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The other day while replacing the element in the water heater, my darling husband flooded our bathroom, closet, and part of our bedroom. This means wet carpeting. While the carpet is nearly dry, there's a nasty stench in the rooms now. Any idea how to get rid of that? Thanks for the help.
By Sarah Leach from Berrien Springs, MI
I'd try baking soda. Sprinkle it all over, rub it in the carpet really good with a broom, let it sit overnight and vacuum up the next morning. This worked for me.
Hire a professional to extract the water out of not only the carpet but the sub flooring. They guarantee their work so the expense should be nil to none. Also check with your home owners insurance they should pay the extractors for you. It won't hurt you to check into it, but good luck and let us know how it turns out for ya!
My washtub overflowed and flooded my family room. How do I get the smell out of the carpet from the rugs being wet? I shampooed them but that didn't help.
By kaye
Or you could rent a steamer and do it yourself. Backbreaking work, but you'll have the machine for 24 hours and will be able to really sort this mess.
Make sure you get the de-foamer as it sounds as though you've saturated the carpet and padding with way lots more soap than the shampooer could remove. So your first step is going to be getting all that soap up (that's where your odor is coming from-soap actually smells pretty bad if you don't get it all up).
It may take two or three passes with the de-foamer but be patient, and remember to rinse-rinse-rinse with that rental cleaner. It's every bit as powerful as the one the pros use, and should pull the wet out of your carpet with some serious elbow grease.
The carpet in our back room has gotten wet; I can only assume from the sprinkler for the back lawn. It now has wet carpet stench to it. I have opened the back door and have a fan blowing in there, but I'm not sure if that will work. We are renting so I don't really want to pay for a carpet cleaner until we move. It is only a small area that has gotten wet, but the carpet is in once piece and I can't remove it from the room. Any ideas?
By Carmel
Only an assumption, but is sounds as if the floor under the carpet has mold growing under carpet. Only way to know is to lift up the wet portion of the carpet for a look. Once up bleach may kill the mold but the carpet may also have to treated to kill any mold in the carpet. Bleach on thecarpet will leave a stain as you may already know.
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We had a heavy rain, and the 8x8 area rug I had in the basement got wet. I took it outside to dry, however now it smells. How can I get rid of that odor?
Terri from Springfield, MA
I have not tried this on wet carpet, but it has worked on absolutely everything else I've tried it on, including sour clothing.
X-O ODOR NEUTRALIZER
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Made from nature's safest and most effective ingredients: extracts of herbs, fruits, and cereal grains in pure deionized water. X-O neutralizes all odors on hard and soft surfaces. Effective on ALL odors. Safe for skin contact, avoid the eyes. Totally non-toxic and bio degradable, this concentrate works directly on areas for odor neutralization, or even on the air in a room. Can be used indoors or outdoors. Can be used directly on the animals, if necessary.
Applications:
Health Care: diaper pails, bed pans, etc.
Smoke: tobacco, cooking, fire, must and mildew odors
Good on both hard and soft surfaces, including glass, stainless steel, chrome, countertops, floors and fabrics.
Ready to use right out of the bottle - simply spray or pour on.
Good on both hard and soft surfaces, including glass, stainless steel, chrome, countertops, floors and fabrics.
(09/14/2008)
By Babette
Any smells on carpet need an enzyme spray. This will eat the bacteria on the carpet that causes the smell, you can purchase at any commercial cleaning product company. (09/16/2008)
By Paula
Have a written complaint about the toilet and the carpet and present it to the landlord/management company. Keep a copy for yourself. If it is not fixed in 7 days, go to your Tenants Council for further advisement. Also check with your local Legal Aid about options.
This is a health hazard and you can void your lease due to that. (05/08/2007)
By Theresa
In some cases the local fire dept. will come with big fans and help dry out carpets.
Call their INFORMATION LINE NOT 911!
Make your landlord fix both. "Carpet Fresh" might help a little.
Also you can add VANILLA EXTRACT to paint to help kill the paint odor. It worked for us a couple of weeks ago.
Great Granny Vi (05/08/2007)
By Vi Johnson
I had something similar to that happen to me in my kitchen (washing machine overflowed). I pried up the metal strip between the kitchen floor and the dining room carpet, then lifted the carpet off the tack strip in that area. I put things under the carpet (I recall putting a potato masher under it, among other things) to keep if off the floor a bit, then ran a fan so the air blew under the lifted carpet. When the carpet was dry it still smelled a little weird, but I used Resolve on it to give it a good cleaning and eventually the smell went away.
I doubt you will have a great-smelling carpet by this weekend for your guests, but you can probably have it at least dry by then. (05/08/2007)
By Katie
If you have access to a steam cleaner (a friend or relative or try calling rental shops in your area, some are very reasonable) fill the tank with hot water and white vinegar. This make take a few times...also fill a spray bottle with full strength vinegar for the worst spots. I swear by this. I moved into a house that smelled VERY strongly of cat urine and this really helped.Best of luck to you. (06/25/2007)
By Duckie
