[Closed] Extreme Cleaning

You might just find your get better responses if you don't refer to your fellow humans as filthy vermin no matter how unpleasant they may happen to be.

maybe it's just me, but If someone had shat on my carpet I think I'd be using a similar description.

Bleach in varying degrees of diluted state should kill most stuff and get rid of the smell. Good luck! 🙁

maybe it's just me, but If someone had shat on my carpet I think I'd be using a similar description.

Well said. This tenant has caused around £15-£20-grands-worth of damage to MY house, and as a parting salvo, defecated on the floor of every room and smeared it into the carpet. I don't know if it's human or dog excrement.

Vermin is probably too kind a word for them.

I've heard that bleach can enhance the urine smell and I need something biological to kill the enzymes that cause the acrid stench. Is this right?

A bit of googling has revealed that cheap bio washing powder in strong solution is a good bet, but I'm all ears if anyone has any further experience...

WTf... some people are just not really fit to be on this planet.

Did you do anything to provoke them at all ?

[i]I've heard that bleach can enhance the urine smell and I need something biological to kill the enzymes that cause the acrid stench. Is this right?[/i]

I'm pretty sure not....bleach is so strong it wipes out everything. Obviously keep the area well ventilated when using it....as if it wasn't already!

Get rid of the carpets for a start. Cleaning them is a waste of time.

Did you do anything to provoke them at all ?

I had the temerity to issue her with a Section 21 eviction notice on the basis that her rent was several month's in arrears and she was allowing her 3 dogs to 'toilet' inside the house.

She refused to allow me access to inspect the property, flooded the bathroom and reported me to the Police and Council for harassment even though I always gave notice in writing before attending and took a female associate (a serving Police Officer) to oversee proceedings and act as witness.

The tenancy agreement clearly stated "no pets". It was apparent that she had dogs from the minute she got the keys but there's pretty much ****-all you can do! If I'd evicted her there and then, she'd have stopped paying her rent and I'd have spent 6 months and thousands trying to get her evicted...

🙁

We had a un-neutered cat get into our house and have a right royal time of it, smell made me retch and I couldn't get rid of it. The only thing that did the job was this. I let it soak for a while.

You need the enzymes to actually break down the odour causing chemicals, they've evolved to linger.

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They do an equivalent one for dogs.

Urine off - the only thing that works

Big open dishes of vinegar and trays of powdered baking soda are great for getting rid of smells. Also boil water with lemon juice in an oven or microwave for de-gunking them. Otherwise, marigolds, paper overalls, bin liners and get stuck in. The worst of it will be gone in a couple of hours you will start to put it behind you. Top to bottom repaint, new carpets and start again. I've been there.

I think they do the Simple Solutions at Petsupermarket... Not cheap though!

To give you a rough idea of the scale of the problem, here are a few pics... The staining and damp patches on the walls and skirtings are all dog piss. The one thing that you can't appreciate from the pics is the stench... 😯

The carpets were all new and the house newly decorated when she moved in. It only took her 18 months to do this much damage.

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Bicarbonate of soda will do the job - works wonders on puke. though you'll need shit loads of it, scrub in everywhere than brush it off.

Are the floor coverings still in place? They need to be gone.

I've got a guy going in this week to rip out all the floor coverings and dispose of all the crap she's left behind. She only vacated last night...

Then I think I need to go in with the knapsack sprayer and dowse the whole place in bleach!!

Some people are only just holding their lives together, before Maggie your tenant would probably have ended up in an asylum. My brother lived in a smiliarly filthy house in Liverpool that was owned by a Falklands veteran who was going through a breakdown; the kicthen was inhabited by a mad alsation and the floor was solid with dog poo. He ate at college.

Firstly you need to throw out all the carpets; no amount of cleaning will get rid of the stench and they are probably also infested with fleas and all sorts of bugs living on the organic material that's been ground into them. You will be throwing good money after bad if you try to clean them, especially if you buy the cleaning products retail. I would take it all out and get a nice neutral contract carpet fitted throughout, just a few days before putting the house up for rent again, there's nothing like the smell of new carpet no matter how cheap.

If you can't re-carpet, at worst, get a professional cleaning firm in to shampoo the carpets and wash every surface.

Will your insurance company cover the damage? I expect not.

If the floorboards are saturated, let them dry and then wash with bicarbonate of soda. Failing that, sanding them might remove most of the smell.

I've been on the new tenant end of problem like that. Previous tenant + cat had only been in 6 months and when we moved in and put the heating on it released the smell of cat wee from the carpet. Landlord had to replace all carpets at their cost. Absolutely stank.

There's no excuse for allowing dogs to crap and piss in the same house you live in, especially if the house belongs to someone else. 👿

As I said, everything is being ripped out - all carpets, curtains etc and the entire kitchen.

Northernmatt, that's what I need to avoid - I've always tried to let properties in as good a condition as possible and tried to wheedle out the scumbags... Unfortunately, this one slipped through the net... Procedures have been tightened!!

gatsby - I appreciate the ££ level of cost, but it may be easier to get an industrial cleaning company in to sort this out. May well prove time effective (ie sooner you can redecorate and get it back on the market).

I'm pretty handwringing, but I'd tend to agree with your description. What a grim way to live.

I'd thought about that OMITN, but in the first instance, I just need to act fast to do whatever I can to neutrilise the smell and make it a safer working environment for the contractors.

I don't think there's a great deal of point in getting cleaners as the house needs a lot of work - completely decorating throughout, new kitchen etc. I just need to get in there once it's been cleared and get the bleach or whatever is needed sloshed all over the place!

I've just read that sodium hypochlorite on urine releases toxic gases, so that might not be a very safe idea...

Cheap bio-washing powder does break down the smell of dog urine.

I used it when house training my dogs, it's very effective to the point it stops the other dog peeing over the scent of the other dog.

Although looking at those pics it might not be able to cope with a mess like that!

before Maggie

Oh God, really?

She hasn't been PM for 25 years; can you not find another bogeyman you can blame everything on?

bicarb, bleach, vinegar, etc are all fantastic cleaning agents but they won't do the job on the chemicals in piss (proteins? hormones?) that cause the back of the throat lingering retch.

Urine off and that stuff I posted have the proper chemicals in to deal with it, not cheap but a lot cheaper than new wood.

A product called Biobrisk is recommended on Detailingworld for removing ingrained odours:

http://www.autosmart.co.uk/Interior%20Cleaners.html

Could be worth investigating,

Cheers Oxonrider, I reckon car valeting products will be too expensive to use in the quantities I'll be needing...

I think I'm going to start with a heavy dowsing with bio washing powder solution, leave it a few days and then follow up with Simple Solutions and lots of bleach...

Seen much worse than that when I was a Sky engineer and our line managers used to wonder why we got ill!

Strangest one I came across was a house in Adswood, Stockport that kept a horse in the kitchen(not a joke) the guy said he can't leave it outside as the Pikeys will steal it.

This was on top of litter trays full of cat sh!t in the bedroom, no cat litter in there though just the sh!t, on top of copious amounts of filth and mould spread throughout the place.

In regards to the op I'd bin the carpets as others have said and mop the bare floorboards with dilute Jeyes fluid, sugar soap on the walls and dilute bleach on all woodwork.