If you were moving into a stinky house ...

[Pawslikepaddington]

that smells really badly of gross smell what would you do? The carpets and beds needing serious cleaning and walls need entire re-decoration which will help with the smell, but would you hire a rug doctor, or would you buy a Bissell? Would it need more than one going over? Bearing in mind that I need to clean the carpets at the old house too, so will be at least two days hire if the carpets need doing once, but more if they need doing a few times.

are you renting? i mean, might you rip the carpets out and sand floors or are you stuck with them? i reckon smells stay in carpets most of all.

erm I would do wahtever I could not to move there I think.

I'm renting, but it is £600 a month as opposed to the £900 a month place (average price where we are) that we are in in the mo, and in our financial situation we need to grab it with both hands!

I bought a bissell from Argos as we had cream carpets and I was sick of paying the local man £50 a throw. It was £199 and it is soooooooo worth the money. Every one of my friends and family have borrowed it too and I always get their leftover shampoo :D Well worth the investment if you have the time/energy to do it yourself. The rooms always smell beautiful after the carpets have been cleaned.

Was going to post a link for you but just got a "sorry, but we're temporarily closed" on the Argos website.

Will have a look tomorrow and post it for you.

hmmm, do you reckon they'd let you rip the carpets out?
if you replaced them eventually?

Oooh you are lovelies! Don't think they will let me rip them up, as they haven't let anyone else do it, even though some houses have holes in theirs (they are student parent houses so have had a nosey!) and don't think I could afford to re-carpet it anyway. Much Bisselling may work-and I could hire it out to the other houses xx

think you have to find where smell is coming from - could just be one bad bit of floor/carpet stinking out the whole place. could be something thats in floor or wherever - and need more than cleaning carpets, tho its worth doing the lot anyway just so theyre cleaner. you still may have to roll em up if smell persists till you find it.

Found the one similar to ours, although its gone up to £249 now. A bit of searching might bring the price down though.

Lookhere

It's in all the houses tho-just general not looked after/never been washed/small children pee and poo smells. People normally live in them for a year, and are trying to juggle a degree with preschool aged children, so have little time to clean, so they just think "we're only here for a year, lets stick it out". Oooh, have found re-conditioned ones from the Bissell site-do you just go for the best one you can afford, or is there a particular best one? xx

Do those bissells really clean well? Really even white crapets that have gone grotty?

Oooh I want one so much!!!

PLP a bargain here if you're anywhere near the West Mids?

Yip definitely Meggle. Our cream carpet was embarassing in the end and it came up beautiful.

We have since moved and have a very light fawn/beige carpet now. It still gets mank and I do them about every 3 months, but they always come up like brand new. I think it works so well because this machine heats up the water, the amount of dirt it lifts is amazing!

really?

We have taken real care with our carpets upstairs no shoes/food/drink, I do not know how it got so rank but if it was as good as you say I would probably invest in one.

carpets are MINGING.

i hate them. i want them all to burn up and vanish.

bissell all the way if you have to live with them.

Thank you all. There is the one you linked to mumhaden on the bissell site for £150, but I can't put it in my basket . Will ring in the morning. Would you say pet and odour remover was the best shampoo to use, or clean and care? xx

I know it sounds pathetic but I don't care if it has a gross smell (as long as it comes out eventually)-we've had that many minging houses now I've got quite good at making them good (but then they put the rent up and we have to move out again-if it happens one more time!! !)

I'm just glad I can afford it each month instead of having palpitations xx

get a Bissell on one of those 2 years interest free things from Argos or Tesco.

we're using the landlord's just now.

but i'm saving up Tesco points for one of our own.

I'd be tempted to hire someone to come and clean them for me...

When we moved into our house it stank of dog...
It was lovely and clean when we viewed it -but it took a 2-3 months for the sale to go through (missing documents). The owner's 20 year old son had been living here on his own and was obviously pissed off at having to move...the whole place was filthy.
(I cried when I first went in - I was 7 months pg and had spent hours cleaning to leave our rented flat spotless....)
I tried to clean the carpets with my vax several times and even got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the living room carpet...but couldn't get it clean ...or rid of the smell.

We couldn't afford all new carpets so I got someone in to clean them (and the filthy sofa they had left behind). Wasn't too expensive...

The carpets looked much better and the smell went but there were lighter patches on the living room carpet that the carpet cleaner guy told me were where dog wee had been left on the carpet for so long it had bleached it (yuk, yuk, yuk)

Thankfully now they have all been replaced (mainly with laminated downstairs - easier for potty training and messy children)

I would say - even if you are doing them yourself - do it before you move all your stuff in - much less hassle

Paws, the first link was to Argos @ £250 and the second was on Ebay, buy it now brand new for £180, its pick up only from Walsall though. I've only used the pet and odour remover shampoo so couldn't really comment on the comparison. I don't like the smell of lavender, yet this one has lavender in it and smells gorgeous. I buy that one because I have a cat and although she's not smelly you never know!

Meggle, def def def as good as I say. We don't wear shoes in the house either but I think its dirt being transferred on bare feet from the front hall or the kitchen. The kitchen is at the back door so we do tend to wear shoes in there sometimes and then probably bring dirt in everytime we walk through there in bare feet or slippers.

Aah, I'm (kind of!) lucky in that I'm having to keep the old place on for a bit due to notice periods, so have time to deep clean and decorate before we move in. Also means I can move the stuff in slowly and not have to hire a removal man, as they always ovrecharge me as I'm on my own! Had the same situation as you, but it was a squaddie who had lived there for 4 years-we had left my beautiful flat for a place 200 miles away with cockroaches everywhere, the most disgusting smell, dd's room was so dusty she was hospitalised-dreadful! As soon as I start to get down each time we move I just think of that place! . Wasn't pg though, that would have tipped me over the edge!

Oooh, didn't realise it was buy it now! We're 2 1/2 hours away though, so would cost me the extra in petrol. Brillo thought though, thank you!

Yes! Have bought the ProHeat 9400E for £159 on a Buy It Now with postage, woo, I can't wait!!