Customer says Carpet Smells,

[steamron]

First off I have a Prochem Apex, excellent heat and blower.

I cleaned a carpet in a few rooms for a lady last week, she was not there so her mother let me in.
She wanted the rooms done plus a deodorizer. Also cleaned an arae rug under a big heavy table.
I thought it was wool so I cut back the heat and flow.
I did ask what was to be moved and the mother told me. I applied the pre-treat
with the deodorizer and extracted with Flex Ice with sweet Lemon deodorizer added.

I get a call the next day because I did not move two recliners, ( the mother told me to just go around them ). So to be nice I said I would redo that room for her. She proceeded to say that the room was musty smelling after i cleaned it. (NOT sure why)

When I got there yesterday Wednesday 11:00 am and walked in the room smelled like DOG.
So I used MicroBan Clean Carpet Sanitizer and pretreated the whole room and let it dwell for 15 minutes while I was setting up. I again extracted with Flex Ice.

I get a text this evening saying that the rug in the other room that I did last week is really wet under the area rug (which has the heavy table on it) and is moldy and that her husband was sucking up the water. I never touched the carpet under the area rug, she mentioned last week that she thought I moved it.

Now she is complaining that her carpets never smelled like this and that what ever system I am using does not work.
She has two dogs, a Yorkie and a GoldenDoodle, the doodle is 8 months old.

Apparently its not the dogs fault it smells.

Any suggestions?

 

[Zee]

Did you vacuum? (a lot of the dog odor is best vacuumed out dry)

Was your waste tank dump valve shut all the way?

 

[Spurlington]

Awesome that shes admitting the husband is sucking water out when you didnt add any. Which means he may have.

Probably moldy under the area rug from dog peeing on it. Ive seen that in the past.

She might have poor circulation and the dampness in the air is stinkin from being trapped. If you returned and it smells like wet dog, you may not have removed the dog oil which is what produces this odor. Im not sure if every or any odor treatment can get rid of that odor when there is still oil in the carpet. You would have to degrease the carpet to remove the dog odor. Ive been real successful with using Bio Break in removing 100% of dog body odor.

Or if youre smelling pee then the urine is still in vapor/gas form .. carpet and air from humidity.

Make sure you continue to communicate by text/email from now on for documentation purposes.

Im surprised you got a text a day after the redo about the wet rug you did a week prior .. hmmmmm .. whats that about?

Id have her dehumidify and use fans to evaporate the moisture that is carrying the odor throughout the areas.

If you did not degrease the carpet, you may want to get some Bio Break and go back there to improve her situation. Id express the drying part is her responsibility and offer her suggestions on how to do it.

BTW - Im no expert !! Just suggestions !!

 

[SamIam]

Go look, if the wool rug is wet it will stink get it out of there and dry it, drop some fans if you do any touch up, like Zee said Vacuum if theres dander that's not removed it will smell.

 

[Cleanworks]

There are a lot of things going on there. One, never clean a wool rug on top of wall to wall carpet. There is always a chance that the color will bleed on the carpet below. Remove to a hard surface floor if you really have to clean it on site. There will be urine on the carpets, as long as she has dogs, there will be urine. Chances are you reactivated old urine stains that were present, just by getting them wet. It might be worth your while to go back in the evening with a urine black light to check and show the customer, that yes, her dogs do pee on the carpet. Or her husband, or somebody. They may have had a water damage situation, if the wall to wall carpet is so wet under the area rug, that the husband can still get water out of it. Could be one of the dogs peed on it and someone tried to clean it up and maybe spilled a bucket of water on it. I had a urine job in a condo once, when I got there, there was a huge urine stain in the middle of the living room, I asked, "what kind of dog do you have?" I thought it must be a german shepherd or something like that because the stain was so large. She says, 'It's not a dog, it was my boyfriend". You might to talk to her and her husband at the same time to try to figure out what happened. It should be related to you machine, unless it was malfunctioning.

 

[SamIam]

My guy did a job customer complained of dog smell, I went back vacuumed got half a canister of hair and dust, recleaned with chemspec kill odor plus mixed with enzall.

Customer happy.

 

[Rick J]

My guy did a job customer complained of dog smell, I went back vacuumed got half a canister of hair and dust, recleaned with chemspec kill odor plus mixed with enzall.

Customer happy.

I love that Kill Odor plus.!! but tlak about foam!!!!

 

[Old Coastie]

My guy did a job customer complained of dog smell, I went back vacuumed got half a canister of hair and dust, recleaned with chemspec kill odor plus mixed with enzall.

Customer happy.

Sam, did your tech not prevac? Or is it that the stuff you got was loosened by his work?

 

[Wing It]

I would guess that the rug is the source of the bad odors. If it had urine in it, it's not likely that surface cleaning helped. As for the musty smell, it could be due to their hvac system either not running or working properly. The idea of the husband sucking out water seems delusional. That should let you know that whatever the problem is, it's not half as bad as she says it is.

 

[SamIam]

Sam, did your tech not prevac? Or is it that the stuff you got was loosened by his work?

We always pre vac he rushed it.

 

[SamIam]

I love that Kill Odor plus.!! but tlak about foam!!!!

Use half what they say and keep crystal defoamer in case

 

[steamron]

She mentioned in a text that the rug was not wool, but when not sure I always cut back the temp.

MicroBan Sanitizer does the trick, use it all the time, on rentals and condos. Never had a problem. Did I mention the dogs are still there and lay behind the chairs. They could easily rub up against the upholstery.

I'm considering running her name to see if she pulls this on other contractors.

 

[Zee]

She mentioned in a text that the rug was not wool, but when not sure I always cut back the temp.
.

I'm scratching my head over this...you are the professional - you supposed to know what the fabric is. Why would you rely on a customer telling you what it is?
Often times we confuse wall to wall carpets because of their feel and look (without fiber ID tests).
But you gotta be able to differentiate an area rug to see if its synthetic or wool!!

 

[SamIam]

Ya wool is obvious it smell like wet horse ass stanky you would know right away. I would go look when they're there. It's a great opportunity to see what's going on. Don't assume the worse.

 

[bob vawter]

Well water?

 

[Steve Lawrence]

My own carpets used to smell like dog everytime we cleaned. Yes, we have a dog. Since getting the CRB's problem gone. More thorough dander removal? Maybe.

 

[steamron]

Microban sent me a long email which explains the reason behind the DOG smell, dander may contribute to the odor, but there was nothing mentioned in the explanation, It is due to the dogs oils from the hair and fur which breaks down and causes the odor.

I do condo's and apartments with DOG smell and I never get call backs using Microban, but then again the dogs are no longer there.

 

[Cleanworks]

I once had a guy ask me if could get rid of the smell of leather in his Jaguar, I said sure, if I can take the leather seats out.

 

[SamIam]

Grease eater and kill odor plus just did my house we avg 4 dogs a day

 

[Jimmy L]

I say raise your prices and get out of that low end market. I know exactly what type of people they are. Too many dogs or cats in the house and the place smells like piss are RED flags to me.

 

[Old Coastie]

I once had a guy ask me if could get rid of the smell of leather in his Jaguar, I said sure, if I can take the leather seats out.

Shoot, I used saddle soap and mink oil in my mercedes (long ago). I LOVED the smell of leather! Was that guy simple, or something?

 

[Cleanworks]

Guy bought a brand new Jag with beautiful leather seats and interior, to find out he doesn't like the smell of leather. Didn't realize how bad it was until he had it a few days and just couldn't stand it. He ended up trading it back to the dealer for a special order of a cloth interior.

 

[Old Coastie]

Thwoppp