn't get the smell out of the house and pee had went through the carpets to the floorboards.

One of our house the previous owners had cats. No smell when.viewed but once we moved in we had to remove the carpets and the radiators were full of cat hair so all had to be taken off the wall and the hair stripped off.

We bought a project two years ago that stank of dogs. Once we removed all the carpets, underlay and curtains it was pretty much gone. They were grim it has to be said.
We didn't however take up my DP's friend's suggestion that we box up all the dog shit in the garden and post it back to them suggesting they'd left this.

If it's just the smell and not stained, once soft furnishings are removed and carpets stripped, all it will need is a damn good clean to remove hairs and it should be fine. I also bought a doggy smell house, which was slightly off putting when I viewed it, but it was far less noticeable even on moving day. Once the carpets were gone, it had disappeared. All tiled downstairs should be fine, once cleaned.

Not quite the same but DD once bought a 4x4 that reeked of dog. The previous owner had used it for transporting her show dogs, so presumably there was no wee, but the doggy smell lingered even after intensive cleaning. She drove round with the windows open for a while! The thing that really helped was ground coffee put into paper/fabric bags tucked around the seats and door pockets. The coffee absorbed the smell over a period of weeks. You can get charcoal bags too, but if you've got a packet or two of ground coffee in your fridge it's worth a go.