Odour in Carpeting
What causes odours in carpets?
Interestingly enough if there is an odour in someone’s home, quite often the carpets get blamed for no good reason. Of course, there indeed are instances when carpeting smells, however, the carpets are not always the bad guys. Every odour has a cause of its own, to eliminate odours it is best to find out what is causing it in the first place and dealing with the smell from there.
How long does it take for Carpets to dry after cleaning them?
Professional carpet cleaners clean the top fibres of carpeting, ensuring that they do not wet carpet backing or underlay. If a carpet is clean, then less water will be used to clean it. Therefore, less water will be recovered in the vacuum stage from the carpets top fibres. If the carpet is dirty or has been maintained poorly, more water is required to remove soiling and traffic areas. Therefore, professional carpet cleaners do dry passes to remove as much water from the top fibres as possible. However, heavily stained and dirty carpets will take longer to dry.
Other variants on dry time are, what the carpeting is made from, synthetic’s dry quicker, woollen carpets hang onto the water and take longer to dry.
Weather can also be a factor in dry time if it’s raining it is going to take longer for a carpet to dry. If it is a hot sunny day, your carpeting will dry quicker, providing the humidity is low.
Have you recently had your carpets cleaned, how can you assist in dry time?
- If you have recently had your carpets cleaned, always turn on fans and leave windows open to assist your carpets dry time.
- Most carpets will dry quite quickly after being cleaned; usually, after 1-2 hours you can walk on them providing you have clean feet.
- Please do not walk on carpeting after it has been cleaned if you are vacating the property, as you will void your warranty.
What's that odour I can smell after I had my carpets cleaned?.
Odours in carpets (after they have been cleaned), are usually associated with the carpet backing and or underlay, rather than the top fibres. Usually, Carpet Cleaners will apply a general deodoriser to carpeting after cleaning which will kill any germs present while the carpet is drying and the fragrance will last one to two days.
Why do my carpets smell like a Wet Dog?
However, if there is an odour which a lot of people explain that smells like a wet dog after carpets have been cleaned. Two to three days later or even a month after cleaning this is not normal.
This means that there is a contamination of the carpet backing or underlay. Which could be caused by any number of reasons, heavy food or drink spillages, milk spillages or vomit. If a pet resides at the property, the odour could be caused by anything from, pet body oils, or pet vomit.
Can I neutralise an odour in my carpets?
The only way to neutralise this type of odour is to apply an antimicrobial or germicide to the top fibres of carpeting. If this does not eliminate the odour, the carpeting may need to be lifted the underlay and flooring under the carpets may need treating with an antimicrobial or germicide.
Re-cleaning a carpet if it has an odour will just make the smell worse, as moisture assists bacteria growth and bacteria is what is causing the odour in the first place.
Vacant Rental Properties
If there is an odour in a vacant rental property, track down the room that the odour is in.
Were the curtains and walls cleaned in the room? If not, or you’re not sure, clean them. Spot cleaning of walls is not enough to eliminate odours, a thorough cleaning using a quality detergent with a disinfectant is required.